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
2,622
Payment standards
2026
Data vintage

Tools verdict

Three free Section 8 planners run on HUD open data: find the 3,780 PHAs that serve a location, look up payment standards across 2,622 FMR areas with a 2-BR rent, and estimate how a voucher splits the rent under the 30%-of-income rule.

3
Interactive tools
$974
Typical 2-BR payment standard
$4,214
Priciest (Santa Cruz, CA)
2026
Payment-standard vintage

Payment-standard spread is derived live from HUD FMR rows in payment_standards. PHA and area counts are live COUNTs from the portal DB.

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 a lookup can verify

Every PHA has a record, not every record runs deep

All 3,780 searchable Public Housing Authorities carry a base directory record. The deeper verification layers below, a reported public-housing unit count, a reported Section 8 voucher unit count, exist for a smaller share, so a lookup returns more for some PHAs than others.

  • Base directory record 100% 3,780

    Name, participant code, state, and contact details for every listed PHA.

  • Public-housing unit count reported 71% 2,682

    Total assisted units the PHA administers, HUD PIH directory field.

  • Section 8 voucher unit count reported 56.3% 2,129

    The voucher-specific unit count, the number most Section 8 searches actually want.

Share of the 3,780 searchable PHAs carrying each layer. Source: HUD PIH Public Housing Authority directory, current release.

Every PHA is searchable. Find the PHAs that serve your location →

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 $974; the priciest, Santa Cruz, CA, runs $4,214.

$4,214 Top 1% higher than 99% of 2,622 HUD FMR areas

$400–$600: 14 HUD FMR areas (1%). Below this entry. $600–$800: 25 HUD FMR areas (1%). Below this entry. $800–$1,000: 1,384 HUD FMR areas (53%). Below this entry. $1,000–$1,200: 615 HUD FMR areas (23%). Below this entry. $1,200–$1,400: 245 HUD FMR areas (9%). Below this entry. $1,400–$1,600: 129 HUD FMR areas (5%). Below this entry. $1,600–$1,800: 95 HUD FMR areas (4%). Below this entry. $1,800–$2,000: 45 HUD FMR areas (2%). Below this entry. $2,000–$2,200: 23 HUD FMR areas (1%). Below this entry. $2,200–$2,400: 17 HUD FMR areas (1%). Below this entry. $2,400–$2,600: 10 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $2,600–$2,800: 8 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $2,800–$3,000: 5 HUD FMR areas (0%). Below this entry. $3,000–$3,200: 3 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: 1 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 $200-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 · FY2026

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

Explore the data behind the tools

Directory

PHA directory

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).

Browse all 3,780 PHAs →
Lookup

Payment standards by metro

2,622 HUD FMR areas with a 2-BR standard (4,764 bedroom-level rows, 0-BR through 4-BR), each cross-referenced with the Census ACS median 2-bedroom gross rent so you can see whether the voucher covers market.

Look up HUD Fair Market Rent →
Analysis

Voucher-vs-market gap

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.

See the gap analysis →
Reference

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, the cutoffs that determine Section 8 eligibility.

Browse income limits →
Rankings

Rankings and trends

Guides

Applying this to your case

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

Browse guides →

Source: HUD PIH Open Data (FY2025), HUD USER FMR (FY2026), HUD USER Income Limits (FY2025), U.S. Census Bureau ACS (2019–2023) Each source is labeled with its own release period.

⚠ 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.

Download the metro voucher-vs-market extract cited on this page: hud-hcv-metro-gaps.csv (CC BY 4.0).

Read our methodology , how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Source and method. PlainVoucher compiles public HUD and U.S. Census release data into a searchable reference. Release periods and source boundaries are identified on each data surface; PlainVoucher does not determine eligibility, waitlist status, payment standards, or local PHA rules. Read our editorial standards and corrections policy, methodology, or report a data error. Data current as of 2026-09-02.