Terms & Jargon

The housing industry and their regulators use “area median income” (AMI) as the statistic for which the concept of affordability is based. The 2022 area median income for Frederick County is around $116,000 per household or about $51,000 for an individual. AMI is based on the most recent U.S. Census Bureau information available.

The Low-Income Housing Tax Credit (LIHTC) program is the most important resource for creating affordable housing in the United States today. Created by the Tax Reform Act of 1986, the LIHTC program gives State and local LIHTC-allocating agencies the equivalent of approximately $10 billion in annual budget authority to issue tax credits for the acquisition, rehabilitation, or new construction of rental housing targeted to lower-income households.

To ensure that housing choices continue to be available to city residents and employees with moderate incomes, the City Council passed the Moderately Priced Dwelling Unit Law in 2004. This law requires that 15% of the houses for sale or rent in new subdivisions of 10 or more units be moderately priced dwelling units (MPDUs). This means that the sale price or rent is below the market rate for other units in the same development.