ZIP 28025’s current rental signal is firm while its resale signal is softer. Zillow’s June 2026 Observed Rent Index is $1,831, up 3.3% from a year earlier. This is a ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, rather than a lease record or a price for any specified unit. The five-digit label is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and a matched Census ZCTA; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. That distinction matters before attaching either rent or household statistics to a particular address.
The longer Zillow history supports a stable-growth reading, but it is backward-looking measurement rather than a forecast or investment recommendation. Exact same-month growth was 3.3% over one year, 3.1% annualized over three years, and 5.6% annualized over five years. Recent direction therefore confirms the positive multiyear path, although the latest pace remains below the longer five-year rate. Coverage is complete across 127 observations. Monthly ZORI returns annualize to 2.5% variability, indicating relatively limited movement around the trend, while the deepest observed drawdown was 1.8%, showing that the series still had declines. Its balanced national discovery rank was 434 among history-eligible ZIPs; that is a transparent comparison tool, not a performance grade.
The affordability tension begins with non-comparable rent universes. The matched ACS 2024 five-year survey reports median gross rent of $1,244 for occupied renter homes; it includes selected utilities and reflects surveyed occupied homes, not current asking rents. Zillow’s $1,831 index therefore should not be read as a direct replacement for that survey median. Area median household income is $79,545. Dividing the current asking-rent index into a 30% income screen produces $73,240 in required annual income and an asking-rent-to-income ratio of 27.6%. This is arithmetic only, not advice or an applicant qualification rule. Separately, 47.5% of surveyed renter households reported paying at least 30% of income toward rent, a population measure that cannot establish the burden for any individual unit.
Bedroom figures are modelled estimates, not measured bedroom rents. Scaling ZIP ZORI through the local HUD bedroom ladder produces estimates of $1,589 for a studio, $1,666 for one bedroom, $1,831 for two bedrooms, $2,251 for three bedrooms, and $2,861 for four bedrooms. HUD’s two-bedroom fair market rent standard is $1,440, placing the corresponding modelled Zillow-based estimate 27.2% higher. The HUD schedule is an administrative bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent, and it is used here only as the local scaling ladder. A property’s actual bedroom rent can differ because this method neither observes its listing nor controls for condition, utilities, lease terms, or property type.
Housing composition adds context without proving availability. The ZCTA contains 23,430 housing units, of which 20,638 are occupied and 2,792 are vacant, for an 11.9% vacancy rate. There are 6,371 renter-occupied homes, representing a 30.9% renter share of occupied housing. The ACS structure mix is predominantly single-family, with a comparatively small large-multifamily segment. Vacant homes include units classified for rent, but the stock and vacancy measures do not show whether a specific property is available, what it asks, or whether it is suitable for a particular household.
Wider geographies provide context rather than substitutes for the ZIP evidence. Concord city context has median gross rent of $1,451, Cabarrus County context has median gross rent of $1,414, and the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC metro context has a Zillow asking-rent index of $1,750. The city and county figures are broader survey-style gross-rent context, while the metro figure is a broader asking-rent index; neither is a ZIP rental comp. Their relationship to ZIP 28025 is useful for framing the gap between current asking-rent conditions and occupied-home survey rents, but not for inferring a property-level price.
Direct ZIP resale data challenge the otherwise steady rent history. Redfin’s rolling-three-month for-sale observation shows a median sold price of $332,425, down 2.2% year over year, alongside 218 homes sold and a median 51 days on market. Inventory was 234 homes and months of supply stood at 3.3. The average sale-to-list ratio was 98.5%, 15.6% of sales closed above list, and 41.1% went off market within two weeks. These are resale-market signals, not rental transactions. The annualized-ZORI-to-price screening ratio is 6.6%; it is only a cross-source screen, never a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield. Rising asking-rent history contrasts with softer sold prices and below-list sale signals, so the resale evidence prevents treating the rent snapshot as a complete market reading.
The central limit is that every series answers a different question at a different geography or time frame. Zillow tracks asking-rent conditions, ACS describes surveyed occupied renter homes, HUD supplies administrative standards, and Redfin records direct ZIP resale activity. Before relying on a current rent figure, verify the property’s actual asking rent, bedroom count, utilities, lease duration, concessions, availability date, condition, and whether it is a rental or resale listing. For a resale comparison, verify list history, closed-sale details, financing or concession terms, days on market, and active competing listings. Those checks determine whether these aggregate signals apply to the specific property under review.
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow’s ZIP-level asking-rent index increased over the latest year and remained positive across the three-year and five-year same-month comparisons. The recent pace broadly confirms the longer upward path, although it is slower than the five-year annualized change. Complete observation coverage, modest monthly-return variability, and a limited historical drawdown support more confidence in the trend than in any single monthly reading.","title":"Asking rents remain on a positive historical path"},{"body":"The Zillow index is a current typical observed asking-rent measure across rental types, while ACS median gross rent summarizes occupied renter homes over a five-year survey period and includes selected utilities. Their difference should not be interpreted as an automatic rent increase, lease premium, or property-specific spread. The measures have distinct populations, timing, and construction.","title":"Current asking rent and surveyed occupied-home rent are materially different measures"},{"body":"Studio-through-four-bedroom estimates were created by applying the local HUD bedroom ladder to the ZIP Zillow rent index. HUD fair market rent is an administrative standard and not a market asking-rent observation. The resulting bedroom figures are therefore useful for a consistent size-based screen, but they cannot replace current listings, lease data, utility treatment, or property characteristics.","title":"Bedroom estimates are a scaling model, not observed ZIP bedroom rents"},{"body":"Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale data show a lower median sold price year over year, marketing time above an immediate-sale pattern, and average sales below list price. These for-sale observations do not measure rental demand or rental transactions. Still, they create a useful tension with the positive rent history and argue against treating the rent index alone as a complete market signal.","title":"Resale conditions introduce a counterweight to rent stability"}],"risks":["Zillow, ACS, HUD, and Redfin measure different populations, periods, and transaction types. Mixing them without preserving source scope can create false conclusions about a specific unit’s rent, affordability, or market value.","The ACS ZCTA is a statistical approximation rather than a USPS delivery ZIP, and ACS estimates carry survey uncertainty. Household, renter, vacancy, and burden measures should not be treated as precise property-level facts.","The bedroom ladder is modelled from Zillow ZORI and HUD standards rather than observed bedroom-specific listings. Actual rents may diverge because of property condition, utilities, concessions, lease terms, availability timing, and unit type.","Redfin resale metrics are aggregated rolling-three-month for-sale observations. They cannot establish rental economics, net operating results, financing terms, maintenance needs, or the likely outcome for a particular property transaction."],"qa":[{"a":"The measures have different universes. Zillow ZORI is a current ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. ACS median gross rent is a five-year survey estimate for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. The difference does not prove that every current listing is higher than every occupied household’s rent, nor does it identify a property-specific premium.","q":"Why is Zillow asking rent higher than the ACS median gross rent?"},{"a":"No. They are modelled monthly estimates created by scaling the ZIP Zillow rent index through the local HUD bedroom ladder. HUD fair market rent is an administrative bedroom-specific standard, not an asking-rent series. The estimates provide a consistent screening framework, but a listing search and lease review are required to establish actual rent for a bedroom count.","q":"Are the bedroom rent figures actual observed rents for each bedroom count?"},{"a":"It is a backward-looking record of direct Zillow ZIP ZORI observations through the stated endpoint, not a forecast. The one-year, three-year, and five-year changes show whether recent direction aligns with the longer path. Variability and maximum drawdown indicate how much confidence to place in a single current snapshot, while discovery ranks are comparison tools rather than recommendations.","q":"How should the historical rent series be interpreted?"},{"a":"It is simply annualized ZIP ZORI divided by Redfin’s median ZIP sold price, combining two separate source universes for a broad screen. It is not a cap rate, property yield, net return, expected return, or valuation conclusion. Operating expenses, taxes, insurance, vacancy, financing, condition, and actual lease terms are not included.","q":"What does the rent-to-price screening ratio mean?"}],"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 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