ZIP 01915 presents an affordability tension before any bedroom or resale reading: Zillow's typical observed asking-rent index, which blends rental types, is $2,773 in June 2026. A simple 30% screen converts that monthly asking-rent index to $110,920 of annual gross income, above the matched ZCTA's $104,918 median household income. That screen is arithmetic only; it is neither advice nor an applicant qualification rule, and it does not establish a household's actual rent or eligibility. The five-digit label is both Zillow's ZIP market identifier and the matching Census ZCTA. A ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP.
The ACS record tells a materially different but not conflicting story. The matched ZCTA's ACS 2024 five-year survey places median gross rent at $1,770 for occupied renter homes, a measure that includes selected utilities and is not an asking-rent series. It records 6,761 renter-occupied homes and 3,484 households spending at least 30% of income on rent, or 51.5%. The current ZORI is 56.7% above the ACS median. Differences in timing, the survey's occupied-home universe, utility treatment, and the asking-rent construction prevent that gap from identifying a typical lease change or a burden level for any particular household.
Bedroom detail must retain that source distinction. HUD's local Fair Market Rent/Small Area Fair Market Rent ladder is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent. It runs from $1,631 for a studio to $3,060 for four bedrooms, with a $2,311 two-bedroom standard. Applying that local HUD ladder proportionally to ZIP ZORI produces modelled monthly ZIP estimates of $1,957 for a studio, $2,113 for one bedroom, $2,773 for two bedrooms, $3,467 for three bedrooms, and $3,672 for four bedrooms. These are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents; they provide a transparent size pattern for the ZIP index but cannot substitute for unit-specific listings, HUD program determinations, or lease quotes.
The rent history puts today's reading in a high-variability setting rather than a straight-line trend. Through the stated June endpoint, exact same-month ZORI changes annualize to 4.34% over one year, 3.94% over three years, and 6.80% over five years. The latest annual pace therefore confirms the longer upward path but is slower than the five-year pace. Annualized monthly-return variability is 3.73%, maximum drawdown is -3.18%, and coverage is 98.9%. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs are 569 for momentum, 2,444 for stability, and 1,330 for the balanced measure, where lower ranks are higher. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations; the variability means a reader should place less confidence in any single current rent snapshot than in a stable series.
Broader comparisons do not erase the direct ZIP distinction. The Beverly city-context asking-rent value nearly matches the ZIP index, while the Essex County context is $2,632 and the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro context is $3,210; each is wider-area context rather than a substitute ZIP observation. The matched ZCTA has 17,302 housing units, including 9,214 single-family units and 2,526 units in large multifamily structures. Its 3.76% vacancy rate includes 130 units vacant for rent. Those survey aggregates describe stock and vacancy, not a claim that a particular unit is available, comparable, or affordable.
For-sale evidence supplies a separate resale-liquidity tension: the direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation reports a $776,824 median sold price, up 5.37% year over year, with 84 homes sold and a 20-day median marketing time. Inventory is 73 homes, 92.4% higher year over year, alongside 2.6 months of supply. The average sale-to-list relationship is 104.04%, and 67.14% of sales close above list. These are for-sale market observations, not rental transactions or rental comps. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price is 4.28%, only a cross-source screening ratio—not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield. Rising resale prices and strong sale-to-list signals sit beside expanding inventory, so the resale evidence aligns with the rent history's upward direction while challenging a simple, one-direction reading of resale conditions.
The evidence streams should be triangulated, not blended into a single rent claim. Zillow describes typical observed asking rent across rental types; ACS describes a five-year survey of occupied renter homes with selected utilities; HUD provides an administrative benchmark; and the city, county, and metro figures are context. History measures prior index movement, while Redfin tracks resale outcomes. None supplies a property's condition, exact bedroom configuration, utility package, concessions, lease length, tenant turnover, or transaction expenses. The ZCTA match is a geographic correspondence for survey comparison, but it does not convert the survey into a delivery ZIP, a current listing database, or a property appraisal.
Property-level checks are consequently necessary before applying this ZIP summary to one address. The record needed for a rental comparison is the current advertised rent, bedroom count, unit type, included utilities, concessions, availability date, and lease terms; the record needed for a resale comparison is the actual sale price, list history, property condition, and whether the observed home resembles the subject. Confirm the geography used by each record and keep survey, administrative, asking-rent, and resale evidence in their separate universes. The unresolved question is not whether a ZIP average decides a unit's terms, but whether the particular unit's current terms and characteristics genuinely resemble the measurement being used.
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow's June 2026 ZIP ZORI is $2,773, a typical observed asking-rent index that blends rental types. At a 30% arithmetic screen, that amount corresponds to $110,920 in annual gross income, versus $104,918 median household income in the matched ZCTA. The comparison flags a ZIP-level affordability tension, but it neither determines applicant eligibility nor establishes the terms of any unit.","title":"Current asking-rent screen"},{"body":"ACS reports a $1,770 median gross rent for occupied renter homes in its 2024 five-year survey, including selected utilities, while current ZORI is $2,773. The $1,003 difference must remain a source-universe difference, not a lease trend. HUD's bedroom standards support a proportional modelled ladder, but HUD is administrative and those estimates are not measured bedroom asking rents.","title":"Survey and standard are not rent comps"},{"body":"Same-month ZORI growth is positive across the reported horizons, but the 4.34% one-year annualized change trails the 6.80% five-year change. With 3.73% annualized monthly-return variability and a -3.18% maximum drawdown, current conditions fit the supplied high-variability classification. History coverage is 98.9%, but its measurements remain backward-looking and should not be read as a forecast.","title":"Historical path is positive but variable"},{"body":"Redfin's direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale data show a $776,824 median sold price, 20-day marketing time, and 104.04% average sale-to-list outcome. Inventory rose 92.4% year over year, creating a counterweight to price and sale-to-list signals. The 4.28% annualized rent-to-price screening ratio crosses incompatible sources and is not a measure of property economics, returns, or rental transaction pricing.","title":"Resale strength alongside inventory expansion"}],"risks":["The current asking-rent index blends rental types and does not identify a property's condition, bedroom count, included utilities, concession structure, lease term, availability, or the rent ultimately agreed by a tenant.","ACS burden and vacancy measures are matched-ZCTA survey aggregates with sampling uncertainty and an occupied-home scope; they cannot demonstrate that a specific vacant unit is affordable, for rent, or representative.","High historical variability and the recorded drawdown mean one current ZORI reading may be less representative of the preceding path; past index movement does not establish future rent direction.","Resale prices, list outcomes, and supply are for-sale observations rather than rental transactions. Combining annual ZORI with median sold price omits financing, operating costs, property differences, and transaction timing."],"qa":[{"a":"Zillow ZORI is a current ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. ACS median gross rent is a five-year survey statistic for occupied renter homes that includes selected utilities. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative bedroom-specific standard. Their populations, timing, and intended uses differ, so the figures are comparison points rather than interchangeable rent observations.","q":"Why does the report keep Zillow, ACS, and HUD rents separate?"},{"a":"Multiplying the ZIP's current monthly ZORI by twelve and dividing by 30% produces the reported annual gross-income screen. It is transparent arithmetic that compares the index with a ZCTA household-income statistic. It is not an affordability recommendation, a landlord rule, a credit assessment, or an applicant qualification decision, and it cannot determine a household's actual expenses.","q":"What does the required-income screen show?"},{"a":"The momentum, stability, and balanced positions are transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs, with lower positions indicating stronger placement under each specific measure. They summarize prior ZORI behavior, not a forecast. High monthly-return variability and maximum drawdown warrant caution about treating a single current index observation as a complete description of the historical path.","q":"How should history ranks and variability be read?"},{"a":"No. It divides annualized ZIP ZORI, an asking-rent index, by a median price from direct ZIP resale observations. It does not match a particular property, and it omits operating expenses, financing, taxes, insurance, repairs, vacancy experience, and transaction costs. It is only a cross-source screening ratio and cannot establish a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield.","q":"Does the Redfin rent-to-price ratio describe a property's financial return?"}],"sources":[{"key":"apartment_list_time_on_market","name":"Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquidity","release":"Apartment List 2026-07","pulledAt":"2026-08-08","url":"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/category/data-rent-estimates"},{"key":"apartment_list_vacancy","name":"Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancy","release":"Apartment List 2026-07","pulledAt":"2026-08-08","url":"https://www.apartmentlist.com/research/apartment-list-vacancy-index-methodology"},{"key":"census_zcta_facts","name":"Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and income","release":"ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA","pulledAt":"2026-08-08","url":"https://api.census.gov/data/2024/acs/acs5.html"},{"key":"hud_zip","name":"HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback","release":"ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + 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