Find out how policies can affect affordable housing development and preservation, according to Yardi Matrix
Highlights:
- Inside DDAs, the fully affordable maximum net multifamily rent clocked in at $1,575 per unit in 2025, up 76.7 percent since 2016.
- The national market rate advertised rents reached $2,216 per unit inside DDAs at the end of 2025, marking a 32.8 percent growth since 2016.
- Outside DDAs, the age of stock and supply expansion are some of the factors driving the delta between income-restricted and market-rate rents.
- This rental difference may be used to inform decision-making regarding the development and preservation of affordable housing.
Two tools to channel affordable housing production and preservation
Some of the most significant tools policymakers may use to direct affordable housing development and preservation include Difficult Development Areas and Qualified Census Tracts. LIHTC projects within may receive an additional 30 percent boost to their eligible basis, allowing developments to pencil out without affecting rents or tenant income limits. A Yardi Matrix study of properties inside and outside DDAs and QTCs revealed a dynamic emerging between the affordable and market-rate rents.
While at a national level, the average rental delta between market-rate and affordable housing properties was somewhat tight outside DDAs, this varied greatly on a metro-by-metro basis. Take Austin, for instance, where income-restricted rates increased alongside the area’s median income to the point where they overtook traditional rates. The same supply imbalance that helped drive conventional rents down across Austin had the opposite effect in Miami, Boston and San Francisco, where inventory scarcity and income thresholds fueled a wider gap between affordable and market-rate rents.
Inside DDAs, the difference is more apparent with the national market rate advertised rents reaching $2,216 per unit at the end of 2025, up 32.8 percent since 2016, compared to the fully affordable maximum net rent of $1,575 per unit, up 76.7 percent since 2016. This larger delta may be explained away as such communities are within areas with higher incomes and development costs.
Different tracts, different affordable housing tactics
By and large, non-DDA tracts seemed to exhibit a higher overlap between affordable housing and market-rate rents, particularly in fast-growing Sun Belt and Midwest metros. Several of the catalysts behind this dynamic include the age of stock, with older market-rate properties functioning as naturally occurring affordable housing, and supply growth or lack thereof, which either widens or narrows the gap between the rates.
A better understanding of the interplay between the duo could inform better decision-making regarding policy enactment and capital allocation. For instance, incentives within DDAs could aid projects that would otherwise be unfeasible, while incentives outside DDAs may help in improving housing quality where market-rate units are typically older. Preservation inside such tracts maintains attainable rents where market-rate premiums are already substantially higher, while preservation outside DDAs can anticipate and prevent future rental escalation due to higher occupancy levels.
Read the full Yardi Matrix Affordable Housing Market Report: April 2026.
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