Sale-price acceleration and rent deceleration pull in different directions in this ZIP. At June 2026, Zillow’s typical observed asking-rent index, the Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI), is $1,410 per month. It blends observed asking rents across rental types, so it is a market-level snapshot rather than a quotation, signed lease, or bedroom-specific measurement for one dwelling. The useful starting point is not that every renter faces the index, but that the current asking-rent baseline has to be read alongside slower recent rent history, household-income evidence, and the separately observed ZIP for-sale market. These sources answer different questions and cannot be combined as interchangeable transaction records.
The number 35810 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. For wider context only, the Huntsville city asking-rent figure is $1,322, the Madison County asking-rent figure is $1,371, and the Huntsville, AL metro asking-rent figure is $1,381; those city, county, and metro figures are not ZIP substitutes. The matched ACS 2024 five-year survey reports median gross rent of $1,129, with a reported margin of error of ±$68, for occupied renter homes. That survey measure includes selected utilities, unlike an asking-rent index, and the current ZIP index is 24.9% higher. The gap is a source-scope comparison, not a measure of rent inflation or a unit-level price difference.
The supplied FY2026 HUD FMR/SAFMR ladder sets a $1,310 two-bedroom administrative standard for the local area. It is bedroom-specific but is not an asking-rent observation. Scaling the ZIP ZORI by that local HUD ladder produces modelled monthly estimates of $1,109 for a studio, $1,223 for one bedroom, $1,410 for two bedrooms, $1,819 for three bedrooms, and $2,270 for four bedrooms. These are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents: they preserve the index as the anchor while applying the HUD bedroom relationships. They should not be used to infer a particular unit’s advertised rent, features, utility treatment, or leasing outcome.
ACS places median household income at $51,233, with a reported margin of error of ±$4,320. At a 30% share of income, supporting the current index arithmetically requires $56,400 per year, versus an asking-rent-to-income screen of 33.0% at the median. This is arithmetic only, not advice and not an applicant qualification rule. The same ACS renter-household universe records 2,106 of 4,268 renters—49.3%—as spending at least that income share on rent. That burden statistic is survey context, not proof that any particular tenant, building, lease, or current listing is unaffordable or that the asking index caused the reported burden.
Rental market structure is also a survey picture rather than a live availability feed. The matched ZCTA reports 13,126 housing units, an overall vacancy rate of 11.2%, and a renter share of 36.6%. Single-family structures dominate the stock; 434 units are in large multifamily buildings, while 417 units are classified vacant for rent. Overall vacancy additionally reflects units categorized for sale, seasonal use, or other statuses, so neither that rate nor the vacant-for-rent count establishes immediate choice, condition, price, or vacancy at a specific property. The figures give useful scale and composition, but cannot verify a unit’s turnover or competitive set.
History makes the rent side more nuanced. Exact same-month annualized ZORI changes through the stated endpoint are 1.23% over one year, 3.05% over three years, and 6.68% over five years. The latest direction remains positive, confirming the longer upward path, but its pace breaks from the faster longer-window pattern. Annualized monthly-return variability is 3.02%, the maximum drawdown is 2.53%, and coverage is 98.4%, so the history is substantially observed but not perfectly continuous. Its transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs are 1,460 for momentum, 1,656 for stability, and 1,669 for the balanced measure, where lower rank is higher. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations; measured variation means one current index snapshot deserves moderate rather than absolute confidence.
The stated Redfin rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation belongs solely to the for-sale market, not rental transactions. Median sold price is $217,351 and is 15.5% above its year-earlier level; 124 homes sold, median marketing time was 53 days, and inventory was 153 homes, equal to 3.7 months of supply. The average sale-to-list result was 97.7%, 15.7% of homes sold above list, and 39.6% went off market within two weeks. Those are direct resale liquidity and pricing signals, not rental comparables or property economics. Faster resale price movement alongside the slowing rent-growth path and income screen challenges any assumption that sale prices and current asking rents are advancing in lockstep.
Dividing annualized ZIP ZORI by the median sold price produces a 7.8% cross-source screening ratio. It is only a screen that pairs a blended asking-rent index with an aggregate resale median; it is not a property-level income, expense, financing, or valuation conclusion. Limits remain material: ACS describes occupied renter homes over a survey period, HUD supplies an administrative standard, and Redfin summarizes resale activity. Concrete property-level checks are the live advertised rent and included utilities, exact bedroom count against the modelled ladder, lease term, building type and condition, and current comparable listings and closed sales. Which of those specific facts would materially change the reading for the property being evaluated?
","findings":[{"body":"The ZIP’s current asking-rent index remains positive over the latest same-month history, but that growth pace is below the three- and five-year annualized readings. The direct resale series simultaneously reports a much larger year-over-year median sold price change. This does not establish a relationship between the markets; it identifies a cross-universe tension that makes a single rent or sale snapshot insufficient by itself.","title":"Resale and rent point to a timing mismatch"},{"body":"Zillow’s index is an asking-rent measure, ACS describes occupied renter households, and HUD provides an administrative bedroom standard. The ACS value includes selected utilities and comes from a survey rather than current market asks. The modelled ladder intentionally combines Zillow and HUD information, but it remains a scaling device and cannot become measured bedroom rent evidence.","title":"Zillow, ACS, and HUD describe different rent universes"},{"body":"Median income falls below the arithmetic income needed to place the ZIP index at the stated income share, and almost half of surveyed renter households meet the reported burden threshold. Together, those figures sharpen the affordability screen. They do not decide an applicant’s qualification, demonstrate a specific household’s budget, or prove that any individual asking rent is unaffordable.","title":"The income screen and renter burden both merit context"},{"body":"The ZCTA’s stock is predominantly single-family, with a comparatively small large-multifamily count and a measurable survey vacancy rate. Even the vacant-for-rent category is not a real-time listing feed. A property review must establish current availability, condition, utilities, bedroom configuration, and lease terms rather than assuming that an area-level vacancy or modelled estimate applies.","title":"Vacancy and bedroom ladders do not establish unit availability"}],"risks":["Because the Zillow measure blends observed asking rents across rental types, it may not track the bedroom mix, included utilities, lease term, condition, or actual concession structure of any candidate property.","The ACS ZCTA survey reflects occupied renter homes over a five-year period and has sampling error; its rent, income, burden, tenure, and vacancy measures are not live listings or individual-household facts.","HUD standards and the modelled bedroom ladder are administrative or scaled reference points, not measured bedroom asking rents. Using them as direct market quotes could misstate a unit’s current price position.","Redfin’s rolling resale observation shows sales-market conditions only. Median sale prices, supply, marketing time, and sale-to-list measures cannot supply rental comparables, operating expenses, financing terms, or a transaction-specific conclusion."],"qa":[{"a":"They are built for different universes. Zillow summarizes typical observed asking rents across rental types. ACS is a five-year survey of occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. HUD is a bedroom-specific administrative standard. Differences therefore describe scope and construction, rather than a disagreement about the same set of units.","q":"Why do the Zillow, ACS, and HUD rent figures differ?"},{"a":"The same-month changes show positive growth across each reported window, while the newest annual pace is slower than the longer-window annualized rates. Near-complete coverage improves the descriptive record, but measured monthly variability and drawdown show that a current index can move. The history is retrospective evidence only, with no forecast or investment implication.","q":"How should the historical rent path be read?"},{"a":"The Redfin block is a direct ZIP rolling-three-month resale observation. It reports aggregate sold-price movement, sale count, marketing time, inventory, supply, sale-to-list outcomes, and short marketing-speed indicators. These are for-sale liquidity observations. They neither record rental transactions nor establish the rent, value, cost, or marketability of a specific property.","q":"Which facts are actually contained in the Redfin block?"},{"a":"Verify the live advertised rent, whether utilities are included, bedroom count, lease duration, building type, condition, and current listing status. Compare the property with genuinely similar active listings and closed sales where available. These checks distinguish a particular unit from the ZIP index, ACS survey aggregates, HUD-scaled estimates, and aggregate resale statistics.","q":"What would need property-level verification before applying these ZIP measures?"}],"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 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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":"2016-04-01","rent":672.74813},{"period":"2016-05-01","rent":674.256972},{"period":"2016-06-01","rent":657.208179},{"period":"2016-07-01","rent":666.5565},{"period":"2016-08-01","rent":672.196472},{"period":"2016-09-01","rent":689.690263},{"period":"2016-10-01","rent":693.886232},{"period":"2016-11-01","rent":700.335151},{"period":"2016-12-01","rent":705.609157},{"period":"2017-01-01","rent":707.873201},{"period":"2017-02-01","rent":712.518261},{"period":"2017-04-01","rent":713.171139},{"period":"2017-05-01","rent":713.690846},{"period":"2017-06-01","rent":712.080521},{"period":"2017-07-01","rent":713.497788},{"period":"2017-08-01","rent":708.092805},{"period":"2017-09-01","rent":711.581774},{"period":"2017-10-01","rent":714.45029},{"period":"2017-11-01","rent":721.992951},{"period":"2017-12-01","rent":726.172512},{"period":"2018-01-01","rent":728.83651},{"period":"2018-02-01","rent":737.941875},{"period":"2018-03-01","rent":740.404846},{"period":"2018-04-01","rent":743.980209},{"period":"2018-05-01","rent":752.391596},{"period":"2018-06-01","rent":761.274788},{"period":"2018-07-01","rent":767.051998},{"period":"2018-08-01","rent":762.770425},{"period":"2018-09-01","rent":763.520319},{"period":"2018-10-01","rent":763.956207},{"period":"2018-11-01","rent":767.919603},{"period":"2018-12-01","rent":770.46258},{"period":"2019-01-01","rent":768.794606},{"period":"2019-02-01","rent":771.429653},{"period":"2019-03-01","rent":776.611505},{"period":"2019-04-01","rent":781.279724},{"period":"2019-05-01","rent":783.611192},{"period":"2019-06-01","rent":790.884572},{"period":"2019-07-01","rent":793.801997},{"period":"2019-08-01","rent":809.056974},{"period":"2019-09-01","rent":813.889553},{"period":"2019-10-01","rent":822.791043},{"period":"2019-11-01","rent":826.534726},{"period":"2019-12-01","rent":834.11784},{"period":"2020-01-01","rent":847.526595},{"period":"2020-02-01","rent":854.520708},{"period":"2020-03-01","rent":873.078705},{"period":"2020-04-01","rent":873.237321},{"period":"2020-05-01","rent":890.531955},{"period":"2020-06-01","rent":893.136052},{"period":"2020-07-01","rent":892.445008},{"period":"2020-08-01","rent":905.923483},{"period":"2020-09-01","rent":910.207408},{"period":"2020-10-01","rent":935.083088},{"period":"2020-11-01","rent":926.106195},{"period":"2020-12-01","rent":946.190799},{"period":"2021-01-01","rent":956.322811},{"period":"2021-02-01","rent":962.873968},{"period":"2021-03-01","rent":959.761843},{"period":"2021-04-01","rent":980.186424},{"period":"2021-05-01","rent":999.302997},{"period":"2021-06-01","rent":1020.69437},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":1028.34014},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":1040.466883},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":1071.591804},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":1090.331804},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":1123.110616},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":1128.265866},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":1167.517618},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":1179.611155},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":1177.612444},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":1187.392742},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":1195.808068},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":1214.758855},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":1213.866822},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":1210.259129},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":1208.345838},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":1220.575636},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":1238.052988},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":1229.743891},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":1238.726762},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":1256.632509},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":1282.518641},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":1281.987736},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":1288.947533},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":1288.392379},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":1302.987111},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":1312.821714},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":1326.44806},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":1327.783741},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":1321.794823},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":1318.159205},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":1324.02528},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":1332.942231},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1325.402945},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1332.884894},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1323.941643},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1345.788884},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1345.497703},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":1346.145221},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1338.171237},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1342.180833},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1366.186817},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1378.49431},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1388.017852},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1382.086442},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":1384.132566},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1383.146517},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1393.167996},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1383.320866},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1387.132473},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1392.28903},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1402.121815},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1404.556798},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1394.404721},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1396.78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