ZIP 28269 poses a narrow decision question: how does a current ZIP-level asking-rent benchmark relate to reported household and housing conditions, without treating area aggregates as a quote for a specific home? In June 2026, Zillow’s ZORI is $1,756 per month, up 0.8% year over year. It is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, rather than a bedroom-specific transaction measure or a tally of every advertised unit. The label is both a Zillow ZIP market identifier and a Census ZCTA match. A ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. That distinction matters because the rent index and survey tabulations have different construction, timing, and covered populations.
Household capacity and renter outcomes provide a useful, but separate, ACS view. The matched ZCTA’s ACS 2024 five-year survey estimates median household income at $81,517 and shows renter-occupied homes account for 39.4% of occupied homes. Applying a 30% share to the current monthly index produces $70,240 in annual income. On the same annualized arithmetic, the index represents 25.8% of reported median income. That mechanical screen equals 86.2% of reported median household income; it is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule. Separately, 54.9% of renter households are recorded as spending at least that share of income on rent. This observed burden describes surveyed households and carries the source’s stated sampling uncertainty; it does not establish affordability, payment history, or burden for a particular available unit.
The matched ZCTA’s ACS stock count is 33,770 housing units, of which 2,004 are vacant, yielding a 5.9% vacancy rate. Among vacant units, 1,101 are designated for rent, compared with 57 for sale and 12 seasonal. Those labels characterize survey vacancy composition rather than a current inventory of listings. The broad structural mix is uneven: 26,208 units are single-family and 1,820 are in large multifamily buildings. These counts do not report condition, asking price, turnover, marketing status, or the rent of an individual property. They do make an important measurement boundary clear: the ZIP vacancy figure concerns all housing units, so it is not a direct apartment-market availability measure and cannot show whether any single vacant for-rent home can be leased.
The current asking index, ACS gross-rent survey, and HUD standard offer complementary but noninterchangeable reference points. In the ACS five-year survey, median gross rent is $1,710; it describes occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. Zillow ZORI is 2.7% above that survey median, a difference that should be read through their distinct periods and universes, not as a direct price match. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR standard is $1,990. The ZIP index is 11.8% below this HUD value, an administrative bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent. Neither the ACS median nor the HUD standard substitutes for Zillow’s current typical observed asking-rent index.
Bedroom interpretation relies on the supplied FY2026 local HUD ladder, identified as ZIP SAFMR or county-derived: it runs from $1,730 at the studio end to $3,110 at the four-bedroom end. Scaling the ZIP ZORI by that ladder gives modelled monthly ZIP estimates from $1,527 to $2,744 across those bedroom categories. These are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents. They retain the local HUD bedroom spacing while anchoring the overall level to Zillow’s blended all-rental-type index. As a result, they should not be treated as observed asking rents for individual properties, and they are not HUD payment standards.
At wider scope, the ZIP’s $1,756 Zillow index compares with the City of Charlotte context rent of about $1,746, the Mecklenburg County context rent of $1,751, and the Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC metro context rent of $1,750. The City of Charlotte context has a 49.0% renter share and 7.6% all-unit vacancy rate, while the Mecklenburg County context has a 44.9% renter share and 7.3% all-unit vacancy rate; both exceed the ZIP shares and rates described above. The Charlotte-Concord-Gastonia, NC-SC metro context separately reports 9.3% apartment vacancy, a different scope from the ZIP’s all-housing vacancy rate. City, county, and metro values are wider context only, not substitutes for ZIP-level measures.
The evidence has material limits. Zillow is a June ZIP index, ACS is a five-year ZCTA survey with margins of error, and HUD is an administrative ladder; differences in definitions, time windows, and geography limit direct matching. The common ZIP/ZCTA label does not eliminate that geographic mismatch. The annual-income screen applies the stated share threshold and cannot represent a household’s actual income, debts, utilities, fees, concessions, or qualification result. Concrete property-level checks are the live advertised monthly rent, exact bedroom count, lease term, stated utility inclusions, mandatory recurring and one-time fees, availability date, and whether the advertisement remains active. Those property facts are required to interpret any individual listing and are not supplied by the aggregate measures here.
","findings":[{"body":"In June 2026, 28269’s Zillow ZORI is $1,756 monthly, a 0.8% annual increase. It is the ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index across rental types. This is a timely area benchmark, but it cannot identify a particular listing’s rent, included utilities, fees, bedroom configuration, lease terms, or current availability.","title":"ZORI is a market benchmark, not a property quote"},{"body":"The matched ACS ZCTA survey reports $81,517 median household income and a 39.4% renter share. It also records 54.9% of renter households at or above the rent-burden threshold. The $70,240 annual figure is simply the current ZIP index converted through a 30% share. It is a calculation, not a finding about any applicant or property.","title":"Survey burden is elevated within the renter sample"},{"body":"ACS median gross rent is $1,710 for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities, whereas Zillow’s current index is 2.7% higher. HUD’s two-bedroom $1,990 FMR/SAFMR standard sits 11.8% above the ZIP index. These figures answer different questions: survey household rent, observed asking-rent index, and administrative standard. They should be compared for definition and scale, never fused into one rent measure.","title":"Rent measures differ by purpose and coverage"},{"body":"The supplied HUD bedroom ladder is used only to scale the all-type ZIP ZORI. It produces modelled estimates from $1,527 for a studio to $2,744 for four bedrooms, while the HUD endpoints run from $1,730 to $3,110. The output preserves HUD bedroom spacing, but it is not a measurement of bedroom-specific asking rent or a payment standard.","title":"Bedroom figures are proportional model outputs"}],"risks":["Zillow’s June 2026 index, the ACS 2024 five-year ZCTA survey, and FY2026 HUD standard use different dates, geographies, and rental concepts. Their numerical proximity cannot validate one another or establish a current property-level price.","The renter share, income, and burden figures describe aggregate survey households, with source-stated margins of error. They cannot reveal an individual renter’s income, eligibility, expenses, lease terms, or actual payment outcome.","Vacant-for-rent counts are survey classifications within all housing units, not a real-time listing feed. They do not show unit condition, move-in readiness, advertised concessions, tenant screening, or whether a property remains available.","The bedroom series mechanically scales Zillow’s blended index with the supplied HUD ladder. It may be useful for proportional comparison, but it cannot substitute for measured bedroom rents, property quotes, or HUD program determinations."],"qa":[{"a":"Zillow uses 28269 as a ZIP market identifier, while ACS evidence applies to the matched Census ZCTA. The match enables geographic context, but a ZCTA is a statistical area rather than a USPS delivery ZIP, so boundaries and covered addresses are not necessarily identical.","q":"What geography does this report use for 28269?"},{"a":"ZORI is the supplied June 2026 ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. It is not a bedroom-specific measured rent, a completed lease rent, or a guarantee that a unit is advertised or obtainable at the index level. The modelled bedroom figures are separate ladder-scaling outputs.","q":"Does Zillow ZORI represent a quoted rent for a specific unit?"},{"a":"ACS median gross rent comes from a five-year survey of occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard. Zillow tracks a current typical asking-rent index. Therefore, their values have distinct universes and should retain distinct labels whenever they are compared.","q":"Why do Zillow, ACS, and HUD report different rent values?"},{"a":"Annualizing the current ZIP index and dividing by 30% produces the $70,240 screen. This arithmetic compares an area index with an income level; it is not advice, a qualification rule, or a claim about affordability. The 54.9% burden result instead summarizes surveyed renter households, not any individual unit.","q":"What does the required-income screen and burden figure communicate?"}],"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":"2015-01-01","rent":1015.144348},{"period":"2015-02-01","rent":1014.651273},{"period":"2015-03-01","rent":1017.290167},{"period":"2015-04-01","rent":1018.285434},{"period":"2015-05-01","rent":1025.134206},{"period":"2015-06-01","rent":1028.702729},{"period":"2015-07-01","rent":1032.130386},{"period":"2015-08-01","rent":1035.040763},{"period":"2015-09-01","rent":1041.377522},{"period":"2015-10-01","rent":1045.595987},{"period":"2015-11-01","rent":1052.353353},{"period":"2015-12-01","rent":1056.539003},{"period":"2016-01-01","rent":1063.539515},{"period":"2016-02-01","rent":1063.18116},{"period":"2016-03-01","rent":1059.312452},{"period":"2016-04-01","rent":1060.331152},{"period":"2016-05-01","rent":1064.055062},{"period":"2016-06-01","rent":1074.867604},{"period":"2016-07-01","rent":1080.736023},{"period":"2016-08-01","rent":1090.020686},{"period":"2016-09-01","rent":1095.638148},{"period":"2016-10-01","rent":1102.676603},{"period":"2016-11-01","rent":1101.093954},{"period":"2016-12-01","rent":1096.296837},{"period":"2017-01-01","rent":1095.425209},{"period":"2017-02-01","rent":1106.619465},{"period":"2017-03-01","rent":1119.106684},{"period":"2017-04-01","rent":1129.192723},{"period":"2017-05-01","rent":1127.950606},{"period":"2017-06-01","rent":1130.381414},{"period":"2017-07-01","rent":1133.238425},{"period":"2017-08-01","rent":1140.883447},{"period":"2017-09-01","rent":1140.304207},{"period":"2017-10-01","rent":1143.31095},{"period":"2017-11-01","rent":1142.179102},{"period":"2017-12-01","rent":1159.274601},{"period":"2018-01-01","rent":1164.819728},{"period":"2018-02-01","rent":1173.195047},{"period":"2018-03-01","rent":1171.332308},{"period":"2018-04-01","rent":1174.188934},{"period":"2018-05-01","rent":1179.595859},{"period":"2018-06-01","rent":1180.997828},{"period":"2018-07-01","rent":1188.866493},{"period":"2018-08-01","rent":1188.491563},{"period":"2018-09-01","rent":1194.158165},{"period":"2018-10-01","rent":1192.485711},{"period":"2018-11-01","rent":1203.713426},{"period":"2018-12-01","rent":1201.80503},{"period":"2019-01-01","rent":1213.302869},{"period":"2019-02-01","rent":1214.586088},{"period":"2019-03-01","rent":1221.562647},{"period":"2019-04-01","rent":1224.949223},{"period":"2019-05-01","rent":1231.030156},{"period":"2019-06-01","rent":1236.757817},{"period":"2019-07-01","rent":1238.10565},{"period":"2019-08-01","rent":1242.505123},{"period":"2019-09-01","rent":1246.718492},{"period":"2019-10-01","rent":1254.314928},{"period":"2019-11-01","rent":1255.370282},{"period":"2019-12-01","rent":1257.937708},{"period":"2020-01-01","rent":1254.619066},{"period":"2020-02-01","rent":1255.114865},{"period":"2020-03-01","rent":1275.181074},{"period":"2020-04-01","rent":1290.328604},{"period":"2020-05-01","rent":1298.063708},{"period":"2020-06-01","rent":1301.221667},{"period":"2020-07-01","rent":1311.161455},{"period":"2020-08-01","rent":1328.847722},{"period":"2020-09-01","rent":1340.221948},{"period":"2020-10-01","rent":1347.50668},{"period":"2020-11-01","rent":1354.779765},{"period":"2020-12-01","rent":1366.567013},{"period":"2021-01-01","rent":1381.206205},{"period":"2021-02-01","rent":1395.578238},{"period":"2021-03-01","rent":1404.540535},{"period":"2021-04-01","rent":1411.827275},{"period":"2021-05-01","rent":1429.610162},{"period":"2021-06-01","rent":1452.577874},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":1477.500212},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":1494.59961},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":1513.945148},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":1534.376151},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":1551.320925},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":1568.388287},{"period":"2022-01-01","rent":1581.513519},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":1590.53379},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":1591.374315},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":1600.292802},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":1609.021663},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":1626.477746},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":1637.349423},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":1645.93005},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":1652.62062},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":1649.934222},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":1659.192892},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":1661.890369},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":1674.12621},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":1675.551948},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":1692.831772},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":1701.483598},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":1710.23887},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":1701.094301},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":1695.111499},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":1701.518629},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":1699.72616},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":1710.046972},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":1698.792935},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":1704.329813},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":1698.992587},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":1704.838375},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":1698.36745},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1693.502409},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1696.963663},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1702.411233},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1714.163676},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1710.403436},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":1713.797284},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1708.407529},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1716.657106},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1712.62045},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1718.399411},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1730.941711},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1744.757496},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":1754.002293},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1741.770436},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1741.893979},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1740.364948},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1745.050398},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1748.088829},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1753.48213},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1756.04151},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1760.961545},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1761.405742},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":1753.150118},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":1746.638561},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":1744.101871},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":1753.440706},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":1755.589498}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":138,"firstPeriod":"2015-01-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":138,"coverageRatio":1,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1741.893979,"endRent":1755.589498,"change":0.007862429725982834,"cagr":0.007862429725982834},"3":{"years":3,"startPeriod":"2023-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1701.094301,"endRent":1755.589498,"change":0.03203537685592428,"cagr":0.010566416549439017},"5":{"years":5,"startPeriod":"2021-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1452.577874,"endRent":1755.589498,"change":0.20860267075773997,"cagr":0.038620068562548404}},"maxDrawdown":-0.009823898371281614,"annualizedVolatility":0.017102080564564647,"consecutiveReturnCount":137}}