For the 04240 Lewiston label, the decision question is whether the present asking-rent benchmark is being read as a current market signal rather than as the rent of a specific available home. This five-digit label is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and a Census ZCTA match; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. In 2026-06, Zillow’s ZIP-level ZORI was $1,480 per month, up 3.8% from a year earlier. It is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, so the figure is most useful as a broad current benchmark. The year-over-year movement shows the index changed, but neither it nor the ZIP label identifies a unit’s condition, utilities, lease terms, or availability.
Household income and renter evidence frame the size of the screen while staying separate from any applicant assessment. In the matched Census ZCTA’s ACS 2024 five-year data, median household income was $55,393. Dividing the $1,480 monthly index into an annual 30% screen yields $59,200 of required income; that is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule. The same calculation puts the index at 32.1% of median household income before considering household composition, taxes, debts, or included charges. Renter households accounted for 7,863 occupied housing units, or 48.8% of occupied units. Among those observed renter households, 3,861, or 49.1%, reported gross-rent burdens at or above 30%; this is an ACS population-level observation, not evidence that any particular unit or prospective renter is burdened.
The rent series differ in what they count and should not be blended. The matched Census ZCTA’s ACS median gross rent was $986, a five-year survey estimate for occupied renter homes that includes selected utilities. It was $494, or 50.1%, below the current ZORI, a gap that compares different timing, occupancy, and rent concepts rather than proving a change for a comparable home. HUD’s FY2026 two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR standard was $1,586. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent; the ZIP ZORI sat 6.7% below that two-bedroom standard, but the ZORI itself is blended across rental types. These references answer different questions: current typical asking conditions, surveyed occupied-home gross rent, and program-standard benchmarks.
Bedroom detail is supplied only as a model, not as a survey of observed bedroom rents. Scaling the ZIP ZORI with the local HUD bedroom ladder produces modelled monthly ZIP estimates of $1,064 for a studio, $1,137 for one bedroom, $1,480 for two bedrooms, $1,913 for three bedrooms, and $2,151 for four bedrooms. The increasing ladder expresses the HUD-relative size pattern around the blended ZORI; it does not establish what a listed, leased, renovated, utility-included, or available unit rents for. Its chief decision use is to make the size assumption explicit. A comparison involving a particular bedroom count should instead inspect that property’s advertised rent, fees, included utilities, and lease terms.
The housing inventory provides a composition check, not a listing count. The matched Census ZCTA contained 17,105 housing units, with 16,099 occupied and 1,006 vacant, for a 5.9% overall vacancy rate. Of all vacant units, 129 were classified for rent and 99 as seasonal, so the overall rate combines categories with different potential relevance to a renter’s search. The stock included 7,671 single-family units and 1,024 large-multifamily units, but these counts do not reveal their tenure, price, condition, or current availability. Neither the vacant-for-rent count nor any burden measure proves the supply, affordability, or suitability of a particular unit.
Wider geographies offer context but are not substitutes for ZIP evidence. In the Lewiston city context, the asking-rent index was $1,479.75, essentially aligned with the ZIP benchmark. In Androscoggin County context, the asking-rent index was $1,522. In the Lewiston-Auburn, ME metro context, the asking-rent index was also $1,522 and the two-bedroom HUD standard was $1,586. The city, county, and metro values are wider-area references rather than values that can be assigned to the ZIP or to a specific rental. Their close or differing levels provide comparison points, but they do not change the distinct definitions of Zillow asking rent, ACS gross rent, or HUD administration standards.
Important limits remain. The ACS figures are ZCTA five-year estimates and carry the reported margins of error. Zillow is an index rather than a tabulation of leases, and HUD standards serve administration rather than observed asking-rent measurement. Before interpreting any property, check the exact advertised base rent, bedroom count and square footage, whether utilities are included, every recurring or one-time fee, deposit, lease length, availability date, income rule, and the landlord’s stated screening and occupancy terms. Those checks anchor a property decision in the unit rather than in broad ZIP, ZCTA, or wider-area reference measures.
","findings":[{"body":"The June 2026 ZIP ZORI is $1,480, up 3.8% year over year. Against the ZCTA’s $55,393 median household income, the 30% annualized screen is $59,200 and the resulting ratio is 32.1%. This is a standardized arithmetic comparison; it neither describes a renter’s finances nor sets an eligibility threshold.","title":"Current index and income screen"},{"body":"ACS median gross rent represents occupied renter homes over a five-year survey period and includes selected utilities, while ZORI reflects current typical observed asking rents across rental types. The FY2026 HUD FMR/SAFMR amount is a bedroom-specific administrative standard. The $986 ACS median, $1,480 ZORI, and $1,586 two-bedroom HUD value are parallel references, not interchangeable rents.","title":"Three rent references answer different questions"},{"body":"Studio through four-bedroom values of $1,064, $1,137, $1,480, $1,913, and $2,151 are modelled ZIP estimates constructed by scaling ZORI with local HUD relationships. They disclose the assumed bedroom pattern, but they are not measured bedroom rents or evidence of a property’s asking price. Actual comparisons need the particular unit’s listed rate and terms.","title":"Bedroom ladder is modelled"},{"body":"The ZCTA’s 7,863 renter households made up 48.8% of occupied homes, and 49.1% of that observed renter group had gross-rent burdens of at least 30%. The inventory also had 1,006 vacant units, only 129 classified for rent. These aggregate observations describe populations and categories; they cannot establish a household’s burden or a unit’s availability.","title":"Renter and vacancy measures are aggregate"}],"risks":["Zillow’s current ZIP asking-rent index, the ACS ZCTA five-year occupied-home survey, and HUD administrative standards use different universes; treating their gaps as the rent for one comparable unit risks a false comparison.","The ZIP label is matched to a Census ZCTA for this report, but a ZCTA is statistical rather than a USPS delivery ZIP; address-level geography and postal coverage need separate verification.","Overall vacancy includes for-rent, seasonal, for-sale, and other classifications, so it cannot establish that a suitable property is available, affordable, legally rentable, or offered on a particular date.","The bedroom figures are HUD-ladder modelled estimates derived from blended ZORI, not observed bedroom rents; unit-specific price may differ because rent terms, utilities, and property attributes were not provided."],"qa":[{"a":"The $1,480 amount is Zillow’s June 2026 ZORI for the ZIP market. It is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, intended as a broad current benchmark. It is not a quoted rent for an identified home, and it does not state utilities, fees, property condition, or availability.","q":"What does the $1,480 figure represent?"},{"a":"ACS is a matched ZCTA five-year survey of occupied renter homes, and its median gross-rent measure includes selected utilities. ZORI tracks asking rents at a current ZIP-market index level. HUD FMR/SAFMR is instead a bedroom-specific administrative standard. Different timing, units of observation, and included costs make their figures non-interchangeable.","q":"Why does ACS median gross rent differ from ZORI and HUD?"},{"a":"No. The studio through four-bedroom figures scale the blended ZIP ZORI by the local HUD ladder, producing a consistent modelled pattern. They are not measured asking rents, lease rents, or survey medians for bedroom categories. A real listing can differ because its specific rent terms and included charges are not contained in the model.","q":"Are the bedroom figures measured local rents?"},{"a":"Check the advertised base rent, bedroom count, square footage, included utilities, every recurring and one-time fee, deposit, lease length, availability date, and stated occupancy and income terms. These item-level details determine what is actually offered and prevent broad ZIP, ZCTA, county, city, or metro references from being mistaken for the property’s terms.","q":"Which property-specific details matter before interpreting a listing?"}],"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 FY2026","pulledAt":"2026-07-26","url":"https://www.huduser.gov/portal/datasets/usps_crosswalk.html"},{"key":"realtor_county","name":"Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory","release":"county inventory 2026-06","pulledAt":"2026-07-28","url":"https://www.realtor.com/research/data/"},{"key":"redfin","name":"Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts","release":"metro tracker through 2026-05-01","pulledAt":"2026-07-26","url":"https://www.redfin.com/news/data-center/"},{"key":"redfin_zip","name":"Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supply","release":"ZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-03","pulledAt":"2026-08-12","url":"https://www.redfin.com/news/data-center/"},{"key":"zillow_county","name":"Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents","release":"county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06","pulledAt":"2026-07-26","url":"https://www.zillow.com/research/data/"},{"key":"zillow_zori","name":"Zillow ZORI — metro market rents","release":"Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv","pulledAt":"2026-07-26","url":"https://www.zillow.com/research/data/"},{"key":"zillow_zori_city","name":"Zillow ZORI — city market rents","release":"zillow_zori_city.csv","pulledAt":"2026-07-29","url":"https://www.zillow.com/research/data/"},{"key":"zillow_zori_zip","name":"Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents","release":"ZORI ZIP 2026-06","pulledAt":"2026-08-08","url":"https://www.zillow.com/research/data/"}],"history":[{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":1313.752985},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":1328.103146},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1327.564533},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1328.001959},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1339.517915},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1352.910846},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1369.709239},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":1380.377436},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1393.471641},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1386.314338},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1379.912601},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1387.266009},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1416.714169},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1433.291968},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1411.769991},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1425.90821},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1440.189376},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1436.703848},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1430.292157},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1420.323549},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1436.395678},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1459.995688},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1468.394929},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":1445.715228},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":1441.739109},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":1444.92143},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":1482.255852},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":1479.75}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":28,"firstPeriod":"2024-02-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":29,"coverageRatio":0.9655172413793104,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1425.90821,"endRent":1479.75,"change":0.037759646534330615,"cagr":0.037759646534330615}},"maxDrawdown":-0.018153031908216266,"annualizedVolatility":0.03237815296462725,"consecutiveReturnCount":26}}