Few apartments are open for low-income renters, but cost drops in some cities

Fewer than 1 in 20 rental listings across the largest U.S. cities are flagged as reserved for renters under an income limit, according to new data from Apartments.com.

But average income-restricted rent fell year over year in 13 of the 50 markets, compared with three for market-rate rent.

Just 4.6% of listings across the 50 largest metro areas were listed as “income-restricted” in the third quarter of this year, whether through public housing, a housing voucher or as a tax-credit property, the report by the rental listing site said. 

The finding was based on a sample of more than 70,000 active listings out of the site’s full inventory of over a million apartments.

Washington, D.C., while being one of the most expensive housing markets in the country, has the most available income-restricted units at 227, the report said. 

San Antonio, Texas, had the highest share of income-restricted listings, at 12.4% of its total listings, followed by Austin at 11.7% and then two Virginia cities: Richmond and Norfolk at 10%.

On the other end of the spectrum, the San Francisco Bay area stood at 4.2%.

Income-restricted rents average $988 per month in Detroit, the lowest price among the 50 markets measured. Averaged across all 50 metros, income-restricted rent came to $1,448 a month in the third quarter. Market-rate rent averaged $1,756.

Proposed changes to federal housing assistance programs could further affect the income-restricted market.

Stateline previously reported that the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has proposed allowing public housing authorities and certain property owners to impose work requirements and time limits on some rental assistance recipients.

Stateline reporter Robbie Sequeira can be reached at [email protected].

This story was originally produced by Stateline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network which includes Missouri Independent, and is supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity.