HUD Publishes 2024 OCAFs

On Nov. 30, HUD published a notice in the Federal Register titled “Notice of Certain Operating Cost Adjustment Factors for 2024.” Operating cost adjustment factors (OCAFs) are annual factors used to adjust certain Section 8 rents. These OCAFs are calculated as “the sum of weighted component cost changes” for certain publicly available cost indices.

Some indices reflect data collected at the state level, while some indices reflect data collected at the national level. The nine cost indicators used in calculating OCAFs are the following:

• State-level data;
  • Electricity;
  • Fuel Oil;
  • Natural Gas;
• National-level data;
  • Employee Benefits;
  • Employee Wages;
  • Goods, Supplies, and Equipment;
  • Insurance;
  • Property Taxes; and
  • Water, Sewer, and Trash.

The notice lists the specific data sources for each category of data and alternative sources where a region may not have specific data available.

The full notice with the 2024 OCAFs listed as an appendix can be found here.