Interactive tools · HUD data

Tools for navigating Section 8

Three interactive planners built on HUD's open data, find the authorities that serve you, look up your payment standard, and estimate how a voucher splits the rent.

3
Interactive tools
3,780
PHAs searchable
4,764
Payment standards

Three free Section 8 planners, no sign-up. The PHA Finder locates the Public Housing Authorities that serve a U.S. location, the Payment-Standard Lookup returns your area's HUD 2-bedroom Fair Market Rent cap, and the Rent-Share Estimator shows roughly how a voucher splits the rent under HUD's 30%-of-income rule. All three run live on HUD's FY2025 open data.

Search PHA finder Pick a state and see every Public Housing Authority that runs vouchers there, ranked by size. Open tool → Lookup Payment standard lookup Search HUD Fair Market Rent for any metro or county, by bedroom size, the basis for your subsidy. Open tool → Calculator Rent-share estimator Estimate how a voucher splits the rent: what you pay, what it covers, and the 40% move-in cap. Open tool →

What 2-bedroom payment standards look like nationwide

The spread the lookup tool resolves, every HUD FMR area's 2-BR payment standard. The typical area sits near $933; the priciest, Santa Cruz, CA, runs $4,223.

$4,223 Top 1% higher than 99% of 2,601 HUD FMR areas

$400–$600: 11 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $600–$800: 27 HUD FMR areas (1%). Below this entry. $800–$1,000: 1,640 HUD FMR areas (63%). Below this entry. $1,000–$1,200: 461 HUD FMR areas (18%). Below this entry. $1,200–$1,400: 197 HUD FMR areas (8%). Below this entry. $1,400–$1,600: 105 HUD FMR areas (4%). Below this entry. $1,600–$1,800: 59 HUD FMR areas (2%). Below this entry. $1,800–$2,000: 42 HUD FMR areas (2%). Below this entry. $2,000–$2,200: 23 HUD FMR areas (1%). Below this entry. $2,200–$2,400: 15 HUD FMR areas (1%). Below this entry. $2,400–$2,600: 5 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $2,600–$2,800: 9 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $2,800–$3,000: 4 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $3,000–$3,200: 0 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $3,200–$3,400: 1 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $3,400–$3,600: 1 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $3,600–$3,800: 0 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $3,800–$4,000: 0 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $4,000–$4,200: 0 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $4,200–$4,400: 1 HUD FMR areas (0%). This entry sits in this band. Santa Cruz, CA $400 $4,400 every HUD FMR area, bucketed by value

Each bar is a $0.2K-wide band; taller bars hold more HUD FMR areas. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.

Source HUD USER Fair Market Rent · FY2025

Your area's number drives your subsidy. Look up your metro's payment standard →

PHA directory

Browse all 3,780 U.S. Public Housing Authorities, filter by state, and jump to detail pages with contact information and application guidance. Use this to identify every PHA that serves your area (or a destination under portability).

Payment standards by metro

Look up HUD Fair Market Rent for any of the 4,764 metros we track, by bedroom size (0-BR through 4-BR). Each page cross-references with the Census ACS median 2-bedroom gross rent so you can see whether the voucher covers market.

Voucher-vs-market gap

Gap analysis shows where the HUD Fair Market Rent falls short of the metro's median 2-BR rent (and where it comfortably covers). Use this to plan moves under voucher portability.

Income limits

HUD's income limits directory lists Extremely Low (30% AMI), Very Low (50% AMI), and Low (80% AMI) thresholds by metro and county. These are the cutoffs that determine Section 8 eligibility.

Guides

Every tool links to related guides, the applied-to-the-rules version of what you see in the data.

Source: HUD PIH Open Data, HUD USER FMR, HUD USER Income Limits, U.S. Census Bureau ACS HUD PIH Open Data, HUD USER FMR, HUD USER Income Limits, U.S. Census Bureau ACS All current as of FY25

⚠ Disclaimer. Tools are for informational planning. Actual PHA decisions (eligibility, payment standard, waitlist) are made by each local PHA. PlainVoucher is not affiliated with HUD or any PHA.