The distinctive decision question for 19702 is whether a current ZIP-wide rent signal can be used as a starting benchmark without mistaking it for the price of a particular bedroom count, building, or listing. The 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 June 2026, Zillow’s ZORI was $1,876 per month, up 2.86% year over year. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, so it is an active-market reference rather than a quotation for a specific available home. The decision turns on how this index compares with other rent universes and on which property-level details remain unobserved.
The matched Census ZCTA’s ACS 2024 five-year median gross rent was $1,645, with a $45 90% margin of error. ACS is a five-year survey of occupied renter homes, and its gross-rent concept includes selected utilities; it is neither a current asking-rent series nor a measure of new leases. Zillow’s index is 14.04% above that survey median. This is a contrast in timing, population, and rent definition—not a directly observed price change. Separately, the supplied FY2026 HUD two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR standard is $1,930. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent. The ZIP ZORI equals 97.20% of that standard. Zillow, ACS, and HUD therefore answer related but noninterchangeable questions.
Income and burden add a separate household lens, without turning the ZIP index into an applicant test. Applying a 30% rent-share screen to the $1,876 monthly ZORI yields a required annual income of $75,040; that is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule. The ZCTA’s median household income was $92,446, with a $6,176 margin of error, and the resulting asking-rent-to-income calculation is 24.35%. That income statistic is an overall ZCTA household measure and cannot identify renter or applicant income. Renters represented 39.82% of occupied homes. ACS observed 3,358 of 8,463 renter households, or 39.68%, paying at least 30% of income toward gross rent; the burdened count’s sampling error should remain in view. The burden measure describes occupied survey households, not the cost or affordability of a particular available unit.
Bedroom sizing can be made internally consistent only through a model, not by relabeling the index as observed rent. Scaling ZIP ZORI through the supplied local HUD ladder produces modelled monthly estimates of $1,448 for a studio, $1,575 for one bedroom, $1,876 for two bedrooms, $2,245 for three bedrooms, and $2,508 for four bedrooms. These values preserve the local HUD ladder’s bedroom relationship. They are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents. A live property can differ because ZORI is blended across rental types while the HUD ladder is an administrative standard. The estimates offer a consistent sizing framework, not evidence that any listing is offered at the displayed amount.
Area stock and vacancy provide composition context, but not a listing inventory. The ACS reports 21,981 housing units in the ZCTA and 729 vacant units, for a 3.32% overall vacancy rate. Among vacant homes, 436 were classified for rent, 49 for sale, and 52 for seasonal use. Single-family units made up 69.04% of the stock, while large multifamily units made up 5.99%. These are area-level classifications rather than a count of currently rentable, appropriately sized, or competitively priced homes. In particular, a vacant-for-rent designation does not reveal condition, concession, utilities, lease terms, or date of availability. It cannot prove that a relevant option exists for any particular household.
Broader comparisons are context only and do not recalibrate the ZIP result. At the City of Newark scope, the context rent was about $2,113; at the New Castle County scope, the context rent was $1,940; and at the Philadelphia-Camden-Wilmington, PA-NJ-DE-MD metro scope, the context rent was $1,928. Each sits above the ZIP-level index, with the city figure highest among the three wider scopes. Scope must remain explicit: city values aggregate Newark, county values aggregate New Castle County, and metro values aggregate the named multistate metro. None measures a building or listing in 19702. These comparisons offer a wider reference frame, not a substitution for ZIP evidence or a reason to merge Zillow, ACS, and HUD definitions.
Important limits remain at property level. ZORI is a ZIP-level blended index, ACS is a multiyear survey with margins of error, and HUD ladder values are administrative standards; none identifies a property’s present rent. For a specific home, check the current advertised monthly rent, exact bedroom count, unit and property type, included or separately billed utilities, lease term, concessions, availability date, and whether its geographic label matches the market area used here. Distinguish any landlord or program rule from the arithmetic income screen, and determine whether the advertised number is gross rent or excludes utilities. Those checks establish the listing-specific amount and terms that area statistics cannot supply.
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow’s June 2026 ZORI for 19702 is $1,876 monthly and rose 2.86% year over year. It is a ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. That makes it useful as a current aggregate reference but insufficient to state the rent, condition, or availability of any particular listing.","title":"Current ZIP asking-rent signal"},{"body":"ACS 2024 five-year median gross rent is $1,645, while the FY2026 HUD two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR is $1,930. ACS covers occupied renter homes and selected utilities; HUD is an administrative bedroom standard. Neither value should be substituted for Zillow’s asking-rent index, even though the Zillow figure lies between them.","title":"Separate rent benchmarks"},{"body":"Using the local HUD ladder, ZIP ZORI scales to modelled monthly estimates from $1,448 for a studio to $2,508 for four bedrooms, with $1,876 for two bedrooms. The ladder is not a bedroom-rent survey. It standardizes a comparison across sizes but cannot verify the asking rent of a live home.","title":"Modelled bedroom framework"},{"body":"ACS reports renters in 39.82% of occupied homes, with 39.68% of renter households at or above the gross-rent burden threshold. The ZCTA vacancy rate is 3.32%, including 436 units classified as vacant for rent. These area statistics do not establish affordability or availability for a specific unit.","title":"Observed renter pressure and inventory"}],"risks":["Treating a blended ZIP asking-rent index as a property quotation risks false precision because bedroom mix, type, condition, utilities, concessions, lease terms, and current availability are not observed in that index.","The ACS survey describes occupied renter homes over a five-year reporting framework and has sampling uncertainty, so it can diverge from recent asks without either source being wrong or directly comparable.","HUD bedroom standards support consistent modelling but are administrative figures rather than collected listing rents; reliance on the ladder alone could obscure differences between a modelled figure and a live advertisement.","Vacancy classifications and renter burden are area aggregates. They cannot demonstrate that any particular unit is rentable, matches a household’s needs, carries the same utilities treatment, or meets program or landlord terms."],"qa":[{"a":"Zillow ZORI summarizes typical observed asking rents at the ZIP market level and blends rental types. It does not identify one building, bedroom count, utility package, lease length, concession, condition, or an available unit’s move-in date. A listing must be checked independently before its terms can be compared with the index.","q":"Why cannot the ZIP ZORI be treated as a quoted rent for a specific home?"},{"a":"ACS median gross rent comes from the matched ZCTA’s five-year survey of occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. HUD FMR/SAFMR is a fiscal-year, bedroom-specific administrative standard. Zillow measures typical observed asking rents. The series cover different populations, timing, and definitions, so comparison should preserve those separate evidentiary universes rather than blend them.","q":"How should the ACS median gross rent and HUD standard be read alongside Zillow?"},{"a":"Each studio-through-four-bedroom amount scales the ZIP ZORI using the supplied local HUD ladder. The process applies the ladder’s relative bedroom pattern to a blended ZIP-wide index; it does not observe separate bedroom listings. These are modelled estimates and may differ from a property’s actual current asking rent for reasons not measured in the packet.","q":"How were the bedroom numbers produced?"},{"a":"The figure annualizes the ZIP ZORI and divides it by the stated rent-share screen. It is arithmetic only, not advice, a qualification rule, or evidence about anyone’s income. ACS rent burden instead describes surveyed occupied renter households; neither calculation can establish affordability, approval, or terms for a particular currently available home.","q":"Does the required-income figure determine what an applicant can afford or qualify for?"}],"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":"2024-05-01","rent":1730.143259},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1751.367121},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1770.772525},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1775.150162},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1804.700431},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1810.770738},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1814.690768},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1810.245336},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1809.751914},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1801.708292},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":1814.197985},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1819.698793},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1823.628173},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1823.591977},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1837.06271},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1836.221331},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1836.061429},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1838.254124},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1839.170993},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1847.170851},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":1846.118406},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":1862.497888},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":1868.451543},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":1874.967262},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":1875.862434}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":25,"firstPeriod":"2024-05-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":26,"coverageRatio":0.9615384615384616,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1823.628173,"endRent":1875.862434,"change":0.028643043452257322,"cagr":0.028643043452257322}},"maxDrawdown":-0.007154098223747574,"annualizedVolatility":null,"consecutiveReturnCount":23}}