The current reading and the resale scale create the central tension in 29464. At the latest June observation, Zillow’s ZIP-level ZORI is $2,372 per month, 1.56% above a year earlier. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, not a lease comp, a concession-adjusted quote, or the rent for one home. It describes an asking-rent market, whereas the resale evidence later in this report describes for-sale transactions. A modest current rent change therefore cannot be treated as a conclusion about one property’s economics. The five-digit label functions both as a Zillow ZIP market identifier and as a Census ZCTA match, but the relevant evidence universes remain separate.
Backward-looking ZORI history shows exact same-month annualized changes of 1.56% over 1 year, 2.65% over 3 years, and 6.89% over 5 years through June 2026. The positive recent direction confirms the longer upward path, but it breaks from that path’s faster pace rather than signaling acceleration. Coverage is 100%, so the history does not have a data-gap qualification. Annualized monthly-return variability is 3.13%, while maximum drawdown is 2.20%. Those measured movements mean a current rent snapshot merits moderate rather than absolute confidence: it is a point within a changing series. Transparent national discovery ranks are 1,476 for momentum, 1,818 for stability, and 1,797 for the balanced score. They measure historical placement among history-eligible ZIPs, not a forecast or investment recommendation.
Zillow’s asking index cannot be substituted for the ACS five-year survey. The matched ZCTA reports $2,081 median gross rent among occupied renter homes, and gross rent includes selected utilities. A ZCTA is a statistical area; even where it matches this Zillow market label, it is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. ACS is a retrospective survey of occupied renter homes, whereas ZORI reflects typical observed asking rent across rental types. The ZCTA rent estimate also has a published margin of error, underscoring that it is an estimate rather than a current advertised-price census. These measures answer different questions and should not be presented as competing observations of the same leases.
The bedroom ladder supplies a separate, modelled view. These are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents: $2,063 for a studio, $2,166 for one bedroom, $2,372 for two bedrooms, $2,953 for three bedrooms, and $3,403 for four bedrooms. Each estimate scales ZIP ZORI with the local HUD ladder. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent; its two-bedroom local standard is $2,530. Accordingly, the ladder is useful for a consistent bedroom pattern but does not establish a unit’s advertised rent, utilities, condition, availability, or program treatment. It also does not convert the blended ZORI into observed rents for each bedroom class.
Income and burden generate a second tension. The ZCTA median household income is $111,907, and annualized current ZORI equals 25.4% of that amount. The $94,880 required-income figure from the 30% screen is arithmetic, not advice and not an applicant qualification rule. Separately, 49.3% of surveyed renter households reported spending at least that income share on gross rent. That ACS burden measure is retrospective and population-level, with gross rent including selected utilities; it neither establishes affordability for a particular household nor proves the burden attached to a particular unit. The income screen and burden survey should consequently be read together, without treating either as a leasing decision.
The ACS stock profile supplies scale, not live availability. Of 27,269 housing units in the ZCTA, 3,306 were vacant, a 12.1% vacancy rate. The structure mix includes 18,585 single-family units and large multifamily structures, while 1,293 vacancies were classified for rent. These are survey-based category counts rather than a current availability feed, and they do not tell whether vacant-for-rent homes were priced near ZORI or suitable for a given household. Vacancy also includes different uses and timing; no vacancy statistic proves that any named property, unit type, or advertised unit is available.
Place context reinforces that this ZIP is not interchangeable with its wider geographies. In wider-context asking-rent data—not ZIP comparables—Mount Pleasant city is $2,425, Charleston County is $2,156, and the Charleston–North Charleston, SC metro is $2,066. The ZIP index thus sits below the city context yet above the county and metro contexts. These are geographic benchmarks with their own rental mixes, boundaries, and source aggregation, so they should not be used as citywide, countywide, or metrowide evidence about a ZIP unit. The comparison is descriptive: it identifies relative positioning, not a reason for the position or a prediction that the gaps will close.
Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation, rather than rental transactions, provides the liquidity counterpoint. Its median sold price was $999,774, 1.24% higher year over year, across 293 homes sold; median marketing time was 60 days. Resale inventory was 352 homes, up 20.0%, with 3.6 months of supply. The average sale-to-list ratio was 97.61%, and 10.89% of sales were above list. Those figures remain entirely in the for-sale universe. Both the modestly positive sale-price change and the positive ZORI change align in direction, yet growing inventory, time on market, and below-list average sales challenge any simple claim of uniformly tight conditions. Because sale price and monthly rent use different units and market universes, the rent-only income screen cannot be read as for-sale affordability. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price is 2.85%, a cross-source screening ratio only—not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield. Relevant property-level checks include active asking rent, bedroom count, utilities, lease term, concessions, availability, condition, and direct sale or rent comparables. Does the actual unit’s documented information fit the appropriate source universe?
","findings":[{"body":"ZORI’s 1.56% one-year gain is positive, but it trails the 2.65% three-year and 6.89% five-year annualized changes. Complete history coverage, 3.13% annualized monthly-return variability, and a 2.20% maximum drawdown support use of the series as a measured trend record. They do not make the latest index a forecast, nor do discovery ranks evaluate a property.","title":"Longer rent path exceeds recent pace"},{"body":"The ACS ZCTA median gross rent and Zillow ZORI are deliberately noninterchangeable. ACS surveys occupied renter homes over five years and includes selected utilities, while ZORI is a current typical asking-rent index blended across rental types. The 30% income screen is a mathematical framing of the index; it is not underwriting guidance, tenant advice, or a claim about any household’s eligibility.","title":"Rent affordability has two distinct lenses"},{"body":"Survey housing counts show a material vacancy pool and a stock tilted toward single-family structures, but these categories are not active listings. In particular, vacant-for-rent classification does not reveal asking price, bedroom count, lease terms, condition, or move-in timing. It therefore cannot demonstrate that a specific prospective renter can locate a suitable unit at the ZIP-level index.","title":"Vacancy counts do not establish availability"},{"body":"Redfin reports direct ZIP for-sale activity over a rolling three-month window, not rental transactions. Positive annual price movement sits beside higher resale inventory, a 60-day median marketing period, and average sales below list. The annualized-rent-to-sold-price figure simply puts two sources on one screening scale; it omits costs and does not measure a property’s cap rate, return, or yield.","title":"Resale provides liquidity evidence, not rental comps"}],"risks":["ZORI’s blended asking-rent construction can diverge from a unit’s actual advertised amount because bedroom mix, utilities, concessions, lease terms, and property condition are not identified by the index.","The matched ACS ZCTA is a statistical area rather than a USPS delivery ZIP, and its five-year survey estimates may differ in timing, coverage, and geography from Zillow’s ZIP index.","Modelled bedroom estimates inherit the HUD ladder’s relative pattern, but neither the model nor HUD’s administrative FMR/SAFMR standard observes rents for specific units, buildings, or lease terms.","Redfin’s rolling resale figures describe for-sale activity only. They cannot serve as rental transactions, operating-cost evidence, individual property economics, or proof that resale liquidity applies to a particular rental home."],"qa":[{"a":"They have different universes and timing. Zillow ZORI represents typical observed asking rent across rental types, while ACS surveys occupied renter homes over a five-year period and includes selected utilities in gross rent. The matched ZCTA is also a statistical area rather than an identical USPS delivery ZIP. The figures are contextual comparisons, not direct validation of one another.","q":"Why can ZORI and ACS median gross rent point to different dollar levels?"},{"a":"They are modelled monthly ZIP estimates created by scaling the blended ZIP ZORI with the local HUD bedroom ladder. The approach preserves the ladder’s relative studio-through-four-bedroom pattern, but it does not observe rents for those bedroom classes. HUD FMR/SAFMR remains an administrative standard, so neither the estimates nor the benchmark provide unit-level asking rent.","q":"What are the bedroom estimates actually measuring?"},{"a":"No. Dividing the annualized index by 30% produces a mechanical income threshold, not a tenancy decision. It is not an application standard and does not contain the information needed to assess a particular household or lease. The ACS burden percentage instead summarizes renter-household survey responses retrospectively, so it cannot determine a specific applicant’s outcome.","q":"Does the required-income figure determine whether someone can rent in this ZIP?"},{"a":"Redfin’s figures are direct ZIP resale observations over a rolling three-month period. They describe sold-price levels, marketing time, sales volume, supply, inventory, and sale-to-list behavior in the for-sale market. They neither document rental transactions nor establish a relationship between individual sale prices and individual leases. The cross-source annualized-rent-to-price calculation remains a screening ratio only.","q":"How should the resale information be read alongside rents?"}],"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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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 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