At its June 2026 reading, Zillow’s ZIP-level ZORI places typical observed asking rent in 19145 at $1,736 a month, up 5.4% from the same month a year earlier. ZORI is a blended asking-rent index across rental types, so it is not a quote for a particular advertised home. The 19145 label is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and its Census ZCTA match; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. At a 30% rent-to-income screen, that monthly index annualizes to required income of $69,440. The matched ZCTA’s median household income is $71,965, making the arithmetic asking-rent-to-income ratio 28.9%. This screen is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule, and it does not identify whether any household has that income, faces other expenses, or can rent a specific unit.
The ACS 2024 five-year survey offers a different universe: occupied renter homes in the matched ZCTA, rather than current advertised rentals. Its median gross rent is $1,384, a measure that includes selected utilities, and the current Zillow asking-rent index is 25.4% higher. That gap does not make either series incorrect; it reflects differing populations, timing, and rent definitions. HUD’s FY2026 two-bedroom fair market rent standard is $1,800, with the ZIP ZORI at 96.4% of that amount. HUD FMR or SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent, so it should not be treated as a direct lease comparable. Together, the three sources frame different questions about the ZIP’s rental market.
The bedroom view is expressly modelled rather than observed. It scales the ZIP ZORI through the local HUD bedroom ladder, producing modelled monthly estimates of $1,341 for a studio, $1,456 for one bedroom, $1,736 for two bedrooms, $2,083 for three bedrooms, and $2,324 for four bedrooms. These estimates preserve the local HUD size relationship while anchoring the level to Zillow’s all-type asking-rent index. They are not measured bedroom rents, and they cannot establish what a particular unit, building, lease term, utility package, or condition level will command. Their value is as a consistent size-adjustment lens when comparing otherwise unspecified rental options.
The backward-looking history broadly confirms the current upward direction rather than breaking from it. Exact same-month one-year rent growth was 5.4%, compared with 4.2% annualized across three years and 5.0% annualized across five years; the latest pace is above both longer-path measures. History coverage is complete, supporting a more continuous reading of the index rather than one based on isolated observations. The 2.3% annualized monthly-return variability is modest, which lends more confidence to the current ZORI snapshot as an index reading, although not as a property quote. Its maximum drawdown reached 2.7%, showing that even this relatively steady series has experienced retrenchment. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 397 for momentum, 353 for stability, and 72 for the balanced measure. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
The matched ZCTA’s housing and renter profile adds a second tension to the income screen. Renter-occupied homes represent 42.7% of occupied housing, while the overall vacancy rate is 10.5%; 622 vacant homes are classified as available for rent. The housing stock is dominated by single-family structures, with comparatively fewer large multifamily buildings, an important composition distinction from an apartment-only market reading. Among surveyed renter households, 4,131—or 50.3%—reported paying at least 30% of income toward gross rent. Thus, the ZIP-level asking-rent-to-income screen near the area median sits beside a materially higher burden prevalence among occupied renter homes. Neither the vacancy count nor burden share proves availability, affordability, condition, or lease terms for any particular unit.
Wider geographies provide calibration, not substitutes for ZIP evidence: in Philadelphia city context, the asking-rent index is $1,814 and the renter burden share is 52.3%; in Philadelphia County context, the asking-rent index is also $1,814 and the HUD FMR is $1,810; in Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro context, the asking-rent index is $1,928. The ZIP’s current Zillow reading is below each of those context rent benchmarks, while its renter burden share is below the city context figure. Those comparisons should remain scoped to their named city, county, and metro geographies. They are useful for locating 19145 within broader data, but they do not replace the ZIP’s ZORI, ZCTA survey, HUD ladder, or address-level evidence.
Redfin supplies a separate for-sale signal through a direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation, not rental transactions. The median sold price was $301,932, up 4.1% year over year, with 135 homes sold and median marketing time of 56 days. Inventory stood at 201 homes, rising 15.5% from a year earlier, and months of supply measured 4.5. Sale-to-list evidence was less than full-price on average at 97.5%, while 24.5% of sales closed above list. The resale evidence therefore partly confirms the rent history’s positive direction through higher sold prices, yet expanded inventory and below-list average execution challenge an interpretation of uniformly tight conditions. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price equals a 6.9% cross-source screening ratio only; it is not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield.
The principal limitation is that each series answers a different question at a different level of aggregation. Zillow describes typical observed asking rents across rental types; ACS summarizes occupied renter households and selected utilities; HUD defines administrative bedroom standards; and Redfin records ZIP resale activity. A property-level review should verify the actual advertised rent, bedroom count, lease duration, included utilities, concessions, availability date, condition, and recent comparable listings before linking a unit to the modelled ladder. On the resale side, the address-specific sale record, list history, physical condition, and transaction terms require separate review. The useful question is not whether one dataset overrides the others, but which source universe matches the decision being examined.
","findings":[{"body":"The ZIP-level asking-rent index produces a near-median-income arithmetic screen, but the matched ZCTA survey reports that roughly half of renter households are burdened by gross rent. This is a meaningful distinction between a current asking-rent index and a five-year survey of occupied homes. It does not establish affordability for a particular household or unit.","title":"Income screen and renter burden point in different directions"},{"body":"Same-month rent growth over one year exceeds the annualized three-year pace and is slightly above the five-year pace. Complete historical coverage, modest monthly variability, and a limited maximum drawdown make the current index reading more interpretable as a broad market measure. The history remains descriptive and does not provide a forecast of future rents.","title":"Recent rent growth follows the longer historical path"},{"body":"The studio-through-four-bedroom estimates derive from applying the local HUD bedroom ladder to the ZIP ZORI level. They provide a transparent way to express how the broad asking-rent index changes by bedroom count. Because they are modelled, they cannot account for building quality, included utilities, concessions, unit condition, or lease-specific pricing.","title":"Bedroom figures are size-adjusted models, not observed lease medians"},{"body":"Redfin’s direct ZIP resale data show a higher median sold price from the prior year, consistent with the positive rent-history direction. At the same time, inventory increased, marketing time was measured in weeks, and average sale-to-list execution remained below full list price. Those for-sale signals should not be converted into rental demand, property income, or investment-return conclusions.","title":"Resale conditions are positive but not uniformly tight"}],"risks":["Zillow ZORI is a blended asking-rent index across rental types, so it can differ materially from the advertised rent, concessions, utility treatment, condition, and availability of a specific home.","ACS gross rent describes occupied renter homes over a multi-year survey period and includes selected utilities, meaning its median and burden results are not current asking-rent observations.","The modelled bedroom ladder inherits the local HUD size relationship and ZIP ZORI level, but it does not measure actual rents for studios, one-bedroom homes, or larger units.","Redfin resale observations concern homes sold and listed in the for-sale market; neither the sale data nor the rent-to-price screening ratio establishes property-level rental economics."],"qa":[{"a":"They represent different evidence universes. Zillow ZORI is a current ZIP-level index of typical observed asking rents blended across rental types. ACS median gross rent is a five-year survey measure for occupied renter homes in the matched ZCTA and includes selected utilities. Differences in timing, population, utility treatment, and measurement method can all create a gap.","q":"Why does the Zillow asking-rent figure differ from the ACS gross-rent figure?"},{"a":"No. The bedroom figures are modelled monthly estimates created by scaling the ZIP ZORI with the local HUD bedroom ladder. They are useful for a consistent size-adjustment comparison, but they are not observed bedroom-specific lease medians. A specific unit can differ because of condition, utilities, concessions, furnishings, lease structure, and availability.","q":"Are the bedroom estimates measured rents for 19145?"},{"a":"The one-year, three-year, and five-year measurements all show positive historical rent movement, and the latest annual change is above the longer annualized measures. Modest monthly variability and complete coverage support confidence that the snapshot reflects a relatively steady index series. That confidence applies to the broad ZIP index, not to the asking rent of an individual property.","q":"What does the rent-history pattern say about confidence in the current rent snapshot?"},{"a":"It is only annualized ZIP ZORI divided by Redfin’s median sold price in the direct ZIP resale dataset. The calculation combines a broad asking-rent index with a resale price statistic from another source universe. It omits operating costs, financing, taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancies, unit quality, and transaction-specific terms, so it is not a cap rate or return measure.","q":"How should the Redfin rent-to-price screening ratio be interpreted?"}],"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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