ZIP 28213 is both a Zillow ZIP market identifier and a Census ZCTA match. A ZCTA is a statistical area, not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP, so its survey results should not be treated as address-level records. The current Zillow ZORI is $1,594 per month, a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types; it is not a lease quote for one dwelling. Its year-over-year movement was only 0.27%, leaving the index below the $1,746 City of Charlotte context, the $1,751 Mecklenburg County context, and the $1,750 Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC metro context. Those named city, county, and metro figures are wider benchmarks, whereas the ZORI observation is ZIP-level.
The historical path indicates stable growth, but it does not support reading the current level as a rapidly rising ask. Exact same-month annualized ZORI changes were 0.27% over one year, 0.19% over three years, and 3.67% over five years. The latest short and medium horizons therefore break from, rather than confirm, the stronger longer path. Monthly ZORI returns showed 2.67% annualized variability, meaning past month-to-month index changes were contained but not immaterial. Separately, the largest observed peak-to-trough drawdown was 3.30%, a bounded historical decline rather than assurance against another one. Coverage was 100% across the available series. Momentum, stability, and balanced ranks were 2,340, 1,002, and 2,020, respectively, in the transparent national history-eligible ZIP discovery set, where lower ranks are higher. These backward-looking measurements strengthen confidence in the recorded path, not a forecast.
Different rental evidence universes produce a material but understandable gap. The matched ACS five-year survey reports $1,444 median gross rent among occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities, unlike Zillow’s current asking-rent index. That survey statistic should not be substituted for a newly advertised asking rent, and its sampling uncertainty also applies. HUD FMR/SAFMR is a bedroom-specific administrative standard rather than asking rent. Scaling ZIP ZORI by the local HUD ladder produces modelled monthly estimates of $1,392 for a studio, $1,453 for one bedroom, $1,594 for two bedrooms, $1,967 for three bedrooms, and $2,492 for four bedrooms. These are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents. The underlying HUD standards range from $1,380 to $2,470, with a two-bedroom standard of $1,580.
The affordability screen is a notable counterweight to the current asking-rent level. At a 30% rent-to-income threshold, $1,594 monthly rent arithmetically corresponds to $63,760 in annual income, compared with ZCTA median household income of $58,146. The same comparison places asking rent at 32.9% of that median income. This is an arithmetic screen, not advice and not an applicant qualification rule; household income, household size, utilities, and actual lease terms can differ. In the ACS renter survey, 5,996 of 10,414 renter households, or 57.6%, reported spending at least 30% of income on gross rent. That burden statistic describes surveyed households in aggregate and cannot prove affordability or burden for a particular available unit.
The matched ACS ZCTA inventory contained 20,924 housing units, with 2,288 vacant units, producing a 10.9% vacancy rate. Renter households represented 55.9% of occupied households, and 1,596 vacant units were classified as for rent. These counts provide useful context for the local stock and its tenure mix, but they do not establish that every vacancy is currently marketed, habitable, comparable by bedroom count, or available at the ZORI level. They also do not reveal concession terms, utility treatment, lease duration, unit condition, or the timing of a specific listing. The vacancy and burden measures are area-level evidence, not proof about any individual home or apartment.
The direct rolling-three-month Redfin ZIP resale observation presents a different market tension. Median sold price was $344,922, up 1.45% year over year, even as short-run asking-rent growth was nearly flat and the income-and-burden screen remained tight. Resale liquidity was not uniformly aggressive: 157 homes sold, median marketing time was 55 days, inventory was 173 homes and rose 10.25%, and months of supply stood at 3.3. The average sale-to-list ratio was 98.23%, while 18.32% of sales closed above list price. These are ZIP for-sale and resale measures, not rental transactions or rental comparables. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price equals 5.55%, but that is only a cross-source screening ratio, not a measure of operating economics, net return, expected return, or a cap rate.
Read together, the evidence shows a ZIP asking-rent index below the named wider rent contexts, a longer historical record that has slowed materially in the recent horizons, and an affordability screen that is tighter than the area median-income comparison. The resale series confirms that sold-price movement was positive, yet its marketing, supply, and sale-to-list signals challenge any simple conclusion that a positive resale price change should be read as strong rental momentum. The observed ZORI path is more reliable as a description of broad asking-rent direction than as a prediction for a specific unit. Likewise, ACS household conditions and Redfin resale liquidity should remain in their separate survey and for-sale evidence universes.
Property-level review should verify the actual advertised rent, bedroom count, lease term, utility responsibility, recurring fees, concessions, availability date, and condition before comparing a listing with the modelled bedroom ladder. For a purchase-related comparison, verify sale date, property type, physical condition, financing or seller-concession effects, and whether selected sales are genuinely comparable. Confirm the address’s ZIP usage separately from the Census ZCTA boundary because the two geographies are not identical. Finally, distinguish an owner’s current asking price from a recorded sold price and distinguish a listing’s rent from Zillow’s blended index. Those checks determine whether these area-level indicators apply to the property under review.
","findings":[{"body":"ZIP-level Zillow ZORI was $1,594, below the supplied City of Charlotte, Mecklenburg County, and Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia metro context rents. The latest annual change was only 0.27%, and the one-year and three-year history measures were much weaker than the five-year rate. The evidence describes a slower recent asking-rent path rather than a rapidly advancing one.","title":"Current rent is below wider rent contexts, but has recently flattened"},{"body":"The arithmetic income level associated with paying the ZIP ZORI at 30% of income exceeds the reported ZCTA median household income. ACS also shows that a majority of surveyed renter households spent at least 30% of income on gross rent. This comparison is informative at the area level, but it does not determine whether a specific applicant or unit is affordable.","title":"Area affordability indicators are tight"},{"body":"The studio-through-four-bedroom figures were created by scaling the ZIP ZORI through the local HUD FMR/SAFMR bedroom ladder. HUD standards are administrative and bedroom-specific, while ZORI is a blended asking-rent index. The resulting ladder is useful for proportional screening, but it should not replace current same-bedroom listings or executed lease evidence.","title":"Bedroom figures are HUD-scaled estimates, not observed rents"},{"body":"Redfin’s direct ZIP resale series showed a year-over-year increase in median sold price, but also showed longer marketing time, expanding inventory, a below-list average sale-to-list ratio, and limited above-list sales. That combination challenges a simple strength narrative. The annualized-rent-to-price figure is only a cross-source screening ratio because it combines an asking-rent index with resale prices.","title":"Resale pricing rose while rental momentum stayed subdued"}],"risks":["Zillow ZORI is a blended typical asking-rent index across rental types, so a specific available home or apartment can differ because of size, condition, fees, utilities, concessions, and lease terms.","ACS gross-rent, income, vacancy, and burden figures are matched-ZCTA survey estimates for aggregate households; the ZCTA is statistical geography and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP.","HUD-scaled bedroom estimates are model outputs built from a local administrative ladder and ZIP ZORI. They are not observed asking rents, signed rents, or appraisals for individual bedrooms.","Redfin resale metrics describe direct rolling-three-month ZIP for-sale activity rather than rentals. Median sold price and the rent-to-price screen cannot establish expenses, financing effects, property economics, or outcomes for one property."],"qa":[{"a":"They measure different universes. Zillow ZORI is a ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. ACS median gross rent is a five-year survey measure for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative bedroom-specific standard. None should automatically be substituted for another.","q":"Why do Zillow, ACS, and HUD rent figures differ?"},{"a":"No. The studio through four-bedroom figures are modelled estimates. They scale the ZIP Zillow ZORI using the relative local HUD bedroom ladder. The method preserves the HUD bedroom relationship, but it does not observe current unit-level asking rents, concessions, utility charges, condition, or lease terms.","q":"Are the bedroom rent figures measured rents for ZIP 28213?"},{"a":"The complete available history and relatively contained past monthly variability support confidence that the index records a consistent backward-looking path. However, recent one-year and three-year growth were far below the five-year rate, so the current snapshot should be interpreted as part of a slowed recent trend rather than evidence of future rent movement.","q":"What does the history say about confidence in the current ZORI snapshot?"},{"a":"Verify the current advertised rent, bedroom count, lease length, utilities, fees, concessions, availability date, and physical condition. For sale comparisons, verify property type, sale date, condition, and whether the selected sales are comparable. Also confirm the address geography because Census ZCTA boundaries and USPS delivery ZIP usage are not identical.","q":"What should be checked before applying this ZIP evidence to a property?"}],"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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