The distinctive decision question in this ZIP market is whether the current broad asking-rent reference can be used responsibly beside household and inventory signals, without mistaking any aggregate for the terms of a particular home. In June 2026, Zillow’s ZIP-level ZORI is $1,523 per month, up 3.39% from a year earlier. This five-digit ZIP label is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and the match to a Census ZCTA; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. It is therefore a current market reference, not a record of a property’s bedroom count, physical attributes, included utilities, mandatory charges, or lease terms.
Household measures place that reference beside a different evidence universe rather than supplying a tenant test. The ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA survey reports median household income of $43,244. Annualizing the ZIP index puts it at 42.3% of that median income, a comparison that neither identifies a renter’s earnings nor describes an actual payment. At a 30% rent-to-income screen, $1,523 per month corresponds arithmetically to $60,920 in annual income. This screen is arithmetic only, not advice and not an applicant qualification rule. Of 28,654 occupied housing units, 15,261 are renter occupied, or 53.3%. ACS reports 8,987 renter households, or 58.9% of renter households, with reported rent burdens at or above that threshold. This observed aggregate describes renter households in the survey, not a particular unit or lease.
Rent measures should not be merged. The same ACS survey puts median gross rent at $1,444; it is a five-year survey measure of occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. The $1,523 June Zillow index is $79, or 5.5%, above that ACS median, but this difference is descriptive, not a measure of change in a common universe. The local FY2026 HUD FMR/SAFMR two-bedroom standard is $1,520, placing ZORI 0.2% higher. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent. Its proximity to ZORI does not establish a market rent for a two-bedroom property, validate an advertised price, or make the HUD standard and Zillow index interchangeable.
The supplied bedroom view is deliberately modelled, not observed. It scales ZIP ZORI through the local HUD ladder to estimate $1,172 for a studio, $1,283 for one bedroom, $1,523 for two bedrooms, $1,824 for three bedrooms, and $2,034 for four bedrooms each month. The underlying HUD ladder runs from $1,170 for a studio to $2,030 for four bedrooms. That pattern shows the relative bedroom scaling embedded in the model; it is not a measured series of bedroom rents. In particular, the match between the modelled two-bedroom figure and ZORI is a construction result, not confirmation that all two-bedroom listings ask that amount.
Housing stock and vacancy data give composition, not unit-level availability. The ZCTA contains 32,744 housing units, with 4,090 vacant, a 12.5% vacancy rate. Among vacancies, 1,213 are designated for rent and 243 for sale; no seasonal vacancies are recorded. Structure classifications count 23,425 single-family units and 1,993 units in large multifamily structures, with the balance in other classifications. These categories neither reveal an advertised rent nor indicate that a vacancy is leasable now, suitable for a given household, or comparable with the blended Zillow index. They also do not indicate the bedroom mix of currently available units.
Broader benchmarks point in a different direction but remain context only. At the City of Philadelphia scope, the rent context is about $1,814, above the ZIP index. At Philadelphia County scope, the rent context is $1,814 and the two-bedroom HUD standard is $1,810. At the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro scope, rent context is $1,928, apartment vacancy is 5.4%, and apartment time on market is 27 days. The city, county, and metro values describe wider geographic scopes, not ZIP conditions, and their rent measures, standards, and apartment metrics should not substitute for a local listing’s terms.
Important limits remain. Zillow is a blended ZIP asking-rent index, ACS is a survey estimate with sampling uncertainty and a different reference period, and HUD figures are administrative standards. The ZCTA-to-delivery-ZIP distinction further limits exact geographic matching. For any property-level decision, verify the advertised base rent, actual bedroom count, availability date, lease duration, included or separately billed utilities, and every required recurring charge. Establish the tenant-paid monthly total before comparing it with any reference. Also confirm the property’s listed geography and avoid inferring availability, rent burden, rent level, or suitability from an index, a survey aggregate, a HUD standard, a vacancy category, or city, county, and metro context.
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow’s ZIP index is a blended, typical asking-rent reference rather than a quote for a particular home. ACS median gross rent describes occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities, while HUD provides an administrative bedroom standard. Their dollar proximity or difference is informative only when timing, covered population, and measure design remain separate.","title":"Current index is not a unit quote"},{"body":"The bedroom ladder is a modelled translation of the overall ZIP index using relative HUD bedroom standards. It displays a consistent scale from studio through larger configurations, but it is not an observed bedroom-rent dataset. A listing can differ because the supplied data do not describe its actual bedroom count, costs, included utilities, condition, lease details, or availability.","title":"Bedroom ladder is modelled"},{"body":"Income, renter share, and reported burden are ACS aggregates for the matched ZCTA, not applicant records. The required-income amount at the stated screen is simple arithmetic from the ZIP index. Reported burden cannot determine whether a particular renter has the same income, whether a listed unit has the same cost, or whether any lease meets a household’s circumstances.","title":"Income and burden are aggregate measures"},{"body":"Vacancy categories and structure counts summarize housing stock rather than an inventory of units available to lease. City, county, and metro figures offer wider-area comparison but cannot replace ZIP evidence. A unit review still requires the advertised base rent, bedroom count, availability timing, utility treatment, lease duration, and mandatory recurring charges.","title":"Vacancy is not a leasing inventory"}],"risks":["Zillow’s index is blended across rental types and does not identify unit amenities, fees, utility treatment, availability, or lease terms; using it as a property quote can produce a misleading comparison.","ACS estimates are from a five-year survey of a statistical ZCTA and have sampling uncertainty. They describe occupied renter homes rather than current advertisements or the income of an applicant.","HUD FMR/SAFMR figures are bedroom-specific administrative standards, not observed asking rents. The modelled bedroom estimates inherit that ladder, so they should not be presented as measured rents for available units.","Vacancy designations and aggregate rent burden do not reveal whether a particular unit is rentable, affordable, or occupied. Broader city, county, and metro data have different geographic scope and may use different measures."],"qa":[{"a":"They answer different questions. Zillow supplies a current ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. ACS supplies a five-year survey result for occupied renter homes that includes selected utilities. HUD supplies an administrative bedroom-specific standard. Combining them into one claimed market rent would erase differences in date, covered population, and measurement design.","q":"Why are Zillow, ACS, and HUD reported separately?"},{"a":"No. They are modelled monthly ZIP estimates made by scaling the ZIP ZORI with the local HUD bedroom ladder. The calculation provides a relative studio-to-four-bedroom pattern, but no supplied dataset observes rents by bedroom for this ZIP. Consequently, the figures cannot establish a listing’s rent or the rent of a typical available unit.","q":"Are the bedroom figures observed rents?"},{"a":"It is the annual household income produced when the monthly ZIP index is treated as 30% of annual household income. It is an arithmetic screen only. It is not advice, not a legal or program eligibility test, and not an applicant qualification rule; actual household income and lease terms are not supplied.","q":"What does required income at 30% mean?"},{"a":"Verify advertised base rent, bedroom count, availability date, lease duration, included utilities, separately billed utilities, and all required recurring charges. Confirm the listing’s geographic designation as well. Those property facts are necessary because the ZIP index, ACS aggregate, HUD standard, vacancy counts, and broader context cannot establish the terms of a specific unit.","q":"What should be checked for a particular 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 crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent 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