AMI and Rent Limits Explained

— by Joan Meixner, Commissioner for the Summit County Housing Authority. December 2025.

Summit County is an expensive place to live with high demand, limited supply, and rising property values leading to a critical shortage of housing that is affordable for many people.

It’s recommended that people spend no more than 30% of their income on housing. This standard, used by the government for nearly 40 years, allows for enough money to be spent on other essential expenditures.

Affordable housing programs often use AMI as a tool to establish rental rates and sale prices.

What is AMI

AMI stands for “Area Median Income.” Federal and state housing programs use income data for a given area to calculate rents and sales prices for affordable housing units. As its name suggests, AMI is the middle income for the specified area and is also calculated for households of different sizes.

Who Determines AMI

Annually, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) produces AMI figures for every metro area and county in the United States. AMI is calculated from data collected by the Census Department in the American Community Survey. HUD provides detailed information on the calculations, broken down by area, on its web page (AMI per State and County).

Summit County AMI

In 2025, Summit County’s area median income is $168,600 for a four-person household. Note that in 2020 this amount was $109,800: representing an over 50% increase.

Why Use AMI

One of the key features of AMI is that it more accurately reflects what is happening in our community versus our state or nation overall. Summit County is expensive, and our AMI will reflect that people making higher incomes may still be priced out of the housing market.

How Income Levels Set Rents

Any given housing program may use slightly different totals or target different ranges of income level, but most use AMI to some extent to determine both eligibility and actual housing costs.

For rental units, this translates into a total figure that reflects gross rent (meaning including utilities like water and gas) so the actual rent paid to the landlord could be less.

Summit County Maximum Contract Rent (FY 2025)
	Studio	1 Bedroom	2 Bedrooms	3 Bedrooms
Very Low Income (30–50% AMI)	$855.00–$1475.00	$1011.75–$1686.25	$1011.75–$1686.25	$1264.50–$2107.50
Low Income (50–80% AMI)	$1475.00–$2360.00	$1686.25–$2698.00	$1896.25–$3034.00	$2107.50–$3372.00
Median Income (80–100% AMI)	$2360.00–$2950.00	$2698.00–$3370.50	$3034.00–$3792.50	$3372.00–$4215.00
Market Rate	$1700.00	$2000.00	$2700.00	$3200.00

For ownership opportunities, monthly costs like mortgage, utilities, property taxes, and insurance are used to help determine sales prices.

Conclusion

Housing is a difficult topic and often in the news in our county, state, and nation. Understanding how various programs set rents is just one piece in creating solutions that work for our community.