What Is Area Median Income (AMI) and Why Does It Matter?

AMI is the key number behind affordable housing eligibility. Learn how it is calculated and what it means for your housing search.

Area Median Income is a benchmark used to define income bands for housing programs. Programs often refer to units as being available at percentages like 50%, 60%, or 80% of AMI.

Those percentages do not stand alone. They are paired with household size, which is why the same program can produce different thresholds for one person than it does for a family of four.

Roost uses the normalized income-limit tables behind the scenes so renters do not have to reverse-engineer those thresholds on their own.