@pipeworx/hud

Connect: https://gateway.pipeworx.io/hud/mcp · Install: one-click buttons

Tools: 5

The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development’s data. Fair Market Rents (FMR), Income Limits, USPS Vacancy Data, public housing characteristics, Continuum of Care (homelessness data), Comprehensive Housing Affordability Strategy (CHAS) data. Free, no auth.

Why this matters for AI agents

For housing-affordability analysis, federal benefit thresholds, or homeless services research, HUD is the source. Pair with Census (housing characteristics), Altos (live market data), ATTOM (property-level data), and FRED (mortgage/macro context).

Common flows:

• Fair Market Rent. “What’s HUD’s FMR for a 2-bedroom in Denver?” — FMR data drives Section 8 voucher amounts.
• Income Limits. “Median income for a family of 4 in Boston?” — drives eligibility for housing programs.
• USPS Vacancy. “What % of housing units are vacant in this ZIP?” — quarterly USPS-derived vacancy rates by tract.
• Homelessness. Point-in-Time count, demographic breakdowns, Continuum of Care reports.
• Public Housing. Authority listings, unit counts, demographic served.

Auth

Most HUD APIs are free, no auth. A few require registering for a free token. Pipeworx supports _apiKey passthrough where applicable.

Datasets worth knowing

Common pitfalls

• FMR vs. market rent. Fair Market Rent is HUD’s policy number used for voucher reimbursement. It’s NOT what the market actually charges — typically lags real market rents by 6-18 months. For market reality, use Altos or rental aggregator data.
• AMI varies by household size. “80% of AMI” depends on whether the household has 1, 2, 3, 4+ people. The “Median Income” headline doesn’t capture this.
• Vacancy rates from USPS. USPS vacancy isn’t true vacancy — it counts units the postal carrier marks as vacant for 90+ days. May undercount short-term vacancies and overcount foreclosures.
• Homeless point-in-time counts undercount. Most jurisdictions do their PIT count one night in late January. Methodology varies by Continuum of Care, and unsheltered counts especially miss people. Treat as a lower bound.
• CHAS data is 5-year smoothed. Like ACS 5-year data — current as of 5 years rolling. For real-time housing affordability changes, layer in faster signals.
• CBSA vs. county FMRs. HUD publishes FMRs at the CBSA (metropolitan/micropolitan area) level. Specific counties may have very different actual rents from their CBSA’s FMR average.

Tools

• hud_fair_market_rents — Get Fair Market Rent ceilings by bedroom count (0–4+) for a specific area and year. Returns rent limits by bedroom count. Use to set voucher payment standards and rental assistance caps.
• hud_income_limits — Check income eligibility thresholds (extremely low, very low, low-income) for HUD programs by area and family size. Returns income limits by category. Use to determine program qualification.
• hud_crosswalk — Map ZIP codes to census tracts, counties, CBSAs, and congressional districts. Returns geographic identifiers. Use to translate between location code formats or join datasets.
• hud_chas — Get housing affordability data by income level and family type. Returns household counts with cost burdens, overcrowding, and housing problems. Use for housing needs assessment.
• hud_list_states — List all U.S. state codes and names. Returns state abbreviations and full names. Use to validate or discover state codes for other HUD tools.