Lynn, MA · section 8 & fair market rent

Fair market rent in Lynn by bedroom size (FY2026)

HUD's fiscal-year 2026 Fair Market Rents are the baseline housing-voucher programs use in Lynn — and the only official bedroom-by-bedroom market-rent schedule published for this area. (How these figures compare with what current renters actually pay, size by size: rent by bedroom in Lynn.)

$2,941

2-bedroom FMR, incl. utilities

$2,300

Lynn market average today (all sizes, rent only)

FY2026

fixed Oct 2025 – Sep 2026

FY2026 fair market rent, studio to 4 bedrooms

HUD publishes one figure for the whole Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH HUD Metro FMR Area — there is no official ZIP-level breakdown for Lynn in this dataset, so the numbers below describe the metro area, not Lynn alone.

Unit size	FY2026 fair market rent
Studio / efficiency	$2,359/mo
1 bedroom	$2,476/mo
2 bedrooms	$2,941/mo
3 bedrooms	$3,526/mo
4 bedrooms	$3,894/mo

All amounts are monthly gross rent — rent plus tenant-paid utilities — for the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH HUD Metro FMR Area.

How the FMR compares to Lynn's market rate

Today's Lynn market average is $2,300/month (all unit sizes blended), while the 2-bedroom FMR is $2,941. The voucher standard here is pegged to rents across the whole Boston-Cambridge-Quincy area — which run higher than Lynn's own market. The practical upshot: a voucher set against the metro standard tends to stretch further in Lynn than in the metro's pricier towns. That's a comparison of two different measures (the FMR includes utilities and is fixed for the fiscal year; the market average blends all unit sizes and moves monthly), so treat it as direction, not a precise dollar gap.

What a fair market rent actually is

It's a standard, not a price. HUD estimates the 40th-percentile gross rent (rent + utilities) for recent movers, once per federal fiscal year. Nothing here is a listing or a promise of what you'll find.
It's not exactly what Section 8 pays. Your local housing authority sets its payment standard between roughly 90% and 110% of these figures, and what a voucher covers also depends on household income. Always confirm the current payment standard with the housing authority.
It's not a rent cap. Landlords can ask more; the FMR only governs what assistance programs use as a baseline.

Do you qualify? FY2026 Section 8 income limits

Eligibility for a Housing Choice Voucher is about income, not luck: HUD sets annual limits for the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy area as fractions of its median family income — $164,600/year for FY2026. Vouchers generally go to households under the very low income (50%) limit, and by federal law three-quarters of each year's new vouchers must go to households under the extremely low income (30%) limit. The 80% "low income" column governs admission to some other HUD programs, such as public housing.

Household size	Extremely low (30% of median)	Very low — Section 8 (50% of median)	Low (80% of median)
1 person	$36,000	$60,000	$96,000
2 people	$41,150	$68,600	$109,700
3 people	$46,300	$77,150	$123,400
4 people	$51,400	$85,700	$137,100
5 people	$55,550	$92,600	$148,100
6 people	$59,650	$99,450	$159,050
7 people	$63,750	$106,300	$170,050
8 people	$67,850	$113,150	$181,000

Annual gross household income, FY2026, Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH HUD Metro FMR Area. HUD floors the "extremely low" figures at the federal poverty guideline, so some run slightly above a straight 30%. The housing authority applies these (plus deductions, asset rules, and local preferences) when it screens an application — this table tells you whether applying is worth your time, not whether you're approved.

For scale: the median Lynn household income is $74,715 (2019–2023 ACS 5-year) — under the very-low-income limit for a household of 3. In other words, a large share of Lynn sits inside the income band the voucher program exists for; the constraint here is voucher supply and waiting lists, not eligibility. (That compares household income against size-adjusted family limits — direction, not an eligibility ruling.)

How the two halves of this page fit together: a voucher household generally pays about 30% of its adjusted monthly income toward rent, and the voucher covers the difference up to the local payment standard — which is set from the fair market rents above. Income limits decide who gets in; FMRs decide how far the voucher reaches.

How to apply for Section 8 in Lynn

LHAND, at 10 Church Street, administers Lynn's federal Housing Choice Voucher (Section 8) program locally — it runs the vouchers, inspections, and payment standards for the city.

Massachusetts pools most of its Section 8 waiting lists into one statewide Centralized Waiting List: a single free application covers about a hundred participating housing authorities at once (including agencies serving the Lynn area), and the list stays open year-round, so you can apply any time. Individual agencies' own separate lists — LHAND's included — open and close on their own schedules, so always check the authority's site for what is open right now.

Applying is always free. No waiting list in Massachusetts charges an application fee — anyone asking you to pay to "get on the list" is not the housing authority. Waiting-list status changes — always confirm what's open on Lynn Housing Authority & Neighborhood Development (LHAND)'s own site. Income-eligible and waiting? Our tenant rights page lists the free legal-aid and emergency rental-assistance resources for Lynn renters.

Source & caveats

All FMR and income-limit figures come from the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD), Office of Policy Development and Research — the public Fair Market Rents and Income Limits datasets, fiscal year 2026, for the Boston-Cambridge-Quincy, MA-NH HUD Metro FMR Area. This site is not affiliated with HUD or any housing authority. Market-rate figures elsewhere on the page come from Zillow's ZORI index and measure something different — see the methodology for how the sources fit together, and the Lynn rent overview for the current market picture.