DC Voucher Payment Standards and the FY2027 Small Area FMRs

Landlord Atlas analysis. Published: September 3, 2026. Download the ZIP-level table as CSV (every DC ZIP code in HUD's file, all five bedroom sizes, FY2026 and FY2027 side by side). The metro-wide figures are on the District of Columbia rent table.

Summary

The District of Columbia is one HUD rent area — the Washington-Arlington-Alexandria, DC-VA-MD HUD Metro FMR Area, shared with the Maryland and Virginia suburbs — so every voucher benchmark in the city starts from a single metro-wide Fair Market Rent (FMR). But the Washington metro is also one of HUD's 65 mandatory Small Area FMR metros, where HUD publishes a separate rent figure for every ZIP code, and the District of Columbia Housing Authority (DCHA) has proposed moving its payment standards onto those ZIP-level figures. This analysis puts the three layers side by side: the FY2027 metro FMR, the FY2027 Small Area FMRs by ZIP, and DCHA's current and proposed payment standards.

• The metro benchmark rises +8.5% on October 1, 2026 — the two-bedroom FMR goes from $2,246 to $2,438, and every bedroom size rises between +8.1% and +9.8%. That is the 7th-largest increase among the 63 HUD rent areas with more than one million residents, against a national population-weighted change of +1.4%, and it follows a -2.9% decline in FY2026 — the only decline in the six fiscal years covered here.
• Inside the city, the FY2027 two-bedroom Small Area FMR runs from $1,640 in 20018 to $3,660 in 20003 and 20009 — a 2.2× spread under a single metro FMR of $2,438. All 22 of the District's general-purpose residential ZIP codes rose, from +6.1% (20007) to +15.9% (20008); the median ZIP rose +8.9%.
• DCHA's current payment standard is one citywide figure at 187% of the metro FMR: $4,200 for a two-bedroom. Its FY2027 Moving to Work plan draft proposes adopting Small Area FMRs as the basis, at approximately 168% of each ZIP's figure, while keeping authority to go up to 187% of FMR. Applied to the FY2027 Small Area FMRs, that multiple would put the two-bedroom ceiling below today's $4,200 in 9 of the 22 residential ZIPs (as low as $2,755 in 20018) and above it in 13 (as high as $6,149 in 20003 and 20009). If the current 187% multiple were kept on the new metro FMR instead, the citywide two-bedroom standard would be $4,559.

The metro FMR, FY2026 to FY2027

HUD's Fair Market Rent is the 40th percentile of gross rents for recent movers in the rent area, published each year and effective October 1. The FY2027 figures appeared in the Federal Register on September 1, 2026 (FR Doc. 2026-17891) and take effect October 1, 2026; HUD accepts comments and reevaluation requests through October 1, 2026.

The two-bedroom figure over six fiscal years, from HUD's county-level files for the same rent area each year: $1,785 (FY2022), $1,838 (FY2023), $2,045 (FY2024), $2,314 (FY2025), $2,246 (FY2026), $2,438 (FY2027). The FY2026 figure was the only decline; the six-year change is +36.6%.

Among the 63 rent areas above one million residents, the Washington metro's +8.5% ranks 7th for growth and its $2,438 two-bedroom ranks 14th by level. Nearby large metros: Baltimore-Columbia-Towson, MD +8.0%, Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD +2.8%, Richmond, VA -0.2%, Virginia Beach-Norfolk-Newport News, VA-NC -2.7%. The full national picture is in where the FY2027 benchmark rose and fell.

The ZIP-level layer: Small Area FMRs

HUD designated the Washington metro a mandatory Small Area FMR area in 2016, implemented April 1, 2018 (HUD's designated-areas list). In a designated area, housing agencies set voucher payment standards from the ZIP-code figures rather than the metro-wide FMR, and exception payment standards may run up to 110% of the Small Area FMR (HUD Small Area FMR program page). In designated areas the FY2027 Small Area FMR may be no less than 90% of the FY2026 figure (the FY2027 notice, section I). The table lists the District's 22 general-purpose residential ZIP codes; HUD's file also carries single-building, post-office-box, and federal-facility ZIPs, which are in the CSV but left out of the summary figures.

What DCHA pays: current and proposed payment standards

DCHA is a Moving to Work agency serving roughly 14,000 households in the federal Housing Choice Voucher program and more than 7,000 in locally funded voucher and subsidy programs (its FY2027 plan). Its published FY2026 payment standards, approved by the DCHA Board of Commissioners on October 8, 2025, are stated "at 187% FMR" — one citywide figure per bedroom size, and exactly 187% of the FY2026 metro FMR in every size. Under the standard program rules the ceiling in a Small Area FMR metro would be 110% of each ZIP's figure — $1,804 to $4,026 for a two-bedroom across these ZIPs — but DCHA's Moving to Work agreement waives the payment-standard rules the plan cites, which is what allows a citywide $4,200: 172.3% of the new metro FMR, 2.56× the lowest residential ZIP's Small Area FMR and 1.15× the highest.

DCHA's FY2027 Moving to Work Annual Plan draft (May 2026; the draft states that DCHA "is currently undergoing the public comment and public hearing process") re-proposes its payment-standard policy. In the plan's words:

• "DCHA will adopt Small Area Fair Market Rents (SAFMRs) as the basis for its local payment standards."
• "DCHA will retain authority to set the agency's payment standard at up to 187% of FMR to enable the agency to respond to local needs but anticipates that initially the payment standard for this updated activity will be set at approximately 168% of each applicable SAFMR."
• "Current estimates show that if DCHA were to apply the anticipated adjusted 168% payment standard uniformly across all zip codes under SAFMRs, approximately 9.2% of overall HCV households would be impacted by a rental increase, 1.3% would experience a decrease in rent, and 89.5% would experience no change in rent."

The table applies both multiples to HUD's FY2027 figures. These are arithmetic, not an adopted schedule: DCHA's plan says it "may set payment standards at different levels across zip codes and/or bedroom sizes," the payment standard is a ceiling on the subsidy rather than a rent, rent reasonableness still applies to every unit, and DCHA's own estimate is that 89.5% of voucher households would see no change in rent under a uniform 168% standard.

By ZIP, the 168% multiple lands below today's $4,200 in 9 residential ZIPs (20006, 20011, 20012, 20015, 20017, 20018, 20019, 20020, and 20032) and above it in 13 (20001, 20002, 20003, 20004, 20005, 20007, 20008, 20009, 20010, 20016, 20024, 20036, and 20037). All five bedroom sizes for every scenario are in the CSV. The full schedule DCHA publishes for FY2026: Efficiency $3,652, 1 BR $3,768, 2 BR $4,200, 3 BR $5,301, 4 BR $6,231; the same multiple on the FY2027 metro FMR would be Efficiency $3,948, 1 BR $4,121, 2 BR $4,559, 3 BR $5,810, 4 BR $6,840.

Method

Sources: HUD's FY2027 and FY2026 Small Area FMR files and county-level FMR files for FY2022 through FY2027, published at huduser.gov (U.S. government works in the public domain); HUD's designated Small Area FMR areas list (dated August 2024); DCHA's payment standard page (as it read on June 1, 2026, its stated update date) and FY2027 Moving to Work Annual Plan draft; and the FY2027 FMR notice. Dollar figures are HUD's and DCHA's own. The computed values are the year-over-year changes (matched by ZIP code and by HUD area code), the large-metro ranking (every HUD rent area above one million residents in HUD's population column, each area counted once), the 110% and 168% multiples rounded to the dollar, and the count of ZIPs above and below the current standard. The 22 residential ZIP codes are the District's general-purpose delivery ZIPs; HUD's other DC-prefixed ZIPs are in the download with a flag. The page states no figure the tables and CSV do not carry. Related: the District of Columbia rent table and where the FY2027 benchmark rose and fell.