The central tension in 27713 is a nearly flat current asking-rent reading alongside a declining direct resale price signal, a cross-source contrast rather than evidence of causation. The five-digit label 27713 is both the Zillow ZIP market identifier and the Census ZCTA match used here; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. At the stated June endpoint, Zillow's ZIP-level ZORI is $1,595 per month, up 0.3% from a year earlier. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, not a lease-specific quote. The ACS 2024 five-year ZCTA median gross rent is $1,540, a survey measure of occupied renter homes that includes selected utilities. The 3.6% gap leaves the figures close in level, but they are not interchangeable.
Wider rental context places the ZIP below several broader geographies: the Durham city-context rent is $1,700, the Durham County context rent is $1,690, and the Durham-Chapel Hill, NC metro-context rent is $1,691. Each is a city, county, or metro measure rather than a ZIP rental comparison sample. The lower ZIP ZORI does not establish that every local unit rents below those broader figures, because its index blends rental types and the context measures operate at different geographic scopes. Still, the contrast makes the current ZIP reading more notable than the slight annual increase alone: 27713 has not moved in step with the higher city, county, and metro context rent levels provided here.
The backward-looking ZORI path shows a recent flattening after a longer expansion. Exact same-month annualized change was 0.3% over one year, 0.01% over three years, and 3.27% over five years. Thus, the current positive but muted direction breaks from the stronger long-run path rather than confirming its earlier pace. Across the observed monthly sequence, annualized return variability was 2.80%, which limits confidence that one current index value represents every timing point or rental type. Separately, the largest peak-to-trough decline was 4.43%, showing that setbacks occurred despite the five-year gain. History coverage is complete, and transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 1,249 for stability and 2,343 for momentum, where lower is higher. These are descriptive discovery measures, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
The bedroom view is a modelled extension of the ZIP index, not a set of measured bedroom rents. Scaling ZIP ZORI through the local HUD ladder produces modelled monthly estimates of $1,318 for a studio, $1,402 for a one-bedroom, $1,595 for a two-bedroom, $1,973 for a three-bedroom, and $2,317 for a four-bedroom. HUD Fair Market Rent or Small Area Fair Market Rent is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than an asking-rent observation. For reference, the local HUD two-bedroom standard is $1,900, so the current ZIP ZORI is about 84% of that standard. The ladder is useful for internally consistent sizing, but it cannot substitute for observed asking rents by bedroom, property condition, lease term, or utility treatment.
The 30% required-income screen converts the current monthly ZORI into $63,800 of annual household income. It is arithmetic only, not affordability advice and not an applicant qualification rule. The matched ACS ZCTA median household income is $100,676, putting the annualized ZORI at 19.0% of that broad household-income benchmark. Yet the ACS burden evidence is less comfortable: 47.1% of renter households, or 4,918 of 10,440, reported spending 30% or more of income on rent. That contrast cautions against treating the ZIP-wide median-income comparison as a statement about renter resources. The burden statistic describes surveyed renter households, and it cannot prove the burden, price, or utility exposure of a particular available unit.
The ACS ZCTA housing inventory totals 26,992 units, with a 4.8% vacancy rate and 744 vacant units classified for rent. Renters occupy 40.6% of occupied housing, while the structure mix includes 18,169 single-family units and 1,980 units in large multifamily structures. Those counts indicate a housing base that is not exclusively apartment stock, which matters when interpreting an all-types rent index. Wider vacancy figures remain context only: the city and county use broader housing scopes, while the metro figure is specifically apartment vacancy. Neither the ZIP vacancy rate nor the count vacant for rent establishes actual availability, concessions, condition, or rent for any particular property.
Redfin's direct rolling ZIP resale observation belongs entirely to the for-sale market, not rental transactions. In its stated rolling window, the median sold price was $439,901, down 4.36% year over year; 242 homes sold with a median 18 days on market. Reported inventory was 180 homes and months of supply was 2.3. Sale-to-list signals were also mixed but active: average sale-to-list was 99.41%, 26.83% of sales closed above list, and 49.16% went off market within a fortnight. The annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price is a 4.35% cross-source screening ratio only, not a cap rate, property yield, net return, or expected return. The resale price decline challenges a simple reading of rent-history stability, while the short marketing time and limited supply resist a simplistic weak-market conclusion.
Several limits remain material. ZORI is an aggregated asking-rent index, ACS is a five-year survey with sampling uncertainty, HUD is an administrative standard, and Redfin describes a rolling resale window rather than rental economics. Before relying on any ZIP-level screen, confirm that the address falls within the relevant ZIP and recognize that this still may not map precisely to the ZCTA. Check the actual listed rent, bedroom count, lease duration, utility inclusions, concessions, availability date, unit condition, and comparable active listings. For a resale review, examine property-specific sales, condition, list-to-sale terms, and timing without treating them as rental comps. Does the specific unit's documented lease and condition fit the muted rent path while remaining consistent with the separate resale evidence?
","findings":[{"body":"ZIP-level Zillow ZORI is $1,595, only 0.3% above its prior-year value. That sits below the Durham city-context rent of about $1,700, Durham County context rent of $1,690, and Durham-Chapel Hill metro context rent of $1,691. These comparisons provide scale only because each broader measure has a different geographic scope from the ZIP index.","title":"Current asking rent is below broader rental context"},{"body":"Same-month annualized ZORI change was 3.27% over five years but only 0.01% over three years and 0.3% over one year. This is a historical flattening, not a forecast. Monthly-return variability and the prior drawdown mean a single current ZORI snapshot should be treated as a blended indicator rather than a precise rent quote.","title":"Longer rent growth has given way to near-flat movement"},{"body":"The arithmetic income screen for current ZORI is $63,800 at 30% of income, below the ACS ZCTA median household income of $100,676. However, 47.1% of surveyed renter households were rent burdened at 30% or more. The median-income comparison therefore cannot substitute for renter-specific affordability evidence or applicant-level qualification analysis.","title":"Broad income comparison and renter burden point in different directions"},{"body":"The direct ZIP Redfin resale record shows a $439,901 median sold price, down 4.36% year over year, while homes sold in a median 18 days and supply was 2.3 months. That combination complicates any simple interpretation of the flat rent history. The 4.35% rent-price figure is only a cross-source screening ratio, not property economics.","title":"Resale pricing declined despite relatively quick sales conditions"}],"risks":["Zillow ZORI blends observed asking rents across rental types and does not identify the rent, concessions, utilities, lease length, availability, or condition of a particular unit in the ZIP.","ACS ZCTA statistics are five-year survey estimates for a statistical area rather than a USPS delivery ZIP, and their gross-rent and burden measures cannot be assigned to an individual property or household.","HUD bedroom standards are administrative benchmarks rather than market asking rents, so the bedroom ladder is modelled from ZORI and should not be read as measured local rents.","Redfin's rolling ZIP resale data measures for-sale transactions only; sale prices, marketing time, supply, and sale-to-list signals do not establish rental demand, net economics, or future performance."],"qa":[{"a":"Zillow ZORI is a ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. ACS median gross rent is a five-year survey statistic for occupied renter homes in the matched ZCTA and includes selected utilities. Different geography, timing, occupancy status, utility treatment, and measurement design mean the two figures are useful side by side but are not substitutes.","q":"Why do Zillow ZORI and ACS median gross rent differ?"},{"a":"No. The studio through four-bedroom figures are modelled monthly estimates created by scaling the ZIP ZORI using the local HUD bedroom ladder. HUD Fair Market Rent or Small Area Fair Market Rent is an administrative bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent. Actual unit rents may differ because the model does not observe property condition, lease terms, included utilities, or concessions.","q":"Are the bedroom figures observed rents for 27713?"},{"a":"Redfin supplies a direct rolling ZIP for-sale observation, including sold-price movement, transaction count, marketing time, inventory, months of supply, and sale-to-list signals. It provides a separate resale-market lens, not rental comps. The lower median sold price contrasts with the near-flat rent index, while relatively quick marketing and limited supply prevent a one-dimensional interpretation of that contrast.","q":"What does the resale data add to the rent analysis?"},{"a":"Confirm the exact address geography, advertised rent, bedroom count, lease duration, utility inclusions, concessions, move-in timing, and physical condition. Compare those facts with currently available comparable rentals rather than relying on the blended ZORI alone. If reviewing a purchase or sale, separately inspect property-specific resale comparables, condition, listing terms, and transaction timing without converting the rent-price screen into a return measure.","q":"What should be checked at the property level before using this report?"}],"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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