real estate markets,
by the data.
Market research for investors, built on datasets we can show our work on. Right now that means HUD FY2026 Fair Market Rents — all 50 states plus DC, the 150 largest metro areas, ZIP by ZIP — plus the method for turning any market into a number you can underwrite. Where the data ends, the page says so.
Three ways to read a market.
The Section 8 ranking.
The largest HUD metro areas ranked on where the 3-bedroom voucher pays furthest above its own state median, and where the ZIP-level spread inside one metro is widest. Rent data only — stated plainly on the page.
The cash-flow method.
What a rent ranking can never tell you: how rent, purchase price, taxes, insurance, vacancy, and financing combine into a return. The framework to run on any market — including the ones no list ever mentions.
The nationwide picture.
What is actually moving across the country this year — the context a single metro page cannot give you, and the reason a market that ranked well last cycle may not rank well now.
Rent first, then everything else.
HUD sets Fair Market Rent for every area in the country, and Small Area FMRs by ZIP code where it designates them or a housing authority adopts them voluntarily. That is a published gross-rent benchmark you can look up before you write an offer, in all 50 states plus DC and the 150 biggest metro areas down to the individual ZIP — the level at which the number actually changes.
Read it as a benchmark, not as revenue. The housing authority sets a payment standard at 90–110% of FMR, higher where HUD approves an exception standard, and that standard drives the subsidy math — so the number a landlord sees is not the published FMR. Where the tenant pays utilities, the contract rent is the gross rent minus the tenant utility allowance. How payment standards work and how utility allowances are set run that arithmetic in full. Both vary by PHA and by state — confirm with your housing authority.
What HUD does not publish is what the house costs, what the county taxes it at, or what an insurer will quote you — which is exactly why the ranking page ranks rent and stops there. Rent reasonableness against local comparables still applies on top of everything above. Fair Market Rents for all 50 states + DC.
Market research, answered.
Stop ranking markets. Start ranking deals.
A market is a shortlist; a property is the decision. Verleon AI underwrites and scores every active listing nationwide — Section 8 FMR by state, metro, and ZIP on the address, plus DSCR, cash-on-cash, 1% and 70% rule math, comps and ARV on the same screen.