For 43235, the five-digit label is both a Zillow ZIP market identifier and a matched Census ZCTA; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. Zillow’s June 2026 ZORI is $1,440. It is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, so it describes a ZIP-level market reading rather than a rent quoted for one home. Its near-term signal needs to be read with the history, household survey, HUD standard, and resale evidence kept in their separate universes. The central tension is not a single current value, but an index whose recent movement has become muted while the direct for-sale record shows a much firmer price change.
At the stated history endpoint, exact same-month ZORI changes are 0.3% over one year, 1.8% annualized over three years, and 3.9% annualized over five years. Direction remains positive, but the latest pace breaks from the longer path’s faster growth rate. The series has 100% coverage across 70 observations and 69 consecutive returns. Measured annualized variability of monthly returns is 2.2%, which gives comparatively more confidence in one current index snapshot than a highly erratic history would. Separately, the worst peak-to-trough decline was 1.6%, showing that even this stable record experienced declines. National discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs are 1,990 for momentum, 259 for stability, and 1,159 for the balanced measure, with lower ranks stronger. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
The ZIP reading is below each wider rent context. The Columbus city rent context is $1,456, the Franklin County rent context is $1,510, and the Columbus, OH metro rent context is $1,528. Those values are context only, not alternate readings for this ZIP, and each applies to a larger geography with its own housing mix and source construction. The comparison establishes that the ZIP-level asking-rent index is lower than the named city, county, and metro context values, but it does not explain why that difference exists or establish a property-level rent advantage.
The matched ZCTA’s ACS 2024 five-year median gross rent is $1,477, with a $32 ninety-percent margin of error. The current asking-rent index is 2.5% below that survey median, but the figures are not interchangeable: ACS is a five-year survey of occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities, whereas ZORI tracks observed asking rents. Median household income in the ACS area is $86,666, and the index-to-income arithmetic is 19.9%. Applying the 30% screen to the current index produces $57,600 in required annual income; that calculation is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule. Separately, 45.9% of renter households met the ACS rent-burden threshold, a survey result that cannot identify the burden of any particular household or unit.
HUD’s FY2026 FMR/SAFMR ladder is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent. Its studio standard is $1,310 and its four-bedroom standard is $2,280. Scaling ZIP ZORI by that local HUD ladder produces modelled monthly estimates of $1,116 for a studio, $1,201 for one bedroom, $1,440 for two bedrooms, $1,730 for three bedrooms, and $1,943 for four bedrooms. These are modelled estimates rather than measured bedroom rents. The ladder is useful for applying a consistent bedroom-size relationship to the ZIP index, but it does not establish current listings, signed leases, utility terms, or the rent of a specific unit.
ACS housing-stock estimates describe a substantial mixed structure base: 20,762 housing units, including 11,441 single-family units and 3,299 units in large multifamily structures. Renter households account for 49.6% of occupied units. The matched ZCTA reports a 3.9% vacancy rate, with 196 units classified as vacant for rent. These are survey-area stock and vacancy classifications rather than a live inventory of available rentals. In particular, a vacant-for-rent count does not prove that a particular unit is currently available, suitable, priced at the index level, or offered under comparable lease terms.
The direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation records a median sold price of $456,397, up 11.9% year over year, with 146 homes sold and a median 35 days on market. Its inventory count is 105 homes, with 2.2 months of supply. The average sale-to-list ratio is 101%; 44.4% of sales closed above list, while 73.3% went off market within two weeks. These are for-sale liquidity and pricing signals, not rental transactions or rental comps. The resale price movement creates a clear tension with the muted latest rent movement and challenges any simple cross-market momentum story. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price is 3.8%, but that is only a cross-source screening ratio—not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield.
Neither an aggregate ZORI reading nor ACS burden and vacancy measures can set the rent, availability, condition, or utility responsibility of a particular property. Resolving the remaining uncertainty requires property-level checks of the actual advertised rent, bedroom definition, lease timing, concessions, fees, included utilities, and current availability. A for-sale listing also needs its own verification of listing or sale status and transaction details; Redfin’s ZIP resale block cannot be substituted for rental evidence. The key question is whether the exact property’s documented terms align with the separate asking-rent, survey, HUD, and resale measures rather than being assumed from any one of them.
","findings":[{"body":"ZORI’s exact same-month changes were 0.3% over one year, 1.8% annualized over three years, and 3.9% annualized over five years. That deceleration leaves the latest reading positive but weak relative to the longer record. Complete coverage and low realized variability improve confidence in the snapshot as a measurement; they do not make its past path a forecast.","title":"Longer rent growth has slowed materially"},{"body":"The ACS matched ZCTA indicates a $1,477 median gross rent among occupied renter homes, including selected utilities, while Zillow’s $1,440 is an asking-rent index. A $57,600 annual-income result from the thirty-percent screen is arithmetic. It sits beside, rather than negates, the survey finding that 45.9% of renter households meet the burden threshold.","title":"Affordability arithmetic and surveyed burden are separate signals"},{"body":"HUD FMR/SAFMR standards and the bedroom estimates must not be read as rental comparable evidence. The studio through four-bedroom figures are modelled by scaling the ZIP ZORI with the local HUD ladder. They provide a consistent sizing framework, but no value is a measured bedroom rent, a lease observation, or proof of the rent available at a specific address.","title":"Bedroom figures are modelled rather than observed"},{"body":"Redfin’s rolling-three-month ZIP observation reports a higher resale price, relatively short marketing time, limited months of supply, and sale-to-list measures above parity. It is direct for-sale evidence, not rental evidence. The resale price movement conflicts with muted current ZORI momentum, while the annual-rent-to-sale-price calculation remains only a cross-source screening ratio and cannot describe net property economics.","title":"Resale strength does not establish rental strength"}],"risks":["Zillow, ACS, and HUD have different timing, populations, and definitions; mixing their levels as if they were identical rent quotes can create a false signal of either affordability or discount.","The history is complete but backward-looking. Its current slowing after a stronger longer path means neither the stability reading nor the discovery ranks establish the next change in asking rents.","ZCTA vacancy and rent-burden estimates are survey-area aggregates. They do not show whether a particular available unit is habitable, competitively priced, affordable to an applicant, or actually vacant today.","The Redfin figures concern sales only. A sale-price screen based on ZORI does not incorporate operating expenses, financing, taxes, insurance, property condition, lease terms, or a property’s actual rent."],"qa":[{"a":"Zillow’s observation uses ZIP market identifier 43235, while ACS attaches its survey estimates to the matched Census ZCTA. They are matched for this report, but a ZCTA is a statistical area rather than USPS delivery ZIP boundaries. The match supports comparison while leaving the source universes and their geographic constructions distinct.","q":"Why does the report distinguish the ZIP from the ZCTA?"},{"a":"No. Each bedroom figure starts with ZIP ZORI and applies proportions from the local HUD FMR/SAFMR bedroom ladder. HUD’s standard is administrative and bedroom-specific, while Zillow’s index is blended asking rent. The resulting ladder is a modelled set of ZIP estimates, not measured bedroom rents, lease observations, or available listings.","q":"Are the bedroom figures observed rental comparables?"},{"a":"The screen annualizes ZORI and divides it by the stated rent-share threshold to calculate an income amount. It does not evaluate a household’s expenses, assets, credit, household composition, utility obligation, or lease terms. It is neither advice nor an applicant qualification standard, and ACS burden remains a separate survey result.","q":"What does the required-income screen represent?"},{"a":"Redfin shows a direct ZIP resale observation over its rolling three-month period, including sold-price and market-time measures. It identifies tension with the rent series because the resale price change is much stronger than current ZORI growth. It cannot convert a sale into a rental comparable, show a unit’s rent, or establish an ownership return.","q":"How should the Redfin resale block be read alongside the rent evidence?"}],"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":"2020-09-01","rent":1121.435781},{"period":"2020-10-01","rent":1127.648149},{"period":"2020-11-01","rent":1135.690462},{"period":"2020-12-01","rent":1142.705157},{"period":"2021-01-01","rent":1139.406155},{"period":"2021-02-01","rent":1147.891725},{"period":"2021-03-01","rent":1154.281713},{"period":"2021-04-01","rent":1164.364846},{"period":"2021-05-01","rent":1175.842475},{"period":"2021-06-01","rent":1186.905779},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":1198.370305},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":1208.174572},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":1232.905357},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":1246.393728},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":1254.081495},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":1261.234683},{"period":"2022-01-01","rent":1274.253115},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":1293.736625},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":1298.523783},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":1302.47712},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":1300.526418},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":1322.827869},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":1337.610991},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":1354.244768},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":1347.644352},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":1350.944139},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":1337.029601},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":1337.093037},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":1336.715831},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":1333.063155},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":1346.667105},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":1346.936323},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":1368.862593},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":1363.449141},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":1369.765932},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":1365.969875},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":1365.304933},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":1365.203454},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":1369.433032},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":1387.251023},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":1395.020422},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":1412.135456},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":1400.990529},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1409.253235},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1405.813096},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1410.126759},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1408.488622},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1418.695395},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":1431.669733},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1439.047213},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1444.584604},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1442.701683},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1442.475095},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1428.725115},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1434.150572},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":1431.388904},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1435.561438},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1434.854405},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1435.430837},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1431.47633},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1427.872473},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1426.507173},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1427.754511},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1425.127705},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1425.893732},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":1432.749866},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":1435.465711},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":1437.827007},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":1436.364517},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":1439.719558}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":70,"firstPeriod":"2020-09-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":70,"coverageRatio":1,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1434.854405,"endRent":1439.719558,"change":0.003390694542280137,"cagr":0.003390694542280137},"3":{"years":3,"startPeriod":"2023-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1363.449141,"endRent":1439.719558,"change":0.05593931941169483,"cagr":0.0183091682606058},"5":{"years":5,"startPeriod":"2021-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1186.905779,"endRent":1439.719558,"change":0.21300239957800393,"cagr":0.039375156603126626}},"maxDrawdown":-0.01564090443656041,"annualizedVolatility":0.02163365322155636,"consecutiveReturnCount":69}}