Suffolk County, MA

In the displayed direct-ZORI set, Zillow’s typical observed asking-rent index for 2026-06 runs from $2,628 to $4,141, a $1,513 spread, and its median is $3,275. That is a meaningful within-set search range, not a single county price: 02150 is at the low end and 02127 at the high end. The county Zillow ZORI is $3,423, but the practical question is whether a specific listing’s bedroom count, lease terms, and full monthly cost fit the renter’s budget within a given ZIP’s current asking-rent environment. An index cannot quote or guarantee the rent of every available unit.

Zillow, ACS, and HUD should be compared as parallel measures, not combined into one affordability figure. Zillow supplies the typical observed asking-rent index; the ACS 2024 five-year ZCTA median gross-rent estimates in the displayed records range from $1,329 to $2,736, a separate survey measure. The supplied FY2026 HUD administrative two-bedroom figure is $2,311 for every displayed record, while county context lists a $2,941 two-bedroom FMR. Direct ZORI is 13.7% to 79.2% above the displayed-record HUD amount. Those contrasts can frame a search or program-screening question, but they do not convert any one series into another or establish an asking rent for a two-bedroom listing.

Survey burden and vacancy provide a distinct trade-off lens. Across the selected ACS ZCTA records, the share of renters spending at least 30% of income on rent ranges from 33.7% to 59.0%, while vacancy ranges from 3.2% to 14.3%. 02150 is the low-vacancy extreme, whereas 02115 is the high-vacancy and high-burden extreme; the ordering does not show a simple vacancy-to-burden relationship. A higher survey vacancy rate therefore does not demonstrate lower current asking rents, and a low rate does not establish unit availability. For an initial budget screen, the packet’s mechanical income needed at a 30% share of direct ZORI ranges from $105,120 to $165,640; compare it with the household’s income and an actual listing’s total terms, rather than treating it as an eligibility rule or a household-income estimate.

Coverage and geography limit how far these comparisons travel. The direct-evidence display contains 12 of 26 eligible ZIP/ZCTA matches and covers 127,462 renter households; it is explicitly not a complete county or local-area inventory. Assignment follows the county holding the largest HUD residential-address share, which ranges from 99.5% to 100.0% among the displayed records, yet ZIPs can cross county lines and Census ZCTAs are statistical areas rather than USPS delivery ZIPs. Before acting, confirm the property’s address and county, current availability, bedroom count, quoted rent, utilities and recurring fees, lease length, deposits, and any income or program requirements. Those property-level checks are necessary because the metrics are screening context, not a listing record.