What are the Income Limits?

All affordable housing programs have eligibility restrictions based on household income. The most common restriction is the 80% of Area Median Income (AMI) which is sometimes referred to as the low-income limit, or sometimes the low and moderate income limit. HUD publishes income limits annually.

In the RHSO communities, the area is the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy HUD Metropolitan Area (HMFA). In terms of reading the annual chart, HUD titles Low-Income as 80% of AMI, Very Low Income Line as 50% of AMI and the Extr (Extremely) Low Income as 30% of AMI. [Note that the 80% and 50% figures are not arithmetically derived from the 100% figure - use them with caution!]  The HUD chart lists the 100% Area Median Income for a household of 4 on the left next to the year label.  The 100% of median number would be used to calculate income limits for homeownership that are not found on the chart, for example, 90% or 120% of median income. The RHSO has prepared a spreadsheet available here that provides more detailed information about the income limits.