What is considered low income? Three levels for 2026

What is considered low income? Under federal housing law, a household is low income if it earns up to 80 percent of the area median income, the middle income where you live. Very low income is up to 50 percent, and extremely low is up to 30 percent. Each year, the federal housing department (HUD) publishes the dollar limits for every area.

What are HUD's three income levels?

HUD's three levels are low, very low and extremely low income. Each one is a share of the area median income: half the families in your area earn more than the median, and half earn less. What area median income means explains how HUD sets it.

If you are extremely low income, you are also very low and low income. So a home that takes households up to 80 percent takes you too. The exception is a home with a minimum income, the least you must earn to show you can pay the rent.

One rule lifts the lowest level in places where incomes are low. Under HUD's definitions of income terms, extremely low income is 30 percent of the median or the federal poverty guideline, whichever is higher. The poverty guideline is a yearly dollar amount the federal health department sets for each household size. It is never above the very low limit.

Why does the number change by place and household size?

Your dollar income limit, the most your household can earn and still qualify, depends on two things: where you live and how many people live with you.

Where you live. HUD works out a median for each metro area and each rural county. The same percent gives a bigger dollar figure where incomes are higher.

Household size. HUD sets the limit for four people first and adjusts it for other sizes. One person gets 70 percent of the four-person limit, two people get 80 percent and three get 90 percent. Five people get 108 percent and six get 116 percent.

HUD also raises limits where rents are high compared with incomes, as HUD's published method explains. In the New York City area, HUD's 2026 median family income is $104,300. Yet its 50 percent limit for four people is $84,800, not $52,150, and its 80 percent limit is $135,700. New York City's own chart, used by buildings the city helps pay for, starts from HUD's raised limit. The city housing department's chart lists $169,600 as 100 percent for four people, exactly twice HUD's $84,800, so $169,600 is not the real median. Its 80 percent figure, $135,680, is HUD's $135,700 before rounding.

In the Houston area, HUD makes no such increase: the median is $104,000 and the 80 percent limit for four is $83,200, exactly 80 percent. So never work a limit out from a median yourself. Read the table.

What are the 2026 limits in six areas?

HUD's 2026 income limits for six areas are below, in effect since May 1, 2026. Each figure is the most a household of that size can earn in a year, before taxes, and still count at that level.

Two people

Four people

• Each area is bigger than its city. The New York figures cover the five boroughs plus Putnam County. The San Francisco figures cover San Francisco, San Mateo and Marin counties.
• Houston's extremely low figure for four people is $33,000. That is the 2026 federal poverty guideline for four people, which is higher than 30 percent of the median there.
• A city can publish its own chart. San Francisco's 2026 chart starts from a lower figure, which it calls the unadjusted median. So its 80 percent limit for four people is $129,700, while HUD's for the same area is $168,100. Use the chart the listing names.

A worked example: three people in Boston and Houston

Take a household of three that earns $90,000 a year before taxes.

The same income passes in Boston and fails in Houston. In Boston, this household is low income, so it can apply for homes set at 80 percent. Its income is above the very low limit in both places ($77,150 in Boston and $46,800 in Houston), so homes set at 50 percent are out of reach in both. Each listing has its own rules for what counts as income, so treat this as a first check.

Low income, the poverty line and "affordable": what is the difference?

Low income, the poverty guideline and "affordable" measure three different things.

• Poverty guideline. One national dollar figure for each household size, set by the federal health department in its 2026 poverty guidelines. In the 48 contiguous states and D.C., the 2026 figure is $15,960 for one person and $33,000 for four. In housing, it has one job: extremely low income is never set below it.
• Low income (housing). A share of the local median, set by HUD for each area. For four people it runs from $83,200 to $168,100 across the six areas above.
• Affordable. A test of rent, not income. HUD's 2025 report on housing needs says housing is affordable when it costs no more than 30 percent of a household's income.

What does "up to 80 percent AMI" mean on a listing?

"Up to 80 percent AMI" on a listing means your household's yearly income must be at or under the 80 percent limit for your household size. AMI is short for area median income.

The rent is a separate number. In most income-restricted apartments it is a set amount that does not go up or down with your pay. That is why some listings also set a minimum income. Each listing names its level, such as 50, 60, 80 or 120 percent, so read the listing for the level that applies to its homes.

A Section 8 voucher, which pays part of the rent on an apartment you choose, has a lower income limit. Federal rules say most families who get a voucher must be very low income. Only a few kinds of families up to the 80 percent limit can get one, such as families who already have federal rent help.

Vouchers come from a housing authority (the local housing office), which keeps a waitlist, a list of people waiting for a voucher. Each year, at least 75 percent of the families it newly admits to its voucher program from that list must be extremely low income. How to qualify for affordable housing covers the rest of the test.

How do you check your own household?

1. Count everyone who will live in the home. That number is your household size.
2. Add up your household's yearly income before taxes.
3. Find the chart the listing names, or HUD's table for your area, and read the row for your household size.
4. Compare. At or under the 80 percent figure means low income. At or under the 50 percent figure means very low income.

To compare your household with open homes in one step, use the qualify check. You can also browse open listings or see what is open in New York City and Greater Boston.