April 1, 2021- The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) published its income limits for FY21. Nantucket County’s Median Family Income (MFI) was updated to $122,800, which was an increase of 5.2% over FY20. Housing Nantucket uses these numbers to determine eligibility for our rental and homeownership programs. Our programs are designed to serve households earning 50%-150% of the Area Median Income (AMI).

All affordable housing programs on Nantucket use some variation of HUD’s income limits to determine who qualifies for the units, the maximum sales price for homeownership units, and the maximum rent that can be charged for subsidized rental units. In order to qualify on the town’s Subsidized Housing Inventory (SHI), the occupant must earn below 80% of the Area Median Income as well as meet other criteria. Other programs are available to those earning up to 175% of the Area Median Income, but those do not count on the Town’s SHI list. To learn more about the different levels of affordability on Nantucket, check out our Understanding Affordable Housing on Nantucket cheat sheets.

HUD calculates a median family income for each metropolitan and nonmetropolitan county throughout the country. HUD uses American Community Survey data as the basis for this calculation. For Fiscal Year 2021, HUD tabulated using five years of data from the 2014-2018 American Community Survey and adjusted for inflation.

The FY 2021 national median income was posted at $79,900, an increase of 1.783% over 2020. Among the 4,766 counties for which HUD publishes limits, 65% saw an increase, 32% saw a decrease and 3% had no change. The average change was an increase of 1.04%.

Fair Market Rents were also updated. Fair Market Rent (FMR) is a statistic developed by HUD in order to determine payments for various housing assistance programs. Housing Nantucket uses FMR to determine monthly rent ceilings for units in our Affordable Rental Program.