The area median income for a family of four living in the San Antonio-New Braunfels region decreased by $100 — from $88,600 to $88,500 — this year, the first time it has dropped since 2016.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development released the 2024 area median incomes (AMI) and associated income limits in April. These determine whether a household in a certain region is eligible for HUD-funded rent subsidies and other housing assistance programs.
Local and regional housing officials said this week that the minor, 0.1% decrease in AMI won’t be felt by a vast majority of residents in the area who rely on housing assistance.
AMI plays an important role in policymaking and development. HUD uses AMI to set rents for those living in federally subsidized housing, while local officials use AMI to direct funding toward specific housing goals. Developers use it to build housing that qualifies for public funding.
The new AMI went into effect for some federal programs on May 1; for others, it will be effective starting June 1.
For local programs that use AMI as a qualification for assistance, the city started using the new figures in April, said Veronica Gonzales, assistant director of the city's Neighborhood and Housing Services Department (NHSD).
"People applying for certain federally-funded housing programs may encounter slightly different income limits this year," Gonzales said. "Since it is such a small change, anybody in our programs through NHSD should be able to continue to qualify."
The city's programs are focused on serving households who are at or below 60% median income for renters and 120% for homeowners, she said.
"Programming for households in need includes everything from rental assistance, downpayment assistance, home repair, and even funding for the construction and rehabilitation of affordable housing," Gonzales said. "Those who have the lowest income will, in general, be able to apply for more types of programs."
Information about housing programs, application periods and qualifications, including a tool to find out your AMI, can be found on the city's website.
What AMI does — and does not — measure
HUD determines an area’s AMI using a range of Census data and inflation estimates, calculating the range of incomes in a region. The midpoint, or median, of those incomes is the AMI. The metric does not necessarily correlate to a region’s true cost of living, but it can provide a rough sketch of a region's economic conditions related to housing.
Lower rent and occupancy rates have started to soften the local apartment market as more units came online in recent years, but such a slight decrease in AMI isn't cause for immediate alarm, according to HUD's San Antonio Field Office Director Zuleika Morales-Romero.
The agency's Economic and Market Analysis Division will continue to monitor AMI levels.
For the San Antonio-New Braunfels region, HUD groups Bandera, Bexar, Comal, Guadalupe and Wilson counties together. That skews the area’s AMI a bit higher than what it would be within San Antonio, where more than 250,000 residents live at or below the Census Bureau’s poverty line.
In 2022, about 46% of households in Bexar County couldn’t afford essentials such as housing, child care, food, transportation, health care and a basic smartphone plan, according to the latest report from wage advocacy organization United for ALICE.
That means 344,827 households in the county earn wages below the cost of living, which ALICE calls a "survival budget," of about $69,800 for a four-person household of two adults and two children in Bexar County. That roughly correlates to nearly 80% AMI.
The San Antonio-New Braunfels AMI has increased every year since 2016. In 2019, it jumped 6.3%, the biggest jump before 2022's 13% rise. Since 2012, the AMI has increased by about 45%. Increased AMI generally means more people can qualify for rent and home repair assistance.
AMI-based rent limits — capped at 30% of income — are a ceiling, not a floor; HUD does not require property managers to raise or charge rents to the maximum allowed under the calculation.
Under the new calculations, new leases in rent-limited facilities might feature slight decreases in rent if they were previously charging the maximum. For instance, the 2023 calculation capped rent for 30% AMI renters at $620, now that's estimated at $600.
Tenants who pay rent using housing choice (or “Section 8”) vouchers will not be affected, as their rent is restricted to 30% of their income, rather than being connected to AMI.
Neither will tenants of public housing projects, like those built by local HUD housing authority Opportunity Home, as those rents are also restricted to 30% of income. However, the agency's mixed-income properties, which offer both income-restricted units and market-rate units, could see rent decreases related to the AMI increase.
