Cheap Apartments In Santa Fe County
New Mexico

There are 27 low income housing apartment complexes which contain 2,593 affordable apartments for rent in Santa Fe County, New Mexico. Many of these rental apartments are income based housing with about 735 apartments that set rent based on your income. Often referred to as "HUD apartments", there are 100 Project-Based Section 8 subsidized apartments in Santa Fe County. There are 2,440 other low income apartments that don't have rental assistance but are still considered to be affordable housing for low income families.

Housing Authorities that serve Santa Fe County

Understanding Affordable Housing in Santa Fe County, New Mexico

• Population And Household Demographics
• Income and Rent Overburden
• Fair Market Rents
• Area Median Income
• Low Income Housing Tax Credit
• Rental Assistance

Santa Fe County, NM Affordable Housing Snapshot

Population and Household Demographics

Santa Fe County is a County in New Mexico with a population of 147,108. There are 61,179 households in the county with an average household size of 2.35 persons. 30.91% of households in Santa Fe County are renters.

Income and Rent Overburden in Santa Fe County

The median gross income for households in Santa Fe County is $54,315 a year, or $4,526 a month. The median rent for the county is $945 a month.

Households who pay more than thirty percent of their gross income are considered to be Rent Overburdened. In Santa Fe County, a household making less than $3,150 a month would be considered overburdened when renting an apartment at or above the median rent.46.21% of households who rent are overburdened in Santa Fe County.¹

Data derived from 2010 Census and 2015 5-Year American Community Survey. Learn More.
¹ Margin of Error: ± 2.42 percentage points.

Area Median Income In Santa Fe County

Affordable housing program eligibility is always determined by one's income. Each household's income is compared to the incomes of all other households in the area. This is accomplished through a statistic established by the government called the Area Median Income, most often referred to as AMI. The AMI is calculated and published each year by HUD.

In Santa Fe County, HUD calculates the Area Median Income for a family of four as $72,000

Most affordable housing programs determine eligibility based on the percent of AMI a given household's income is. Among the programs that determine eligibility based on the AMI are Section 8, HOME, LIHTC, Section 515, 202 and 811.

Rental Assistance in Santa Fe County

Rental assistance is a type of housing subsidy that pays for a portion of a renter’s monthly housing costs, including rent and tenant paid utilities. This housing assistance can come in the form of Section 8 Housing Choice Vouchers, project-based Section 8 contracts, public housing, USDA Rental Assistance (in Section 515 properties) as well as HUD Section 202 and 811 properties for elderly and disabled households.

Income Qualifications for Santa Fe County HUD Rental Assistance in Santa Fe County

You can identify apartment communities that participate in a program that provides rental assistance by looking for the Section 202 Supportive Housing for the ElderlySection 811 Supportive Housing for Persons with DisabilitiesRental Assistance PaymentsProject-Based Section 8Rural Development Rental AssistancePublic Housing tags in the apartment list above. View Apartments.

Low Income Housing Tax Credits in Santa Fe County

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program aims to create affordable rental housing for low and very low income families.

From 1992 to 2007, 18 low income apartment communities containing 2,136 rental apartments have been constructed and made affordable to low income persons in Santa Fe County by the Low Income Housing Tax Credit Program.

You can identify apartment communities that participate in the program in Santa Fe County by looking for the Low Income Housing Tax Credit tag in the apartment list above. View Apartments.

If your income is less than 60% of the Area Median Income (AMI), you should not expect to pay more than the rent value for a unit in the table below. However, Affordable apartment communities that receive funding through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit program may have rental units that are not subject to income and rent limits.

Rent limits for the LIHTC Program are determined so that a household making the maximum income for the expected household size of the unit would only pay 30% of their income for rent.

Income Qualifications for Low Income Housing Tax Credit Apartments in Santa Fe County

For example, the expected household size for a two bedroom apartment is 3 people. Using the table above, the maximum income for a 3 person household at 60% of the AMI in Santa Fe County is $37,440 a year, or $3,120 a month. To determine the maximum rent in the table below we multiply the monthly maximum income, $3,120 by 30% to get a maximum rent of $936 a month.

Rent for units in the LIHTC Program include a utility allowance which is determined by the average monthly cost of utilities paid directly by residents. This allowance has not been subtracted from the rents in the table below. These utility allowances are set on a property by property basis.

Fair Market Rents in Santa Fe County

Fair Market Rents, often abbreviated as FMR, can be used to better understand the average housing costs of an area. Notably, Fair Market Rents are used to establish the payment standards for the Housing Choice Voucher Program, maximum rents in HOME financed rental projects and initial rents for Section 8 project based assistance.

2018 Fair Market Rents