At June 2026, Zillow’s ZIP-level ZORI for this label is $1,190 per month, a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. The five-digit label 35805 is both the Zillow ZIP market identifier and the matched Census ZCTA; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. Using ZORI, the 30% required-income screen computes to $47,600 annually. That arithmetic exceeds the ACS 2024 five-year matched-ZCTA median household income of $35,385 and places the simple asking-rent-to-income relation at 40.4%. It is not advice, a household budget, or an applicant qualification rule; it simply exposes the difference between an area-level income median and a current asking-rent index.
Different data universes prevent the current index from being treated as a lease comparable. ACS reports a median gross rent of $909 for occupied renter homes in the matched ZCTA; it is a five-year survey measure and includes selected utilities. Current ZORI is 30.9% above that survey median, a gap that may reflect timing, rent concepts, housing mix, or utilities rather than a change in any particular unit. Wider context also sits above the ZIP index: the City of Huntsville context rent is $1,322, Madison County context rent is $1,371, and the Huntsville, AL metro context rent is $1,381. Those city, county, and metro figures provide wider-area context only, not ZIP rental comps.
Bedroom labels need a separate, explicitly modelled treatment. The supplied local HUD FMR/SAFMR ladder is an administrative bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent. Scaling ZIP ZORI by that ladder produces modelled monthly ZIP estimates of $936 for a studio, $1,032 for one bedroom, $1,190 for two bedrooms, $1,535 for three bedrooms, and $1,916 for four bedrooms. The corresponding HUD two-bedroom standard is $1,310, which is distinct from both the modelled two-bedroom estimate and an observed lease price. These modelled figures are useful for displaying a relative bedroom ladder, but they are never measured bedroom rents and do not confirm what is currently available at any bedroom count.
The matched ACS ZCTA profile shows 10,953 housing units and a 13.1% vacancy rate. Renter-occupied homes total 5,656, representing a 59.4% renter share among occupied homes. The stock includes 5,378 single-family units and 710 units in large multifamily structures, indicating that the area-level housing base is not confined to one building form. Among surveyed renter households, 3,334 meet or exceed the burden threshold, equal to 58.9% of renter households. That burden statistic and the vacancy rate describe aggregates, not a particular household or address: neither demonstrates that a specific vacancy is for rent, that a unit is affordable, or that an occupant faces the reported burden.
Backward-looking Zillow history shows a sharp change in pace: exact same-month annualized ZORI change was 0.01% over one year, compared with 1.44% over three years and 5.74% over five years. The recent flat direction therefore breaks from, rather than confirms, the longer positive path. The record has full coverage, with 61 observations producing 60 consecutive monthly returns and a 100% coverage ratio. Monthly returns annualize to 4.24% variability, which reduces the confidence that a single current index reading represents a smooth trend. Separately, the maximum drawdown was 3.26%, documenting a prior decline from a historical peak. National transparent discovery ranks are 2,180 for momentum, 2,688 for stability, and 2,700 for the balanced score, where lower ranks are higher; they are discovery measures, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
Redfin supplies a different direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation, entirely within the for-sale market rather than rental transactions. Median sold price was $179,959, up 2.83% from a year earlier, with 48 homes sold and a median 55 days on market. The same ZIP resale window reports 134 active listings and inventory of 82 homes, with inventory 45.91% higher year over year and 5.1 months of supply. Sale-to-list evidence also remained below full list realization: the average sale-to-list ratio was 95.78%, while 14.91% of sold homes went above list. These measures describe resale liquidity, pricing, and marketing conditions; they are not rental comparables or evidence about lease terms.
The strongest cross-source tension is that ZIP resale prices rose while the one-year asking-rent path was effectively flat and the income screen remained strained. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by the median sold price creates a 7.94% screening ratio, but it is only a cross-source screen. It is not a cap rate, net return, expected return, property yield, or measure of property-level economics. The resale price advance challenges any simple reading that past rent growth is still moving in lockstep with the for-sale market, while higher resale inventory and below-list average sales show that price growth alone does not summarize ZIP resale conditions. None of these contrasts establishes causation between the rental and resale series.
Property-level review remains necessary because each source is area-level or index-based. Concrete checks include confirming that the property address aligns with the relevant Zillow ZIP market and Census geography; recording the actual advertised rent, bedroom count, property type, included utilities, and availability; and distinguishing a unit’s lease terms from ACS gross-rent survey results. For a property being sold, the relevant checks are its own list history, sale status, and condition rather than the ZIP median sold price or rent-price screen. The remaining question is whether the property’s address, bedroom count, advertised rent, utility treatment, availability, and sale record actually match the definitions used in this report.
","findings":[{"body":"The current Zillow index signals an asking-rent level well above the ZCTA’s historical occupied-renter gross-rent median. The arithmetic income screen also sits above the area median household income. Those comparisons frame a market-level affordability tension, but they do not identify a household’s income, a unit’s asking price, lease terms, or eligibility.","title":"Asking-rent screen exceeds area median income"},{"body":"Same-month history is nearly flat over one year while longer three-year and five-year annualized changes remain positive. Complete monthly coverage supports the measurement record, yet elevated return variability and a prior drawdown mean a single current ZORI observation deserves less trend confidence than a smooth, low-variation history would. This is retrospective evidence only.","title":"Recent rent direction breaks from the longer path"},{"body":"Redfin’s rolling resale data show price growth alongside increased inventory, supply near five months, and average sales below list. That mix is a direct for-sale liquidity description. Its coexistence with flat asking-rent history creates a cross-source tension rather than proof of a shared trend, property economics, or a rental transaction outcome.","title":"Resale evidence is not moving in lockstep with rent"},{"body":"The ZCTA has a renter-majority occupied base, notable vacancy, and a majority of surveyed renter households at or above the rent-burden threshold. Its stock includes both single-family and large multifamily units. These are area survey aggregates, so they cannot establish whether any named property is vacant, affordable, renter occupied, or representative of the local mix.","title":"Survey aggregates show renter concentration and burden"}],"risks":["The asking-rent index, ACS gross-rent survey, and HUD administrative standard observe or define different things, including rental type and selected utilities, so dollar comparisons are not unit-level rent comps.","High historical return variability means the current ZORI reading should not be treated as a stable trajectory; the backward-looking record cannot establish future rent movement or investment outcomes.","Vacancy and rent-burden statistics are ZCTA survey aggregates with sampling uncertainty, and neither statistic verifies that a particular unit is available, affordable, or occupied by a burdened household.","Redfin price, inventory, and sale-to-list fields cover for-sale transactions in a rolling ZIP resale window; the rent-price screen excludes operating costs, financing, taxes, and property-specific condition."],"qa":[{"a":"The label is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and a matched Census ZCTA label. A ZCTA is a statistical area used for tabulation, while a USPS delivery ZIP is a mail-routing construct. Their match supports area context, but it does not make their boundaries, address assignment, or evidence universes identical.","q":"Why can the ZIP label and the Census survey be used together but not treated as the same geography?"},{"a":"The studio through four-bedroom figures are modelled ZIP estimates. They begin with the ZIP-wide ZORI and scale it using the supplied local HUD FMR/SAFMR bedroom ladder. HUD is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than an asking-rent observation, so the resulting ladder must not be read as measured rents for available units.","q":"How were the bedroom figures produced?"},{"a":"High variability means monthly ZORI changes have not followed a uniformly smooth path. The recent near-flat same-month rate differs from the positive longer annualized changes, and the drawdown confirms prior setbacks. Accordingly, one June snapshot is a current measurement with limited trend certainty, not a forecast or a recommended conclusion.","q":"What does the high-variability history mean for the current rent snapshot?"},{"a":"Annualizing ZORI and dividing it by ZIP median sold price creates only a cross-source screening ratio. It does not observe rent collected by a sold home and has no operating expenses, taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancy, financing, or property-condition inputs. It therefore cannot be labeled a cap rate, net return, expected return, or yield.","q":"Why is the rent-price screen not a return measure?"}],"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":"2021-06-01","rent":899.894736},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":916.137688},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":933.014893},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":959.239409},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":969.022073},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":996.837852},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":1014.34946},{"period":"2022-01-01","rent":1028.057663},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":1020.622371},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":1021.556293},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":1034.657643},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":1047.263443},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":1077.362968},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":1072.780847},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":1088.844282},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":1064.567008},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":1072.314129},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":1065.13591},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":1103.592427},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":1113.028984},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":1131.768258},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":1125.06098},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":1120.346876},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":1139.991993},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":1139.74133},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":1158.465265},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":1145.951626},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":1162.459619},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":1156.104178},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":1151.377904},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":1124.543603},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":1147.819083},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":1145.143838},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":1159.086196},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1144.737464},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1142.200406},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1140.420783},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1155.423135},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1161.971161},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":1160.396421},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1159.851885},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1167.738666},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1184.164195},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1165.44812},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1169.979117},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1168.374836},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":1189.887225},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1193.158043},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1189.405088},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1176.311095},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1179.999211},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1183.647406},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1190.886773},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1193.062241},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1189.571991},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1194.493297},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":1192.825072},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":1192.434104},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":1186.678198},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":1184.118494},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":1189.530772}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":61,"firstPeriod":"2021-06-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":61,"coverageRatio":1,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1189.405088,"endRent":1189.530772,"change":0.00010566963372538041,"cagr":0.00010566963372538041},"3":{"years":3,"startPeriod":"2023-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1139.74133,"endRent":1189.530772,"change":0.043684861371132255,"cagr":0.014354580535207662},"5":{"years":5,"startPeriod":"2021-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":899.894736,"endRent":1189.530772,"change":0.3218554619926126,"cagr":0.05739388370342158}},"maxDrawdown":-0.03261706073938031,"annualizedVolatility":0.0423977753427183,"consecutiveReturnCount":60}}