HUD Reverses Decision on Fair Market Rents in Response to NAHB Concerns
The Department of Housing and Urban Development has reversed its earlier decision to adopt new metro definitions for its list of 2005 Fair Market Rents, after NAHB and others expressed serious concern that the new definitions would have had a drastic impact on markets across the country.
Under the proposed new definitions that were released in August, for example, in part of Bristol County, MA, the rent on a two-bedroom apartment would have dropped as much as $700.
In the “final” Fair Market Rents that were released on Oct. 1, significant differences in rents between this year and next remain, but they are far less drastic than on the list proposed this summer.