In June 2026, Zillow’s ZIP-level ZORI for 43206 is $1,755 per month, up 5.4% from a year earlier. It is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, not a quotation for one 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. The matched ACS 2024 five-year survey reports median gross rent of $1,366. That survey covers occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities, unlike an asking-rent index. FY2026 HUD’s two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR standard is $1,450. HUD is an administrative bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent, so neither benchmark is a substitute for a current listing.
Looking backward from the stated history endpoint, exact same-month ZORI changes annualized at 5.43% over one year, 5.08% over three years, and 6.49% over five years. The latest direction therefore confirms the longer upward path, but its pace remains below the five-year rate instead of accelerating beyond it. The series has 120 observations and 100% coverage. Annualized monthly-return variability is 2.96%, a measured indication that index movements have been fairly contained but not absent; it supports only measured, limited confidence in one current index snapshot, not precision for a given property. The worst observed peak-to-trough drawdown was 2.77%, a backward-looking decline rather than a promise about the next move. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 277 for momentum, 1,559 for stability, and 404 for the balanced measure, with lower ranks higher. That gap between momentum and stability reinforces the need to treat every history signal as descriptive, not a forecast or investment recommendation.
The 30% required-income screen converts the current monthly asking index into $70,200 of annual household income. Against the ACS ZCTA median household income of $75,806, that arithmetic equals 27.8% of the reported median. It is neither advice nor an applicant qualification rule. Separately, the ACS survey shows a 37.5% share of renter households paying gross rent at or above the burden threshold. Gross rent and current asking rent are different constructs, and neither statistic identifies the terms faced by a particular household. For wider context only, the City of Columbus context rent measure was $1,456, the Franklin County context measure was $1,510, and the Columbus, OH metro context measure was $1,528; all are wider-area figures and lower than the ZIP index. The city and county burden shares were higher than the ZIP’s, but they remain broader survey context rather than an explanation for an individual rental.
Bedroom specificity has to be constructed rather than observed in this packet. Scaling ZIP ZORI with the local HUD FMR/SAFMR ladder produces modelled monthly estimates of $1,368 for a studio, $1,465 for one bedroom, the overall index for two bedrooms, $2,106 for three bedrooms, and $2,360 for four bedrooms. They are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents. The two-bedroom alignment with the overall index reflects the scaling method, not evidence that a currently available two-bedroom unit asks, leases, or transacts at that amount. HUD supplies the local ratio structure as an administrative standard; it does not turn the bedroom outputs into listing observations. These estimates are useful only as a transparent size adjustment to the blended ZIP index.
Housing supply data add a separate aggregate lens. The ACS ZCTA frame contains 12,765 housing units, and its vacancy rate is 12.8%. Its structure mix includes 9,047 single-family units and 633 large multifamily units, while renters represent a 51.3% share of occupied homes. The survey also classifies 46 vacant units as for rent. This stock and vacancy evidence is not a current listing feed, and the for-rent count cannot establish whether a specific home is usable, affordable, available on a given date, or comparable with Zillow’s blended asking index. Housing counts, tenure, and vacancy should remain aggregate descriptors rather than proof about a particular property.
Resale evidence creates a separate tension. Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP for-sale observation through June 30, 2026 shows a median sold price of $369,916, a 17.55% year-over-year increase, and 159 homes sold. Median marketing time was 45 days; inventory was 192 homes. Months of supply measured 3.7, versus 2.5 in the Columbus, OH metro context. In this resale universe, the ZIP’s supply figure means the observed inventory equaled roughly 3.7 months of sales at the recent pace. It is a direct resale-liquidity measure, not a rent observation or a demand forecast. The average sale-to-list ratio was 99.77%, and 23.89% of sales closed above list. Those pricing and marketing signals describe for-sale transactions only; they are not rental transactions, rental comparables, or a broader-geography result.
Annualizing ZIP ZORI and dividing it by the median sold price yields a 5.69% cross-source screening ratio. It is not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield: it combines a blended asking-rent index with a resale median and leaves out property-level costs, occupancy, financing, and lease terms. The reported resale-price increase outpaced the rent-index increase, even though both series moved upward. That confirms a common positive direction in separate measurements while challenging any attempt to convert the rent history, affordability arithmetic, or one resale statistic into property economics. The ZIP’s higher months-of-supply reading relative to metro context adds a liquidity counterpoint to the strong sale-price change. It does not resolve whether an individual rental is available or economically comparable.
Several limits remain decisive. ZORI observes asking rents at the ZIP level across rental types; ACS observes occupied renter households through a five-year ZCTA survey and includes selected utilities; HUD establishes an administrative bedroom standard; Redfin observes recent ZIP resales. No source here reports the actual rent, utility bill, condition, listing status, lease structure, or transaction economics of one home. Concrete property-level checks therefore document the quoted rent and observation date, bedroom count, utility treatment, unit type, and whether the listing is active. A resale comparison needs the subject sale date, sold price, list price, and marketing time before it is aligned with Redfin’s aggregate block. Does a specific property’s actual terms match any of these separate constructs, or would the aggregate measures be standing in for facts the packet does not contain?
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow places the current 43206 typical asking-rent index at $1,755. The matched ACS ZCTA survey reports a lower median gross rent, while the HUD two-bedroom standard is also lower. These are not interchangeable measures: ZORI blends asking rentals, ACS reflects occupied renter households and selected utilities, and HUD is an administrative bedroom standard. The gap flags a source-definition issue before it signals any unit-level pricing conclusion.","title":"Asking index sits above survey and HUD benchmarks"},{"body":"Same-month ZORI gains remained positive across one, three, and five years, so the latest movement extends rather than breaks the longer rising path. Full historical coverage improves confidence that the index record is complete, while measured variability and the drawdown show that it has still moved unevenly. Momentum ranks materially stronger than stability, so history supports description of prior behavior, not a precise current-unit conclusion or forecast.","title":"History favors momentum but not precision"},{"body":"At current ZORI, the arithmetic income screen places the asking index below the reported ZCTA median household income at a 30% rent share, yet 37.5% of surveyed renter households met the gross-rent burden threshold. That contrast is not contradictory: the first calculation uses today’s asking index and median income, whereas the burden measure comes from occupied renter homes in the multi-year ACS survey.","title":"Affordability screen and burden measure answer different questions"},{"body":"Redfin’s direct ZIP resale block shows stronger annual median-price growth than the asking-rent index, yet its months-of-supply reading sits above the metro context. The combination is a for-sale liquidity and pricing tension, not rental proof. Annualized ZORI divided by median sold price is useful only as a cross-source screening ratio; it leaves out the inputs needed to calculate property-specific economics.","title":"Resale activity is a separate, mixed cross-check"}],"risks":["Zillow ZORI is a typical blended asking-rent index rather than an individual listing record, so it cannot verify the quoted rent, availability, concessions, utilities, condition, or lease terms for a specific unit.","The ACS result is a five-year ZCTA survey of occupied renter homes with selected utilities included, so it can differ from current listings and cannot determine a current household’s affordability.","Bedroom figures are modelled estimates created from ZORI and the HUD ladder. They are not observed bedroom rents and should not be treated as evidence of current asking, leased, or transacted rents.","Redfin figures are rolling-three-month resale evidence rather than rental data. Sale prices, inventory, marketing time, and sale-to-list outcomes do not establish rental transactions, costs, or property-specific economics."],"qa":[{"a":"Zillow ZORI is a ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. ACS is a matched ZCTA five-year survey of occupied renter homes that includes selected utilities. HUD supplies an administrative bedroom standard, and Redfin measures rolling-three-month ZIP resales. Their dollar amounts can be compared for context, but they do not describe the same population or transaction.","q":"Why do the Zillow, ACS, HUD, and Redfin dollar figures differ?"},{"a":"No. The studio through four-bedroom figures are modelled estimates made by scaling the blended ZIP ZORI with the local HUD bedroom ladder. They provide a transparent relative-size schedule, not observed asking, leased, or transacted bedroom rents. A unit’s actual quote, utilities, unit type, and listing date remain unmeasured by that model.","q":"Are the bedroom estimates observed rents for 43206?"},{"a":"No. The history provides direct backward-looking Zillow ZIP observations, including same-month changes, coverage, variability, drawdown, and transparent discovery ranks. The recent increase confirms the prior upward direction in the observed series, but the measures do not forecast future asking rents, individual lease outcomes, or investment results.","q":"Does the positive rent history predict future rent movement?"},{"a":"Months of supply expresses recent for-sale inventory relative to the observed sales pace. The ZIP’s reading means the reported inventory represented roughly that many months of sales in Redfin’s resale observation. It is useful for interpreting resale liquidity alongside price and marketing measures, but it is not a rental vacancy rate or a forecast.","q":"What does the months-of-supply figure say about the ZIP resale market?"}],"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 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2026-06","pulledAt":"2026-08-08","url":"https://www.zillow.com/research/data/"}],"history":[{"period":"2016-07-01","rent":836.335734},{"period":"2016-08-01","rent":822.268656},{"period":"2016-09-01","rent":829.344378},{"period":"2016-10-01","rent":815.783831},{"period":"2016-11-01","rent":825.573597},{"period":"2016-12-01","rent":843.645242},{"period":"2017-01-01","rent":861.571103},{"period":"2017-02-01","rent":869.882792},{"period":"2017-03-01","rent":879.375835},{"period":"2017-04-01","rent":885.645389},{"period":"2017-05-01","rent":894.969964},{"period":"2017-06-01","rent":911.362581},{"period":"2017-07-01","rent":907.389294},{"period":"2017-08-01","rent":919.90945},{"period":"2017-09-01","rent":921.276932},{"period":"2017-10-01","rent":952.956435},{"period":"2017-11-01","rent":954.463583},{"period":"2017-12-01","rent":947.647252},{"period":"2018-01-01","rent":955.741209},{"period":"2018-02-01","rent":975.839145},{"period":"2018-03-01","rent":987.680632},{"period":"2018-04-01","rent":981.567181},{"period":"2018-05-01","rent":979.926323},{"period":"2018-06-01","rent":990.296342},{"period":"2018-07-01","rent":1004.123361},{"period":"2018-08-01","rent":1023.017898},{"period":"2018-09-01","rent":1026.991135},{"period":"2018-10-01","rent":1033.983424},{"period":"2018-11-01","rent":1051.320743},{"period":"2018-12-01","rent":1059.618657},{"period":"2019-01-01","rent":1052.076305},{"period":"2019-02-01","rent":1052.327014},{"period":"2019-03-01","rent":1055.01472},{"period":"2019-04-01","rent":1071.649868},{"period":"2019-05-01","rent":1084.069528},{"period":"2019-06-01","rent":1087.87978},{"period":"2019-07-01","rent":1097.178221},{"period":"2019-08-01","rent":1098.37093},{"period":"2019-09-01","rent":1113.923117},{"period":"2019-10-01","rent":1114.974283},{"period":"2019-11-01","rent":1119.003344},{"period":"2019-12-01","rent":1133.862813},{"period":"2020-01-01","rent":1154.411438},{"period":"2020-02-01","rent":1165.986643},{"period":"2020-03-01","rent":1133.651391},{"period":"2020-04-01","rent":1134.634953},{"period":"2020-05-01","rent":1147.884251},{"period":"2020-06-01","rent":1154.381341},{"period":"2020-07-01","rent":1157.179151},{"period":"2020-08-01","rent":1162.159158},{"period":"2020-09-01","rent":1184.061527},{"period":"2020-10-01","rent":1204.642491},{"period":"2020-11-01","rent":1208.705783},{"period":"2020-12-01","rent":1198.536416},{"period":"2021-01-01","rent":1208.801534},{"period":"2021-02-01","rent":1234.749832},{"period":"2021-03-01","rent":1268.148218},{"period":"2021-04-01","rent":1269.701693},{"period":"2021-05-01","rent":1276.049742},{"period":"2021-06-01","rent":1281.616919},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":1288.256766},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":1303.325728},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":1317.311071},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":1321.624371},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":1322.463955},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":1335.333554},{"period":"2022-01-01","rent":1363.645731},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":1378.369534},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":1391.10719},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":1404.338997},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":1414.576804},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":1429.431482},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":1445.415655},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":1453.190663},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":1453.914434},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":1467.463733},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":1485.065899},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":1489.390123},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":1472.462055},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":1471.496897},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":1481.687695},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":1490.201307},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":1503.290963},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":1512.844806},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":1526.934632},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":1525.026466},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":1524.546703},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":1532.143622},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":1547.051899},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":1556.262719},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":1560.836739},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":1572.079977},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":1572.463973},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1589.248079},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1585.294571},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1594.655219},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1588.787853},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1608.434325},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":1626.578903},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1622.004433},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1618.497692},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1622.002639},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1637.821046},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1653.924533},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1657.095903},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":1659.120898},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1657.878823},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1664.718955},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1675.555712},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1676.03689},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1678.821891},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1692.727004},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1701.282445},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1709.641002},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1714.9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