At the current June reading, Zillow ZORI was $3,546, 3.1% above a year earlier. In named wider context, the City of Boston context rent was about $3,469, the Suffolk County context rent was $3,423, and the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro context rent was $3,210. This places the ZIP index above each broad comparator, although none is a ZIP substitute. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index at ZIP scope, blended across rental types; it is not a signed-lease series and does not report a specific unit's rent. The five-digit label 02119 is both a Zillow ZIP market identifier and a Census ZCTA match. A ZCTA is a statistical area, not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP.
Those separate geographies are not the only source distinction. In the matched ZCTA, ACS 2024 five-year data put median gross rent at $1,329 for occupied renter homes. That survey measure includes selected utilities, unlike an asking-rent index, and its respondent and occupancy universe differs from current marketed supply. HUD's FY2026 two-bedroom FMR is $2,311: an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent. The bedroom figures here are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents: scaling ZIP ZORI by the local HUD ladder produces monthly estimates of $2,503, $2,702, $3,546, $4,433, and $4,695 from studio through four bedrooms. The ladder preserves local HUD relative sizing; it does not convert HUD standards into lease comparables.
History supplies the key counterweight to a single current asking-rent snapshot. Same-month annualized ZORI change was 3.1% over 1 year, 4.0% over 3 years, and 7.7% over 5 years. Rent therefore remained higher than a year earlier, but the newest pace breaks from, rather than confirms, the stronger longer-period growth path. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations. The series has complete 100% coverage. Its annualized monthly-return variability of 5.2% is consistent with the supplied high-variability label, so a reader should place less confidence in any one current index value than in the broad historical direction. Separately, the maximum peak-to-trough drawdown reached −5.7%, documenting a prior decline within the observed path. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 765 for momentum, 2,844 for stability, and 1,821 for balanced performance; lower ranks place higher and none forecasts rent.
Income and burden data sharpen the mismatch but must remain within the ACS survey universe. The ZCTA's median household income was $48,488, versus an arithmetic required-income screen of $141,840 to place the current monthly ZORI at 30% of gross income. This is a budgeting arithmetic comparison only, not advice and not an applicant qualification rule. ACS also counted 8,756 renter-occupied homes, of which 4,997, or 57.1%, reported gross-rent burdens at or above the same threshold. These are estimates from a five-year survey of occupied renter homes, not proof that a particular available unit is burdened, or that an individual household can or cannot meet a rent.
The stock composition sets scope without revealing a particular listing. The matched ZCTA contained 13,023 housing units, including 3,085 single-family units and 2,584 units in large multifamily structures. Renters represented 73.5% of occupied homes, while the total housing vacancy rate was 8.5%. That renter presence frames the relevance of rental measures, but aggregate vacancy does not demonstrate availability, condition, or pricing for any named address. Likewise, the survey's structural categories do not identify the mix of currently advertised unit sizes, so they cannot validate the modelled bedroom ladder or a current ZORI quote.
Resale evidence introduces a different tension. In Redfin's direct rolling-three-month ZIP for-sale observation, median sold price was $659,851, up 5.6% year over year; 23 homes sold with a median 26 days on market. There were 87 active listings, while reported inventory was 41 homes, equal to 5.5 months of supply. Sale-to-list signals were an average 100.48% and a 36.4% sold-above-list share. This is for-sale liquidity and pricing evidence, not rental transactions or rental comparables. Against the income screen's large gap and the history slowdown, the resale price change exceeding current asking-rent growth challenges a simple reading that the latest rent movement alone summarizes every housing-market signal.
Dividing annualized ZIP ZORI by the Redfin median sold price produces a 6.4% cross-source screening ratio. It is only a screen: it is not a cap rate, property yield, net return, expected return, or an estimate of property economics. The numerator is a blended asking-rent index and the denominator is a median of observed ZIP sales, so neither necessarily represents the same building, transaction date, unit type, operating cost, or owner result. Read beside the income screen and history slowdown, the ratio identifies a comparison worth inspecting rather than resolving the rent-versus-price tension.
Several limits remain before interpreting any individual property. The ZCTA and ZIP label alignment does not make their populations identical, ACS survey estimates have margins of error, and the public measures describe aggregates rather than a listed home. A property-level review would need the advertised rent date, bedroom configuration, utilities included, lease term, concessions, and whether the unit's condition and availability match the index universe. For a resale comparison, the property type, sale date, list price, and sale record would also need confirmation. What specific listing terms actually match the rent index, the modelled ladder, and the for-sale observation being compared?
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow's current $3,546 ZIP asking-rent index sits above the City of Boston, Suffolk County, and Boston-Cambridge-Newton metro context values. That comparison is directional context only: ZORI is a blended, typical observed asking-rent index, not a collection of signed leases. The 02119 label also matches a Census ZCTA, but the ZCTA statistical boundary is not a USPS delivery ZIP.","title":"Current asking-rent position exceeds wider context"},{"body":"Same-month ZORI history remains positive over each reported horizon, but the latest annual pace is below both the three-year and five-year annualized rates. Full coverage supports use of the observed series, yet high monthly-return variability and a prior drawdown limit confidence in a single current reading. Momentum, stability, and balanced ranks are transparent discovery tools among history-eligible ZIPs, not forecasts.","title":"Recent growth has slowed against the longer path"},{"body":"The arithmetic income needed to allocate 30% of gross income to the current ZORI substantially exceeds the ZCTA median household income. ACS also reports that a majority of renter-occupied homes had gross-rent burdens at or above that threshold. These remain aggregate survey findings for occupied renter homes; they do not qualify applicants, prescribe a budget, or prove affordability for a particular listed unit.","title":"The affordability screen and ACS burden measure show a large aggregate gap"},{"body":"Redfin's ZIP resale observation recorded a rising median sold price, completed sales, marketing-time data, inventory, months of supply, and above-list activity. Those signals describe direct for-sale transactions rather than rentals. The resale price increase outpaced the latest ZORI increase, creating a tension with the rent-history slowdown. Annualized ZORI divided by median sale price is only a cross-source screening ratio, not a property return measure.","title":"For-sale evidence is firmer than a rent-only reading, but remains separate"}],"risks":["Zillow ZORI blends property types and measures asking rent, so it can diverge from the rent, concessions, included utilities, lease term, and availability of any specific advertised dwelling.","ACS figures describe a matched statistical ZCTA rather than a USPS delivery ZIP and have survey margins of error; they cannot establish a specific household's rent burden or income.","Complete historical coverage does not eliminate index uncertainty: high variability and a past drawdown show that individual monthly readings moved over time, while backward-looking ranks and changes offer no forecast.","Redfin measures rolling-three-month ZIP resales, not rentals. Its median sale price and sale-to-list signals cannot supply operating costs, unit rents, financing terms, or a property-specific return measure."],"qa":[{"a":"ZORI records typical observed asking rents at ZIP scope and blends rental types. ACS reports a five-year survey median for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. Different dates, units, rent definitions, and population coverage mean the two values answer different questions; their gap is not a data conflict or an appraisal of any unit.","q":"Why is current ZORI much higher than ACS median gross rent?"},{"a":"The figures use the current ZIP ZORI as the two-bedroom anchor and multiply it by each local HUD bedroom-standard ratio. HUD FMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard, not observed asking rent. The results are therefore modelled estimates for consistent screening across bedroom labels; they do not measure actual studio, one-bedroom, or larger-unit rents.","q":"How were the bedroom estimates created?"},{"a":"The 30% calculation annualizes the monthly ZORI and divides by 0.30 to show the gross income associated with that arithmetic share. It is not an underwriting result, tenant eligibility test, affordability recommendation, or evidence that a particular household's finances match the ZCTA median. ACS burden data are separate survey evidence.","q":"What does the 30% required-income screen mean?"},{"a":"Redfin provides a direct rolling-three-month ZIP view of completed for-sale activity: sale prices, sold count, days on market, inventory, supply, and sale-to-list outcomes. It does not provide rental transactions or operating expenses. Comparing annual ZORI with median sale price creates only a cross-source screen; it cannot identify cap rate, net return, or property-level economics.","q":"What does the Redfin resale block add?"}],"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 + SAFMR 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