What to charge?

What to charge? Once you have found a tenant, your unit’s rent rate will be reviewed by your local Public Housing Authority (PHA) to determine whether the rent you are asking is reasonable. The proposed rent amount will be compared to the rent of other similar units in the area. Although, there is no HUD “ceiling” for the rent an owner can charge, rents must still be approved as “reasonable” when compared to those rents charged for similar non-subsidized (non Section units in your local rental market.

Often the PHA will quote an owner a Payment Standard when setting a rent price for their unit. The market, not the PHA’s payment standard, is what determines the maximum rent you can charge – this is also known as “Rent Reasonableness”.

In the Section 8 HCV (Housing Choice Voucher) the maximum amount the PHA will pay is an amount equal to the Payment Standard minus the total tenant payment. It is possible for the market rent to be more or less than the PHA’s payment standard. The Payment Standard should not be used to set a rent rate.

GO8 TIP: A HCV tenant’s income impacts the rent you can charge for your unit. The family you select can not pay more than the Payment Standard set by your local PHA if their share of the rent exceeds 40% of their adjusted monthly income. As a result of this limitation, market rent rates of a luxury nature are not suitable for the Section 8 program.

In order to help guide you in setting a realistic market rent you can use www.GOsection8.com Market Rent Analysis feature. This service will give you an average rent rate for other similar units with the same number of bedrooms in the city and area surrounding your listing. We hope you find this feature useful!