ZIP 27107’s latest Zillow ZORI is $1,716 per month, up 4.38% from the same month a year earlier. Zillow ZORI is a ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, so it is useful for tracking the asking market but is not a lease-specific quote. The Winston-Salem city context is $1,537, the Forsyth County context is $1,579, and the Winston-Salem, NC metro context is $1,564; each is a wider-scope comparator rather than direct ZIP evidence. The ZIP reading sits above all three context measures, establishing a current asking-rent premium without identifying which property types, lease terms, or utilities drive that difference.
The matched Census ZCTA provides a distinctly different evidence universe. In the ACS 2024 five-year survey, median gross rent was $883 for occupied renter homes, and gross rent includes selected utilities. That survey figure is 94.3% below the current Zillow asking-rent index, a gap that reflects differences in timing, housing covered, and methodology rather than a contradiction between sources. A ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. ACS results therefore describe surveyed occupied households in the matched ZCTA, not current listings or the rent that any specific available unit will command.
The bedroom view is a model, not a direct ZIP rent survey. Scaling the ZIP ZORI by the local HUD bedroom ladder produces modelled monthly estimates of $1,401 for a studio, $1,511 for one bedroom, $1,716 for two bedrooms, $2,267 for three bedrooms, and $2,692 for four bedrooms. The local HUD FMR or SAFMR ladder runs from $890 for a studio to $1,710 for four bedrooms. HUD values are administrative bedroom-specific standards, not asking rents. Accordingly, the scaled figures are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents, and they are most useful for comparing relative bedroom steps within this ZIP.
An arithmetic 30% income screen places the current $1,716 monthly asking index at a required annual income of $68,640. The ACS median household income is $60,729, so the ZIP-level income benchmark is below that screen. This calculation is not advice, an applicant qualification rule, or evidence about any household’s actual budget. Separately, ACS reports that 43.8% of renter households paid at least 30% of income toward rent. That burden measure is a retrospective survey result for occupied renters; it cannot establish that a particular unit is unaffordable, nor can it show how a new tenant’s income or utility responsibility compares.
Housing-stock evidence adds another constraint on interpretation. The matched ZCTA’s overall vacancy rate is 7.1%, while the stock is heavily weighted toward single-family structures, with 16,803 such units compared with 458 units in large multifamily buildings. Those counts describe the survey-period housing base, not a current count of market-ready rentals. Vacant-for-rent housing totaled 204 units in the ACS tabulation, but that category does not reveal current asking prices, condition, bedroom count, concession terms, or whether a unit remains available. The vacancy and stock figures are therefore context for the composition of housing, not proof of options for a specific renter.
The rent history shows continued growth, but a slower recent pace than the longer record. Exact same-month ZORI changes annualized to 4.38% over 1 year, 5.53% over 3 years, and 6.90% over 5 years. Recent direction therefore confirms the positive longer path rather than breaking from it, while also tempering a reading based solely on the stronger multiyear rates. The series has 100% coverage of its available span. Annualized monthly-return variability of 2.85% suggests a relatively contained historical range of month-to-month index movement, and the worst peak-to-trough drawdown was 1.64%. That continuity gives more confidence in the series trend than in any single rent snapshot. Momentum and stability discovery ranks were 373 and 1,350 nationally among history-eligible ZIPs, where lower ranks place higher; these are transparent backward-looking discovery measures, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
The direct ZIP resale observation introduces a useful tension. In Redfin’s rolling-three-month for-sale dataset, median sold price was $304,931, up 8.9% year over year, with 151 homes sold and a median 40 days on market. Inventory stood at 186 homes and months of supply at 3.7. The average sale-to-list ratio was 98.04%, while 19.07% of sales closed above list price. These are resale-market signals, not rental transactions or rental comparables. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price produces a 6.753% cross-source screening ratio only; it is not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield. Resale price growth exceeded the latest asking-rent increase in this interval, which challenges any simple interpretation of stable rent growth as a complete affordability or acquisition screen.
Important limits remain across every dataset. Zillow tracks blended asking-rent observations, ACS describes surveyed occupied homes, HUD supplies administrative standards, and Redfin captures completed ZIP resale activity. Neither a vacancy category nor a renter-burden statistic proves anything about a particular home, tenant, or lease. Decision-useful property-level checks include the actual advertised rent and date, bedroom count, included utilities, recurring fees, concessions, lease term, availability status, and condition. For a for-sale question, the relevant checks are the specific property’s sale record, list history, contract terms, and physical characteristics rather than the ZIP median alone. The unresolved issue is whether the individual unit’s current terms resemble the broad indicators at all.
","findings":[{"body":"The ZIP-level Zillow asking-rent index is above the named Winston-Salem city, Forsyth County, and Winston-Salem metro context measures. This identifies a current ZIP premium in Zillow’s blended asking-rent universe, but it does not show whether the premium is concentrated in a bedroom tier, property type, lease structure, or utility arrangement.","title":"Current asking rents exceed wider-area context"},{"body":"ACS median gross rent is far below the Zillow index because the sources answer different questions. ACS is a five-year survey of occupied renter homes in the matched ZCTA and includes selected utilities, while Zillow tracks typical observed asking rents. The difference is decision-relevant, but it cannot be read as a direct before-and-after rent change.","title":"ACS occupied-renter rent is materially lower than current asking rent"},{"body":"The one-year asking-rent change remains positive, so the recent path does not reverse the multiyear trend. However, it is below the annualized three- and five-year changes. Complete series coverage, limited monthly variability, and a shallow historical drawdown support continuity in the index record, while not making an individual listing price certain.","title":"History remains positive but recent growth is less rapid"},{"body":"Redfin’s direct ZIP resale evidence shows year-over-year median sale-price growth above the current Zillow asking-rent increase. Inventory, marketing time, supply, and sale-to-list statistics remain for-sale-market observations only. The annualized rent-to-price figure is therefore a cross-source screening ratio, not a measure of a property’s operating economics or return.","title":"Resale appreciation outpaced the latest asking-rent increase"}],"risks":["The Zillow index is blended across rental types and reflects asking rents, so a specific unit’s advertised price, included utilities, concessions, availability, and lease duration may differ materially from the ZIP-level reading.","ACS ZCTA survey measures are backward-looking estimates for occupied households and are not equivalent to USPS delivery ZIP boundaries. Their renter-income, gross-rent, burden, and vacancy results cannot identify current conditions at an individual address.","HUD bedroom standards are administrative benchmarks rather than observed market rents. The bedroom figures here inherit ZIP ZORI and local HUD ladder assumptions, so they should not be treated as measured rents for comparable units.","Redfin resale data concern completed for-sale transactions rather than rental transactions. Median price, supply, and sale-to-list signals may describe the ZIP resale market without establishing a property’s rent, expenses, financing terms, or investment outcome."],"qa":[{"a":"The measures cover different populations and periods. Zillow ZORI is a current typical observed asking-rent index across rental types, whereas ACS median gross rent comes from a five-year survey of occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. The ACS geography is a matched statistical ZCTA, not a USPS delivery ZIP.","q":"Why is the Zillow asking-rent index so much higher than ACS median gross rent?"},{"a":"No. They are modelled monthly estimates created by scaling the ZIP-level Zillow asking-rent index with the local HUD bedroom ladder. HUD FMR or SAFMR values are administrative bedroom-specific standards rather than asking rents, so the resulting estimates should not be used as measured bedroom-rent observations.","q":"Are the bedroom rent figures observed rents for this ZIP?"},{"a":"No. The screen is arithmetic: it annualizes the current ZIP asking-rent index and divides by 30%. It is not lending, leasing, legal, or tenant advice and does not account for a particular applicant’s verified income, household size, debt, utilities, fees, subsidies, or property-specific qualification standards.","q":"Does the 30% required-income screen determine whether an applicant qualifies?"},{"a":"It does not measure a property’s return. The figure only divides annualized ZIP Zillow asking rent by Redfin’s ZIP median sold price, combining separate data universes for screening. It excludes operating expenses, vacancy experience, taxes, insurance, maintenance, financing, unit condition, and the property’s actual rental performance.","q":"What does the Redfin rent-to-price screen say about a property’s return?"}],"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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2026-06","pulledAt":"2026-08-08","url":"https://www.zillow.com/research/data/"}],"history":[{"period":"2017-11-01","rent":936.665677},{"period":"2017-12-01","rent":934.678924},{"period":"2018-01-01","rent":937.722093},{"period":"2018-02-01","rent":937.994625},{"period":"2018-03-01","rent":948.85022},{"period":"2018-04-01","rent":955.522796},{"period":"2018-05-01","rent":958.402484},{"period":"2018-06-01","rent":956.511124},{"period":"2018-07-01","rent":951.18359},{"period":"2018-08-01","rent":968.374183},{"period":"2018-09-01","rent":975.318081},{"period":"2018-10-01","rent":967.574061},{"period":"2018-11-01","rent":959.320058},{"period":"2018-12-01","rent":961.108189},{"period":"2019-01-01","rent":981.083079},{"period":"2019-02-01","rent":988.480433},{"period":"2019-03-01","rent":992.168937},{"period":"2019-04-01","rent":988.009179},{"period":"2019-05-01","rent":988.582649},{"period":"2019-06-01","rent":990.65831},{"period":"2019-07-01","rent":1002.092687},{"period":"2019-08-01","rent":997.753229},{"period":"2019-09-01","rent":1001.913682},{"period":"2019-10-01","rent":1013.721743},{"period":"2019-11-01","rent":1026.082016},{"period":"2019-12-01","rent":1032.189012},{"period":"2020-01-01","rent":1024.836921},{"period":"2020-02-01","rent":1027.808953},{"period":"2020-03-01","rent":1037.710265},{"period":"2020-04-01","rent":1042.991466},{"period":"2020-05-01","rent":1043.43994},{"period":"2020-06-01","rent":1064.260332},{"period":"2020-07-01","rent":1091.109516},{"period":"2020-08-01","rent":1112.188724},{"period":"2020-09-01","rent":1124.436895},{"period":"2020-10-01","rent":1139.697191},{"period":"2020-11-01","rent":1136.320669},{"period":"2020-12-01","rent":1134.08822},{"period":"2021-01-01","rent":1127.897153},{"period":"2021-02-01","rent":1135.875492},{"period":"2021-03-01","rent":1149.613065},{"period":"2021-04-01","rent":1179.586354},{"period":"2021-05-01","rent":1212.369532},{"period":"2021-06-01","rent":1229.503199},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":1220.527143},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":1224.174636},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":1247.432706},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":1269.328411},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":1293.590679},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":1301.726849},{"period":"2022-01-01","rent":1310.971419},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":1326.252787},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":1346.537704},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":1356.743874},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":1349.949163},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":1358.072088},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":1383.861283},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":1404.95275},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":1408.69634},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":1406.032135},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":1417.435456},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":1425.725704},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":1449.55729},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":1450.496634},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":1457.699658},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":1445.796321},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":1461.502618},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":1460.593862},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":1474.952542},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":1471.736998},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":1480.321684},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":1479.052349},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":1484.078612},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":1496.329157},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":1509.239858},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":1526.579745},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":1522.571126},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1527.134878},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1525.205253},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1545.425122},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1553.219668},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1558.74553},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":1554.756319},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1579.079967},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1591.516486},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1619.302069},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1622.749882},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1623.298691},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1640.136001},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":1654.765548},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1664.540937},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1644.338808},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1642.918835},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1653.071761},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1667.95424},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1666.949623},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1669.159344},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1657.035336},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1660.533071},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":1669.085147},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":1674.730933},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":1682.467917},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":1692.062985},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":1716.397436}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":104,"firstPeriod":"2017-11-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":104,"coverageRatio":1,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1644.338808,"endRent":1716.397436,"change":0.04382225101628823,"cagr":0.04382225101628823},"3":{"years":3,"startPeriod":"2023-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1460.593862,"endRent":1716.397436,"change":0.17513668970902474,"cagr":0.05526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