At June 2026, Zillow’s ZIP-level ZORI for 19128 was $1,821, up 3.4% from a year earlier. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, rather than a lease-level rent comp or a bedroom-specific asking-rent series. The Philadelphia city context rent and Philadelphia County context rent were each $1,814, while the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro context rent was $1,928. The 19128 label is both a Zillow ZIP market identifier and a matched Census ZCTA; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP.
The historical path is positive but not uniformly accelerating. Exact same-month Zillow ZORI changes were 3.4% over one year, 2.7% over three years, and 4.2% over five years. Thus, the latest gain is stronger than the intermediate trend but below the longer-run annualized pace: recent direction confirms rent growth rather than breaking from it, while not restoring the full five-year rate. Coverage was 100% across the supplied history. Monthly rent changes produced 1.5% annualized variability, indicating a relatively narrow range of month-to-month movement; the worst peak-to-trough drawdown was 1.4%, which limits but does not eliminate snapshot risk. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 956 for momentum, 12 for stability, and 193 for the balanced measure, where lower ranks are stronger. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
Source differences explain why the current index should not be compared as if every rent field measured the same thing. The matched ACS 2024 ZCTA five-year survey reported median gross rent of $1,673 for occupied renter homes; gross rent includes selected utilities and is not an asking-rent measure. Zillow’s index sits 8.8% above that survey median, a gap that may reflect differing populations, timing, rental mix, and utility treatment rather than a direct market premium. HUD’s FY2026 two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR standard is $2,060, placing ZIP ZORI 11.6% below it. HUD is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard, not observed asking rent.
The bedroom figures are modelled estimates constructed by scaling ZIP ZORI with the local HUD bedroom ladder, not measured bedroom rents. The resulting monthly ladder is $1,406 for a studio, $1,529 for one bedroom, $1,821 for two bedrooms, $2,183 for three bedrooms, and $2,440 for four bedrooms. An annual income of $72,840 corresponds arithmetically to a 30% rent screen using the $1,821 monthly index. That screen is not advice and not an applicant qualification rule. Relative to the ZCTA median household income of $93,173, annualized ZIP ZORI equals 23.5% of median income, but this broad household-income comparison does not describe a specific renter household.
Housing composition and renter burden add a second layer of caution. The ZCTA contains 11,830 units in single-family structures and 3,236 units in large multifamily structures, while renters account for 42.1% of occupied homes. The overall vacancy rate was 5.8%, including 535 units reported vacant for rent. Those stock measures do not establish that a particular unit is available, comparable, affordable, or in similar condition. ACS also reports 2,852 renter households, or 37.6% of renter households in the burden universe, paying at least 30% of household income toward gross rent. That is a survey-based household burden measure, not proof of the cost or affordability of any individual listing.
The direct Redfin rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation describes a for-sale market, not rental transactions. Its median sold price was $399,910, essentially unchanged with a 0.02% year-over-year decline. There were 159 homes sold, with a median 38 days on market. Inventory stood at 130 homes and months of supply measured 2.5. Sale-to-list evidence showed an average sale-to-list ratio of 100.53%, while 43.9% of sales closed above list and 62.6% went off market within two weeks. These resale measures provide ZIP-level transaction and marketing context only; they are not rental comparables, tenant-demand evidence, or property operating results.
One important cross-source tension is that the asking-rent history remains positive while the median resale price was nearly flat year over year. The resale observation also contains active sales and sale-to-list signals, yet it cannot confirm the rent index through rental transactions. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by the Redfin median sold price produces a 5.46% cross-source screening ratio. It is not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield. The contrast means a reader should place more confidence in the documented stability of the rent index than in any claim that current asking rent and resale pricing imply the same market condition.
Several limits remain decisive at property level. Zillow ZORI is an index rather than a unit quote; ACS is a multiyear survey of occupied households; HUD is a standard; and Redfin summarizes completed resales over a rolling period. A unit-specific review would need the advertised rent, availability date, bedroom count, unit type, utility responsibility, concessions, lease term, condition, and comparable current listings. For a purchase-side comparison, the recorded sale date, property characteristics, list history, and whether the observed transaction resembles the subject property also require verification. Which conclusion remains after those unit-level facts are separated from these broader ZIP indicators?
","findings":[{"body":"ZIP ZORI increased over the one-, three-, and five-year lookbacks, with the latest annual gain exceeding the intermediate annualized pace but remaining below the longer-run pace. Full history coverage, low monthly-return variability, and a shallow maximum drawdown support confidence that the index has been stable historically. They do not establish future rent direction or a specific listing’s achievable rent.","title":"Rent growth is steady, not a forecast"},{"body":"Zillow ZORI tracks a typical observed asking-rent index across rental types. ACS median gross rent describes occupied renter homes in a five-year survey and includes selected utilities. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative bedroom-specific standard. The modelled bedroom estimates use the HUD ladder to scale ZORI, so they are planning estimates rather than measured bedroom rents.","title":"The rent fields answer different questions"},{"body":"The direct ZIP resale data show a nearly unchanged median sold price while the asking-rent index posted a positive annual change. Sales volume, marketing time, supply, and sale-to-list measures indicate observed for-sale activity, but they do not measure rental leases or operating expenses. This separation is especially important when interpreting the rent-price screening ratio.","title":"Resale pricing does not mirror the rent path"},{"body":"The ZCTA reports both vacant-for-rent units and a substantial share of renter households paying at least the burden threshold, but neither statistic identifies availability, rent, quality, lease structure, or affordability for a particular property. Housing structure counts also describe the broader stock mix, not the inventory or condition of an individual rental or resale listing.","title":"Vacancy and burden require unit-level follow-up"}],"risks":["Zillow ZORI, ACS gross rent, HUD standards, and Redfin resale data have different populations, time structures, and definitions. Treating them as interchangeable unit-level comparables can overstate precision.","The modelled bedroom ladder inherits both the ZIP-wide ZORI and the local HUD bedroom ratios. It may not match a particular building’s unit mix, utility arrangement, lease term, renovation level, or availability.","Survey-based renter burden and vacancy statistics describe households and housing stock in aggregate. They cannot demonstrate that a specific vacant unit is rentable, affordable to a particular household, or available on stated terms.","The annualized rent-to-price figure omits property-specific price, operating costs, financing, taxes, insurance, maintenance, concessions, and transaction timing. It is only a cross-source screening ratio, not a property return measure."],"qa":[{"a":"The measures are not designed to match. Zillow ZORI is a ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index across rental types, whereas ACS median gross rent is a five-year survey measure for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. Differences in timing, household occupancy, rental mix, and utility treatment can create a gap without proving that one measure is wrong.","q":"Why is the Zillow rent index higher than ACS median gross rent?"},{"a":"No. The bedroom figures are modelled monthly ZIP estimates created by scaling the ZIP-wide Zillow asking-rent index using the local HUD bedroom ladder. They should not be treated as lease quotes, building-specific comparables, or evidence that any currently advertised studio, one-bedroom, or larger unit rents at that exact amount.","q":"Are the bedroom rents observed rents for available units?"},{"a":"It divides annualized ZIP ZORI by the direct ZIP median sold price from Redfin. Because the numerator is a blended asking-rent index and the denominator is a rolling resale-market median, it is useful only as a cross-source screening comparison. It is not a cap rate, net return, expected return, property yield, or estimate of a specific property’s economics.","q":"What does the rent-price screening ratio mean?"},{"a":"Verify the subject unit’s advertised rent, bedroom count, unit type, utility responsibility, lease term, concessions, availability date, and condition against current comparable listings. For a resale comparison, confirm the subject property’s price, characteristics, sale timing, list history, and whether the observed Redfin transactions reasonably resemble the property being evaluated.","q":"What should be checked before applying these ZIP indicators to one property?"}],"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 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