HUD income limits explained: extremely low, very low and low income.

Three limits, one median

HUD’s income limits page says it “develops income limits based on Median Family Income estimates and Fair Market Rent area definitions for each metropolitan area, parts of some metropolitan areas, and each non-metropolitan county.” The very low-income limit is the anchor: 50 percent of the area median family income for a four-person household, then adjusted. The low-income limit is based on 80 percent, with its own four-person base and cap. The extremely low-income limit started, under the Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998, as 30 percent of median, and the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014 redefined it so that “these income limits would not fall below the poverty guidelines determined for each family size.” HUD’s methodology says it “therefore first calculates extremely low-income limits as 30/50ths (60 percent) of the Section 8 very low-income limits,” compares them with the poverty guideline, takes the higher, and caps the result at the very low limit.

Household size: 70 percent to 132 percent of the four-person figure

The FY2026 methodology says “the income limit statute requires adjustments for family size” and that HUD “uses the same family size adjustments for all income limits, except extremely low-income limits set at the poverty income threshold.” The table it prints is 70, 80, 90, 100 (base), 108, 116, 124 and 132 percent for one to eight persons. Beyond eight, “for each person over eight-persons, the four-person income limit should be multiplied by an additional 8 percent,” so a nine-person limit is 140 percent and a ten-person limit 148 percent. “HUD rounds income limits up to the nearest $50.” Because the poverty guidelines move in fixed dollar steps rather than percentages, the methodology warns that the extremely low figures for one to eight persons “will not necessarily follow the percentages shown above.”

The cap and the floor in FY2026

Since FY2010 HUD has limited annual decreases to 5 percent and annual increases to the greater of 5 percent or twice the change in national median family income; from FY2024 that change is measured with the unadjusted national median and subject to an absolute cap of 10 percent. For FY2026 the methodology reports that twice the measured change was approximately 10.09 percent, “which is more than the ten percent absolute cap. So, for FY 2026, the 10 percent cap is effective.” The floor for the four-person very low limit is last year’s figure multiplied by 0.95 and rounded up to the nearest $50. HUD applies the cap and floor to the four-person very low and low limits, makes the family-size adjustments, and then re-checks every size against the cap and floor, which is why a printed row sometimes differs by $50 from the textbook percentages.

Worked example: Autauga County, Alabama

HUD’s FY2026 file gives Autauga County (Montgomery, AL MSA) a median family income of $88,800 and a four-person very low limit of $44,400, exactly half. Applying the percentages and rounding up to $50: one person 70 percent = $31,080 → $31,100; two 80 percent = $35,520 → $35,550; three 90 percent = $39,960 → $40,000; five 108 percent = $47,952 → $48,000; six 116 percent = $51,504 → $51,550; seven 124 percent = $55,056 → $55,100; eight 132 percent = $58,608 → $58,650. Every one matches the published row. The extremely low column follows the greater-of rule: one person, 60 percent of $31,100 is $18,660 → $18,700, above the $15,960 poverty guideline, so $18,700; two persons, 60 percent of $35,550 is $21,330 → $21,350, below the $21,640 guideline, so $21,640; four persons, $26,640 versus $33,000, so $33,000. Again every value matches the file, which is why the calculator above defaults to this county.

Where the arithmetic stops matching

Los Angeles County shows the other side. Its FY2026 four-person very low limit is $83,300 against a median of $108,100, far above 50 percent, because of the high housing cost adjustment; and its one-person figure is $58,300 where 70 percent of $83,300 rounded up would be $58,350, because the cap re-check applies size by size. The calculator reproduces the methodology, not HUD’s full pipeline; where they differ, HUD’s file is the official number, and the FAQ says official limits “should be used for ALL official purposes.” Maricopa County sits between the two: a very low limit of exactly half the median, and extremely low figures for five to eight persons that are the poverty guidelines.

Method

The calculator takes a four-person very low limit, multiplies by the household-size percentage (8 points per person above eight), rounds up to the nearest $50, computes the extremely low limit as the greater of 60 percent of that figure (rounded up) and the 2026 HHS poverty guideline for the chosen set of states, capped at the very low limit, and labels the output DERIVED. The low-income limit is not derived because its four-person base and cap are separate. Percentages, rounding and the ELI rule are from the FY2026 Income Limits Methodology; the FY2026 effective date, OMB area note and FAQ wording are from HUD USER’s income limits page; the poverty guidelines are from HHS ASPE; all read on November 11, 2026.

What this does not cover

• The high housing cost adjustment, state non-metropolitan minimum and national maximum, which change the four-person base before any of the arithmetic here.
• Multifamily Tax Subsidy Project limits for tax-credit and bond-financed housing.
• Section 221(d)(3) BMIR, Section 235 and Section 236 limits, and the HUD 30 percent limits used for Emergency Solutions Grants, which HUD publishes separately.
• Puerto Rico and the territories, where HUD sets the extremely low limit at the very low limit.

Figures read from the sources below on November 11, 2026. Last updated November 11, 2026.

Sources

• HUD USER: Income Limits (FY 2026 data effective May 1, 2026; FAQ on ELI, caps and area definitions) (retrieved November 11, 2026)
• HUD USER: FY 2026 Income Limits Methodology (PDF) (retrieved November 11, 2026)
• HUD USER: Section 8 FY26 income limits data file (xlsx) (retrieved November 11, 2026)
• HHS ASPE: 2026 poverty guidelines (retrieved November 11, 2026)