a. METROPOLITAN AREAS-Most FMRs are market-wide rent estimates that are intended to provide housing opportunities throughout the geographic area in which rental-housing units are in direct competition. HUD is using the metropolitan core-based statistical areas (CBSAs), which are made up of one or
more counties, as defined by OMB, with some modifications. HUD is generally assigning separate FMRs to the component counties of CBSA Micropolitan Areas.
























b. MODIFICATIONS TO OMB DEFINITIONS- Following OMB guidance, the estimation procedure for the FY 2020 FMRs incorporates OMB definitions of metropolitan areas based on the CBSA standards as implemented with 2000 Census data and updated by the 2010 Census in February 28, 2013, including incremental adjustments through July 15, 2015. The adjustments made to the 2000 definitions to separate subparts of these areas where FMRs or median incomes would otherwise change significantly are continued. To follow HUD's policy of providing FMRs at the smallest possible area of geography, no counties were added to existing metropolitan areas due to recent updates in metropolitan area definitions. All counties added to metropolitan areas by the CBSA will still be treated as separate counties for FMR calculations; that is, the rents from a county that is a sub-area will not be


used in the remaining metropolitan subarea rent determination. All metropolitan areas that have been subdivided by HUD will use ACS data which conforms to HUD's area definition if statistically reliable information exists. If statistically reliable data for a HUD defined area is not available, HUD uses information from larger encompassing geographies, as described elsewhere in this notice.
























Specific counties and New England towns and cities within each state in MSAs and HMFAs were not changed by the February 28, 2013 OMB metropolitan area definitions. These areas are listed in Schedule B, available online at https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html.

Schedule B, available at https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html, shows the FMRs for zerobedroom through four-bedroom units. The Schedule B addendum shows Small Area FMRs for all metropolitan areas. FMRs for unit sizes larger than four bedrooms may be calculated by adding 15 percent to the four-bedroom FMR for each extra bedroom. For example, the FMR for a five-bedroom unit is 1.15 times the four-bedroom FMR, and the FMR for a six-bedroom unit is 1.30 times the four-bedroom FMR. FMRs for single-room-occupancy (SRO) units are 0.75 times the zero-bedroom FMR.

a. FMR areas in online Schedule B are listed alphabetically by metropolitan FMR area and by non-metropolitan county within each state and are available at https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/fmr.html.


























b. Constituent counties (and New England towns and cities) included in each metropolitan FMR area are listed immediately following the listings of the FMR dollar amounts. All constituent parts of a metropolitan FMR area that are in more than one state can be identified by consulting the listings for


each applicable state.


























c. Two non-metropolitan counties are listed alphabetically on each line of the non-metropolitan county listings.


























d. The New England towns and cities included in a non-metropolitan county are listed immediately following the county name.


























[FR Doc. 2018-19090 Filed 8-29-18; 4:15 pm]








BILLING CODE 4210-67-P