[Federal Register Volume 71, Number 43 (Monday, March 6, 2006)]
[Notices]
[Page 11286]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 06-2026]



[[Page 11285]]

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Part II





Department of Housing and Urban Development





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Final Fair Market Rents for the Housing Choice Voucher Program and 
Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy Program for Fiscal Year 
2006; Revised; Notice

  Federal Register / Vol. 71, No. 43 / Monday, March 6, 2006 / 
Notices  

[[Page 11286]]


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DEPARTMENT OF HOUSING AND URBAN DEVELOPMENT

[Docket No. FR-4995-N-05]


Final Fair Market Rents for the Housing Choice Voucher Program 
and Moderate Rehabilitation Single Room Occupancy Program for Fiscal 
Year 2006; Revised

AGENCY: Office of the Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and 
Research, HUD.

ACTION: Notice of Final Fair Market Rents (FMRs) for Fiscal Year 2006, 
update.

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SUMMARY: This notice updates the FMRs for Burlington, VT, St. Mary's 
County, MD and San Jose, CA based on Random Digit Dialing (RDD) surveys 
conducted in November 2005. It also revised FMRs for Baton Rouge and 
New Orleans based on January 2006 data.

DATES: Effective March 6, 2006.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: For technical information on the 
methodology used to develop FMRs or a listing of all FMRs, please call 
the HUD USER information line at (800) 245-2691 or access the 
information on the HUD Web site, http://www.huduser.org/datasets/fmr.html. FMRs are listed at the 40th or 50th percentile in Schedule B. 
For informational purposes, a table of 40th percentile recent mover 
rents for those areas currently at the 50th percentile FMRs will be 
provided on the same Web site noted above. Any questions related to use 
of FMRs or voucher payment standards should be directed to the 
respective local HUD program staff. Questions on how to conduct FMR 
surveys or further methodological explanations may be addressed to 
Marie L. Lihn or Lynn A. Rodgers, Economic and Market Analysis 
Division, Office of Economic Affairs, Office of Policy Development and 
Research, telephone (202) 708-0590. Questions about disaster-related 
FMR exceptions should be referred to the respective local HUD office. 
Persons with hearing or speech impairments may access this number 
through TTY by calling the toll-free Federal Information Relay Service 
at (800) 877-8339. (Other than the HUD USER information line and TTY 
numbers, telephone numbers are not toll-free.)

Update

    Random Digit Dialing (RDD) surveys were completed in November 2005 
for the following FMR areas: Burlington-South Burlington, VT, MSA; 
Bloomington, IN CBSA; San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA CBSA; St. 
Mary's County, MD; and Eastern Worcester County, MA HMFA. The RDD 
surveys for two areas, Bloomington, IN and Eastern Worcester County, 
MA, indicated no change. The survey results for San Jose-Sunnyvale-
Santa Clara and St. Mary's County showed that rents had increased. The 
revised San Jose FMRs are less than the FMRs published in the Federal 
Register on October 3, 2005 (70 FR 57654), because this FMR was a 50th 
percentile FMR. San Jose became subject to 40th percentile FMRs in the 
Federal Register notice published on February 14, 2006 (71 FR 7832). 
The FMRs implemented in this notice are an increase over the February 
14, 2006, FMRs notice. San Benito County is a separate HUD FMR Market 
Area (HMFA) within the San Jose CBSA, so both San Jose and San Benito 
were given increases.
    Both the Baton Rouge and New Orleans rental housing markets 
experienced enormous impacts from Hurricanes Katrina and Rita. In New 
Orleans the impacts were a combination of damage that made over half of 
the inventory uninhabitable and a massive increase in demand for the 
remaining units. The Baton Rouge rental inventory also had some damage, 
but the influx of New Orleans evacuees had a far greater impact and 
virtually eliminated vacancies.
    Surveys of both rental markets show effectively no vacancies. 
Operating and repair costs have increased and insurance costs, which 
were already very high, are expected to further increase this year.
    Apartment complex survey data indicate that rents have increased 
25-30 percent in New Orleans and 15-20 percent in Baton Rouge. These 
results are supported by extensive field work by HUD economists who 
have been researching local market conditions. In this notice, HUD is 
increasing Baton Rouge FMRs by 25 percent and New Orleans FMRs by 35 
percent. The FMR increases provided are believed adequate to reflect 
current market circumstances and should cover at least part of the 
expected additional increases anticipated this year. The Department 
will continue to monitor this situation and modify FMRs if significant 
further rent increases occur. HUD is currently conducting rent surveys 
in Beaumont-Port Arthur, Dallas, Jackson, Houston, Little Rock, San 
Antonio and Shreveport, all of which are housing significant numbers of 
Katrina evacuees. The objective is to determine if disaster evacuees 
have reduced pre-Katrina vacancies enough to result in measurable rent 
increases. FMR increases will be issued if justified by the survey 
results for any of these areas.
    The FMR for the affected areas are increased as follows:

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                                                                               Number of bedrooms
                  2006 Fair market rent areas                  -------------------------------------------------
                                                                  0 BR      1 BR      2 BR      3 BR      4 BR
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Baton Rouge, LA HMFA..........................................      $573      $624      $720      $918     $1009
Burlington, South Burlington, VT MSA..........................       673       745       935      1197      1342
New Orleans-Metairie-Kenner, LA MSA...........................       725       803       940      1206      1247
San Benito, CA HMFA...........................................       614       831       924      1309      1621
San Jose-Sunnyvale-Santa Clara, CA HMFA.......................       914      1059      1273      1831      2015
St. Mary's County, MD.........................................       694       720       938      1233      1623
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    Dated: February 23, 2006.
Darlene F. Williams,
Assistant Secretary for Policy Development and Research.
[FR Doc. 06-2026 Filed 3-3-06; 8:45 am]
BILLING CODE 4210-67-P