At June 2026, Zillow's typical observed asking-rent index, blended across rental types, is $2,353 per month for 07002. The five-digit label is both Zillow's ZIP market identifier and a matched Census ZCTA label. A ZCTA is a statistical area for Census tabulation, not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. The ACS 2024 five-year survey instead reports a $1,682 median gross rent for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. The asking index is 39.9% above that median. This is a source-universe difference, not a contradiction, a unit-level price gap, or evidence that either measure is wrong.
The direct Zillow ZIP ZORI history describes stable growth with a slower recent pace. Exact same-month annualized changes through the stated endpoint were 3.7% over one year, 4.2% over three years, and 6.0% over five years. The series has complete 100% coverage. Annualized monthly-return variability was 2.3%, and maximum drawdown was -1.9%. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 624 for momentum, 434 for stability, and 172 for balance, where a lower rank is higher. The latest positive rate is below both longer readings, so recent direction confirms rather than breaks the longer upward path while indicating deceleration. The limited recorded variability and drawdown support qualified confidence that one current index snapshot reflects the recent series path, but these are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
The bedroom view is a scaling model rather than a bedroom-rent survey. Scaling the ZIP index through the local HUD ladder produces modelled monthly ZIP estimates of $1,707 for a studio, $1,980 for one bedroom, $2,353 for two bedrooms, $2,882 for three bedrooms, and $3,321 for four bedrooms. Each result keeps the ZIP asking index as its anchor and changes it only according to the local HUD relative bedroom schedule. The FY2026 HUD FMR/SAFMR standard corresponding to that anchor is $2,616, placing the ZIP index at 89.9% of the administrative standard. HUD FMR/SAFMR is a bedroom-specific administrative standard, not asking rent. These are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents, and a listing can differ in features, utilities, lease term, and concessions.
The 30% required-income screen makes the gap between current asking rent and household income concrete without deciding affordability. At 30%, the current ZIP asking index translates arithmetically to $94,120 in required annual income. The ZCTA median household income is $83,887, so the asking-rent-to-income calculation is 33.7%, not a rule for qualifying a renter. Separately, 8,275 of 18,468 ACS renter households, or 44.8%, reported spending at least 30% of income on rent. That burden statistic is an aggregate survey measure and does not prove payment pressure, utility treatment, or affordability for any specific unit. The household-income median is also a broad ZCTA survey statistic rather than an income distribution for current applicants or tenants.
The ACS ZCTA housing-stock snapshot contains 30,786 total units and reports a 6.0% aggregate vacancy rate. Renters make up 63.8% of occupied homes. The stock is classified into single-family and large-multifamily structures, but those categories do not describe property condition, lease terms, or current asking rents. Vacancy is summed across recorded vacant-use categories rather than drawn from a live listing feed. These are cross-sectional survey descriptors, and the packet provides no vacancy trend showing whether aggregate availability has changed. The vacancy rate therefore is not proof that a particular rental is open, attainable, or priced at the ZIP index.
Broad geography supplies context without replacing the ZIP measure. Bayonne city-scope context has an asking-rent figure effectively matching the ZIP index; Hudson County context records $3,072, and the New York-Newark-Jersey City, NY-NJ-PA metro context records $3,573. These city, county, and metro values are wider-scope context only, while the ZIP index remains the direct local asking-rent measure in this packet. Their differences provide a relative frame for the supplied geography, but they cannot be assigned to a property, tenant, or bedroom type. Nor do the contrasts establish a cause for the local rent level or indicate that a ZIP listing should match either broader benchmark.
Several limits prevent a listing-level conclusion. ZORI is an asking-rent index rather than a signed lease quote; ACS is a five-year survey of occupied renter homes; and the HUD ladder is an administrative comparison tool. Before comparing a property with these measures, the written advertised rent, bedroom count, included and separately billed utilities, lease term, recurring fees, concessions, availability date, and eligibility rules should be established. Confirming those facts separates a current property offer from the ZIP index, the ZCTA survey median, and the modelled bedroom ladder. For any listing, do the written rent, bedroom count, utility treatment, term, fees, concessions, availability date, and eligibility rules match the figures being compared?
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow's June asking-rent index for 07002 is $2,353, while the matched ACS ZCTA's five-year median gross rent is $1,682. The 39.9% difference is informative only after preserving definitions: ZORI blends rental types in observed asking rents, whereas ACS summarizes occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. It is not a direct measure of a listing's premium.","title":"Source gap is not a price spread"},{"body":"Across fully covered monthly history, the ZIP recorded positive exact same-month annualized changes at the one-, three-, and five-year horizons. The current rate trails the longer-horizon rates, which is a deceleration within the recorded upward path rather than a reversal. Variability and maximum drawdown describe prior index movement; they do not predict renewal terms, listing prices, or future returns.","title":"Positive history has slowed"},{"body":"The studio through four-bedroom figures are a HUD-ladder scaling exercise centered on the ZIP asking-rent index. The calculation uses administrative relative bedroom standards, so it offers a consistent comparison across bedroom counts. It does not observe rents by bedroom, identify property characteristics, or establish a market median for any bedroom category.","title":"Bedroom values are HUD-scaled estimates"},{"body":"The ZCTA survey shows a renter-majority occupied base and a measured aggregate vacancy rate. These figures provide stock and occupancy context, but their survey geography and broad categories prevent property-level conclusions. City, county, and metro measures serve only as wider-scope benchmarks because their rent levels are not replacements for the direct ZIP asking-rent index.","title":"Stock context does not establish availability"}],"risks":["The Zillow index, ACS gross-rent median, and HUD standards answer different questions; treating their gap as a unit-specific discount, premium, or rent-change measure would overstate what the packet supports.","Bedroom estimates are scaled from the local HUD ladder, so they preserve an administrative relative schedule rather than observed bedroom-specific listings; unit features, utilities, term, and concessions can differ.","The ACS ZCTA is a survey geography and its vacancy and burden statistics are aggregate estimates; they do not establish current availability, payment pressure, or occupancy status for a particular property.","Full history coverage and limited drawdown describe the prior index path only. They cannot establish future rent changes, leasing conditions, returns, or any causal explanation for observed movements."],"qa":[{"a":"It is used as Zillow's ZIP market identifier and as the matched Census ZCTA label in this packet. The ZCTA is a statistical area created for Census tabulation, so it is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. Zillow and ACS figures should therefore be read within their stated geographic and source scopes.","q":"What geography does 07002 represent here?"},{"a":"No. They are modelled estimates created by scaling the ZIP asking-rent index using the local HUD bedroom ladder. They provide a consistent relative schedule from studio through larger-bedroom categories, but they do not measure advertised rents, signed leases, property quality, utility inclusion, or concessions for individual units.","q":"Are the bedroom figures actual market medians?"},{"a":"The required-income figure simply annualizes the current ZIP asking index under a 30% income share. It is arithmetic, not advice, an affordability determination, or an applicant qualification rule. The ACS burden share separately reports survey responses from occupied renter households and cannot determine whether a particular renter or unit is burdened.","q":"How should the required-income and burden figures be interpreted?"},{"a":"Start with the actual written rent, bedroom count, utilities included or billed separately, lease duration, mandatory recurring fees, concessions, availability date, and any eligibility rules. Those facts determine whether a listing resembles the current asking-rent index, differs from the ACS gross-rent concept, or falls outside the assumptions of the HUD-scaled bedroom estimate.","q":"What property-level items should be checked before using these comparisons?"}],"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 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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 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