Section 8 Housing Voucher Calculator: Income Limits, Your Rent Share and Waiting Lists

With a Section 8 Housing Choice Voucher you usually pay 30% of your income after HUD’s deductions toward rent and utilities, and the voucher pays the rest up to a local limit. To get one, your household’s income must usually be no more than half the median family income where you live, and families are picked from the local housing agency’s waiting list.

Who can get a Section 8 voucher?

A household can get a voucher if its income is “very low”: no more than 50% of the median family income in its area, adjusted for household size (24 CFR 982.201). In a few cases, such as a family that already gets public housing or other Section 8 help, a “low income” family, with income up to 80% of the median, can get one too. HUD sets the limits for each area of the country, and the calculator uses them for the county you pick.

• The income that counts is your household’s yearly income before taxes and before HUD’s deductions.
• Each year, at least 75% of the families an agency takes from its waiting list must be “extremely low income”: at or under the poverty line or 30% of the area’s median, whichever is higher. So most new vouchers go to the lowest incomes.
• The limit that counts is the one for the area where you first use the voucher.
• If some members of the household do not have an eligible immigration status, the voucher is cut in proportion to the members who do (24 CFR 5.520).
• There is also a limit on savings and other assets, and owning a home you could live in usually rules you out (see below).

HUD’s current income limits took effect on May 1, 2026 (HUD Notice PDR-2026-02). HUD had not published the next year’s limits by the end of October 2026; in recent years new limits came out in April or May. Pick your county and add the people in your household, and the calculator tells you whether your income is under the limit.

Public housing, HUD’s other large program, takes families up to the low income limit. At least 40% of the families it takes in each year must be extremely low income (24 CFR 960.202).

How much rent will I pay with Section 8?

You pay the highest of three amounts, which HUD calls the total tenant payment (24 CFR 5.628):

• 30% of your monthly adjusted income, which is your income after HUD’s deductions;
• 10% of your monthly income before the deductions;
• the agency’s minimum rent, which it may set anywhere from $0 to $50 (24 CFR 5.630).

The 10% amount is the larger one only when the deductions take away more than two-thirds of your income, so it is usually the 30% amount that counts. An agency that charges a minimum rent must waive it for a family in financial hardship: for example, one that would be evicted, whose income has dropped, that is waiting for a public benefit, or that has had a death in the family.

Your share covers rent and utilities together. If you pay some utilities yourself, the agency adds an allowance for them, from its own schedule, to your rent (24 CFR 982.517). The voucher then pays the lower of two amounts: the agency’s payment standard minus your share, or your rent and utilities minus your share (24 CFR 982.505). The agency pays that part to your landlord, and you pay the rest.

If your rent and utilities come to more than the payment standard, you also pay the difference. When you first rent a home like that, your total share may not be more than 40% of your monthly adjusted income (24 CFR 982.508). The agency also checks that the rent is reasonable next to similar homes that have no voucher (24 CFR 982.507).

Here is how it works for a single parent with two children (ages 5 and 9) in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, earning $2,000 a month and renting a two-bedroom home for $1,200 a month. HUD takes $500 a year off the family’s income for each child, and the family’s share is 30% of what is left. With a voucher, the program would pay $625 of the rent each month, and the family would pay the rest.

The calculator works this out for your own household when you pick your county. If you already have a voucher, tick “A housing voucher” so that it counts the voucher in your budget.

What does HUD take off my income first?

HUD starts from your annual income and takes off a few set amounts. What is left is your adjusted income, and your share is worked out from it (24 CFR 5.611). Annual income is the money that comes in for each member who is 18 or older, or is the head of the household or the spouse, plus any income children get that is not pay from work (24 CFR 5.609).

Some money is not counted at all, including:

• pay earned by children under 18;
• foster care payments, and kinship or guardianship payments;
• tax refunds and refundable tax credits, such as the Earned Income Tax Credit, when you get them;
• gifts for birthdays and holidays, loans, and other one-time money;
• money that pays you back for medical costs;
• student aid for tuition, books, fees, room and board, within limits;
• money that builds up inside a retirement account, though regular payments from it count when you get them.

Then these deductions come off:

• $500 a year for each dependent: a member other than the head or spouse who is under 18, has a disability or is a full-time student;
• $550 a year, once, for an elderly or disabled family: one whose head, co-head, spouse or only member is 62 or older or has a disability;
• for an elderly or disabled family, medical costs that insurance does not pay, including health insurance premiums, above 10% of annual income. For any family, the cost of care or equipment that lets a member with a disability work is added to those costs;
• child care for children under 13 that lets someone in the family work, look for work or study (when it is for work, no more than the pay it makes possible);
• any other deduction your agency has chosen to give.

HUD raises the first two amounts each January with inflation, and the calculator uses the amounts in force today. An elderly or disabled family, or a family with a member who has a disability, that faces a financial hardship can ask the agency to count these costs above 5% of income instead, for 90 days, which the agency may extend 90 days at a time.

For example, take a woman of 68 living alone in Bernalillo County, New Mexico, on $1,400 a month from Social Security, with $250 a month in medical bills and $950 rent. As an elderly family she gets the $550 deduction, and the part of her medical bills above 10% of her income comes off too. With a voucher, the program would pay about $577 of her rent each month.

Do all housing agencies use these deductions?

No. Some agencies still use the older deductions. A 2016 law, the Housing Opportunity Through Modernization Act (HOTMA), changed them, and HUD’s rule putting it in place took effect on January 1, 2024 (88 FR 9600). HUD let each agency choose its date to switch. Then, in September 2024, it told agencies not to switch by January 1, 2025, because HUD’s own systems were not ready (89 FR 106998). HUD’s own tables of this year’s amounts say that an agency not yet following the new rules does not use them (HUD’s 2026 table).

Under the older rules, an agency takes off $480 for each dependent and $400 for an elderly or disabled family, and counts medical costs above 3% of income instead of 10% (24 CFR 5.611 as it stood at the end of 2023). Those rules have no asset limit. Instead, when assets are over $5,000, income includes the larger of what they really earn and what they would earn at a set rate HUD publishes. Ask your agency which rules it uses. The calculator uses the new ones, which are the rules in the regulation today.

What are the payment standard and Fair Market Rents?

The payment standard is the most the voucher will count toward your rent and utilities. Your agency sets it at 90% to 110% of HUD’s Fair Market Rent for your area and home size (24 CFR 982.503). The Fair Market Rent is HUD’s estimate of a rent, utilities included, that 40% of standard homes recently rented in the area cost or less (24 CFR 888.113).

• An agency may go up to 120% of the Fair Market Rent if it tells HUD that it meets a test, such as fewer than 75% of its voucher holders finding a home. It may go higher with HUD’s approval, and up to 120% for one family as a reasonable accommodation for a disability.
• In some large metro areas that HUD names, agencies must use rents set by ZIP code (Small Area Fair Market Rents) instead of one figure for the whole area.
• The agency decides how many bedrooms your voucher is for, under its own rules for households like yours. If you rent a home with fewer bedrooms, the smaller home’s payment standard is used.

HUD’s Fair Market Rents for its 2027 year took effect on October 1, 2026, except in 12 areas where a valid request to re-check them was filed (HUD’s list). Those areas keep the 2026 figures for now, and HUD says it will post revised figures in April 2027 (91 FR 56156). The calculator uses the figures in force for your county.

Each agency sets these details itself, so the calculator makes simple assumptions. It takes the payment standard as 100% of the Fair Market Rent, two people to a bedroom (from one bedroom up to four), no minimum rent, and no utility allowance on top of the rent you type. It uses your rent up to the Fair Market Rent, or the Fair Market Rent if you leave the rent box empty. In parts of New England, HUD’s figures change from town to town within a county; there the calculator uses the figures for the part of the county where most people live.

Is there an income limit once you have a voucher?

No. The income limit only decides who can start. Once you have a voucher there is no income cut-off. As your income rises, your share rises by 30 cents for each extra dollar of adjusted income, and the voucher pays 30 cents less, until it pays nothing (24 CFR 982.505). So the voucher itself has no sudden cliff, though the asset limit can still apply at a review.

Take the same family with a voucher, after a raise to $2,500 a month. The voucher would now pay $475 a month instead of $625: 30 cents less for each extra dollar of pay. For the same family with a voucher, earning $4,100 a month, 30% of the family’s adjusted income is more than the whole rent, so the voucher pays $0. Income can rise past the limit for getting a voucher, and the family keeps it as long as it still pays something.

When the voucher has paid nothing for 180 days, the contract with the landlord ends by itself (24 CFR 982.455). If your income falls before then and the agency reviews it, payments can start again.

A raise usually changes your share only at your next yearly review. Between reviews, the agency may not use a rise in your earnings as a reason for a new review, unless your share was already lowered at a review since the last yearly one (24 CFR 982.516). A rise of 10% or more in your adjusted income from money other than pay does start a review. If your income drops, you can ask for a review at any time, though the agency may say no if the drop is under 10%. A higher share starts on the first of the month after 30 days’ notice, and a lower one on the first of the month after you report the change.

The calculator’s “What if you earn more?” box shows what a raise would do to your voucher, SNAP and taxes together. Only your housing agency decides your share.

Is there an asset limit for Section 8?

Yes, under HUD’s current rules. A family whose net assets are over HUD’s limit cannot be let in, and it can lose its help at a review, though at reviews the agency may choose not to enforce the limit or may set exceptions (24 CFR 5.618). The limit is $105,574 in 2026, and HUD raises it each January with inflation. The amounts are in HUD’s tables for 2026 and 2027.

Net assets are what your savings, investments and property would bring in cash, after the costs of selling, plus anything you gave away for less than it was worth in the last two years (24 CFR 5.603). They do not include:

• personal property you need;
• retirement accounts;
• 529, Coverdell and ABLE accounts;
• Family Self-Sufficiency accounts;
• tax refunds and refundable tax credits, for 12 months after you get them;
• money from a lawsuit over an injury that caused a disability;
• trusts that you cannot revoke or control.

A family that owns a home it could live in, and could legally sell, cannot get help either. There are exceptions, for example a home that is up for sale, a home owned with someone outside the household who lives in it, and victims of domestic violence, dating violence, sexual assault or stalking.

The calculator does not check assets for housing help. An agency that still uses the older rules has no asset limit, but counts income from assets over $5,000, as above.

How long are Section 8 waiting lists?

By HUD’s own figures, most eligible families get no help, and those who do often wait years. HUD’s 2025 report to Congress, based on 2023 survey data, says only about one in four eligible very low income renter households gets rental help (Worst Case Housing Needs 2025). In HUD’s records at the end of 2025, newly admitted households had waited 29 months on average for a voucher and 19 months for public housing (Picture of Subsidized Households 2025).

Those averages look back at families who got help, and they leave out agencies that do not report waiting dates. They say nothing about families still waiting, lists that are closed, or any one agency, and they are not a forecast.

Waiting lists follow HUD’s rules (24 CFR 982.204 to 982.207):

• Agencies pick families from their waiting list, under their own written plan.
• An agency may stop taking applications when its list is long enough for the vouchers it can pay for. When it opens the list again, it must give public notice of where and when to apply.
• An agency may give preference to some groups, such as local residents, working families, families with a member who has a disability, or victims of domestic violence. Among families with the same preference, it picks by the date and time they applied, or by lottery.
• The order cannot depend on how big a family is.

That is why the calculator marks a voucher “Maybe” even when your income is under the limit. Only your local agency can tell you whether its list is open and how long it is.

How is public housing different?

In public housing you rent a home run by the housing agency, and once a year you choose between two rents (24 CFR 960.253). One is an income-based rent: the same total tenant payment as above, minus an allowance for utilities you pay. The other is a flat rent the agency sets for your home, at least 80% of the Fair Market Rent. If you choose the flat rent and then hit hard times, you can switch to the income-based rent at any time. If a new flat rent would raise your rent by more than 35%, the rise is spread out at 35% a year.

Public housing also has an over-income rule. If your income stays over 2.4 times the very low income limit for 24 months in a row, the agency must, under its own policy, either charge a higher rent of at least the Fair Market Rent or end your tenancy no later than six months after notice (24 CFR 960.507). The calculator works out the voucher, so ask your agency about public housing rents.

Who decides, and where do you apply?

Your local public housing agency decides. It runs the waiting list and sets the payment standard, the utility allowance, the number of bedrooms for your family, any minimum rent, its preferences and which deduction rules it uses. Some agencies, called Moving to Work agencies, may run their own rent and admission rules, so the standard formulas on this page may not apply to them (91 FR 56163).

You apply with your local agency, and applying is free. Only the agency can say whether you qualify, how much you would pay, and when your name might come up.

Two HUD proposals could change the rules, but neither is in force. One, from March 2026, would let agencies require adults who can work to do up to 40 hours a week of work activities, and set time limits of at least two years for families who are not elderly or disabled (91 FR 10016). The other, from February 2026, would check the citizenship or immigration status of every applicant and member, at any age (91 FR 8151). No final rule for either had appeared in the Federal Register by October 27, 2026.

Figures checked October 31, 2026.

Questions people ask

What is the income limit for Section 8?

To get a voucher, your household’s yearly income before taxes must usually be no more than 50% of the median family income for your area, adjusted for household size. HUD sets the limit area by area; pick your county in the calculator to compare your income with it. Most new vouchers go to families at or under the poverty line or 30% of the median, whichever is higher.

How much rent will I pay with Section 8?

Usually 30% of your income after HUD’s deductions, for rent and utilities together. If your rent is above the agency’s payment standard, you also pay the difference. The calculator works out your share for your county.

Can I get Section 8 if I work?

Yes. Working families can get vouchers, and some agencies give them preference on the waiting list. Your share rises with your pay, but once you have a voucher there is no income cut-off.

Will a raise make me lose my voucher?

Not all at once. Your share rises by about 30 cents for each extra dollar of adjusted income, usually at your next yearly review. The voucher ends only after it has paid nothing for 180 days.

Does my child’s job count as income for Section 8?

No. Pay earned by children under 18 is not counted. Other income a child gets does count.

Do tax refunds or the EITC count as income for Section 8?

No. Tax refunds and refundable tax credits are not counted as income when you get them, and they are not counted as assets for 12 months afterwards.

How long is the Section 8 waiting list?

It depends on your agency, and an agency may close its list when it has enough applicants. In HUD’s figures for the end of 2025, newly admitted households had waited 29 months on average for a voucher. Only your local agency can tell you about its own list.

Is this calculator the housing agency?

No. It is an independent calculator, not a government website, and it takes no applications. Only your local housing agency can say whether you qualify and what you would pay.

Updated November 1, 2026