ZIP 55405 presents a cross-market tension rather than a single clean rent signal. In June 2026, Zillow’s direct ZIP ZORI was $1,393 per month and had risen from a year earlier. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, so it is not a lease-specific quote or a measure of every available unit. Meanwhile, Redfin’s direct ZIP for-sale observation put the median sold price at $494,888, 3.08% below its year-earlier level. Rising asking-rent indexing alongside a lower resale median is the immediate tension: it supports neither a claim that a particular home rents at the index nor an inference from resale prices to rental transactions. The label is both a Zillow ZIP market identifier and a matching Census ZCTA; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP.
History gives the current rent reading more texture but no forward answer. Exact same-month annualized ZORI changes were 3.20% over 1 year, 2.82% over 3 years, and 2.41% over 5 years through the stated endpoint. The latest pace therefore confirms, rather than breaks from, the longer upward path, although it is only a backward-looking measurement. Monthly ZORI returns converted to 2.28% annualized variability, suggesting a relatively contained pattern in the available record; the series’ largest peak-to-trough decline was 1.97%, a separate indication that past reversals were limited. Coverage is complete across the observed history. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 985 for momentum, 389 for stability, and 349 for the balanced measure, where a lower rank is higher. Those ranks and the history are descriptive, not forecasts or investment recommendations, and the measured variability still limits confidence in any current snapshot.
Source definitions materially change the comparison. In the matched Census ZCTA’s ACS 2024 five-year survey, median gross rent was $1,231, making the current ZORI 13.2% higher. ACS is a survey of occupied renter homes and its gross-rent measure includes selected utilities, unlike an asking-rent index; the gap is consequently a source difference, not proof of a current unit premium. HUD’s local two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR standard was $1,709, and the direct ZIP ZORI equals 81.5% of that administrative, bedroom-specific benchmark. HUD is not asking rent. A 30% income screen turns ZORI into a required annual income of $55,720; compared with the ZCTA median household income of $73,053, the arithmetic share is 22.9%. This screen is not advice, a household budget, or an applicant qualification rule.
The bedroom view is deliberately modelled rather than observed. It scales the ZIP ZORI by the local HUD ladder to produce modelled monthly estimates of $1,012 for a studio, $1,145 for one bedroom, $1,393 for two bedrooms, $1,844 for three bedrooms, and $2,063 for four bedrooms. They are not measured bedroom rents, nor are they evidence that listings of those sizes are available at those amounts. The two-bedroom estimate aligns mechanically with the all-types ZORI because the ladder uses that point as its local anchor; that agreement should not erase the distinction between an index and a unit-level asking price. The HUD-derived scaling helps make bedroom differences explicit but cannot substitute for actual listing terms, utility treatment, or property condition.
ACS also depicts a renter-heavy but not unit-specific housing base. The matched ZCTA showed a 9.4% vacancy rate; 5,241 occupied homes were renter occupied, a 63.7% renter share. Its stock includes both single-family and large multifamily structures, while 567 vacant units were identified as for rent. Those area aggregates do not establish vacancy, condition, or availability at a particular address. Within ACS renter households, 2,141 faced gross-rent burdens at or above the 30% threshold, or 40.9%. Because burden uses surveyed household costs and incomes, it should not be read as a prediction of whether a new renter would be burdened, especially when the current ZORI, ACS gross rent, and unit utilities measure different things.
Broader comparisons reinforce that scope matters. In Minneapolis city context, the rent figure was about $1,686; in Hennepin County context, it was $1,766; and in the Minneapolis-St. Paul-Bloomington, MN-WI metro context, it was $1,727. Each is wider-area context, not a substitute for the direct ZIP ZORI or a claim about conditions inside the matched ZCTA. The ZIP’s lower index relative to all three figures coexists with a locally higher renter share than city and county context, but differing geographies, rental compositions, and measurement approaches prevent a simple ranking of unit affordability. The useful comparison is directional: this ZIP’s current asking-rent index sits below these named wider-area rent figures while its household survey measures must remain separate.
Resale liquidity deserves a separate reading. Redfin reports a direct rolling-three-month ZIP for-sale observation, not rental transactions. In that resale window, 45 homes sold with a median 20 days on market; reported inventory was 52 homes and months of supply stood at 3.5. The average sale-to-list result was 99.36%, while 31.85% of sales closed above list, signals that should remain within the for-sale universe. Together with the lower median price noted above, these measures challenge a simplistic reading of rising ZORI as universally strengthening housing-market conditions, even though sales moved and marketed homes transacted. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by the Redfin median sold price is 3.38%, solely a cross-source screening ratio. It is not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield; it excludes property-specific costs, financing, and actual lease income.
The evidence cannot resolve a property decision without information it does not contain. Verify an actual unit’s advertised rent, bedroom count, included utilities, availability date, lease term, and any concessions before comparing it with ZORI or the modelled ladder. For a listed home, check the individual sale price, list-price history, exposure time, condition, and whether its transaction falls within the Redfin window rather than treating the ZIP median as a comp. Confirm the address’s ZIP assignment versus the ZCTA boundary, because the two geographies are not identical. Also distinguish a vacant-for-rent aggregate from an available comparable unit and a household burden statistic from an applicant outcome. The core unresolved question is whether a specific property’s documented terms align with the separate rent, survey, HUD, and resale measures, rather than whether any single indicator can stand in for all of them.
","findings":[{"body":"Same-month ZORI growth is modestly faster over the recent period than across the longer annualized record. Low measured variability and a limited historical drawdown make the current direction more internally consistent than a sharp reversal. Complete history coverage improves the usefulness of that description, but the national discovery ranks are screening tools, not estimates of future rent movement or a property’s leasing outcome.","title":"Rent path supports continuity, not a forecast"},{"body":"Zillow ZORI, ACS median gross rent, and HUD FMR/SAFMR have distinct populations and purposes. The ZIP index reflects observed asking rents across rental types; ACS surveys occupied renters and includes selected utilities; HUD sets administrative bedroom standards. The displayed bedroom sequence scales the index through the local HUD ladder, making it a modelled comparison framework rather than observed rent by bedroom.","title":"Rent measures answer different questions"},{"body":"The ZCTA is renter-majority in the ACS evidence, and its vacancy and burden readings provide area-level household context. Neither measure identifies a vacant comparable unit, its condition, a concession, or an applicant’s eventual cost burden. Survey uncertainty and the distinction between the ZCTA boundary and USPS delivery ZIP geography make address-level verification necessary before applying aggregate evidence to a property.","title":"Rental concentration does not establish unit availability"},{"body":"Redfin shows completed for-sale activity and sale-to-list signals even as the median sold-price change moved opposite the rent index’s recent direction. That tension is useful because it prevents a single-market narrative. The annualized-rent-to-price calculation is only a cross-source screen; it does not include operating costs, financing, vacancy experience, or realized lease payments.","title":"Resale evidence complicates the rent-index reading"}],"risks":["ZORI is a blended ZIP asking-rent index rather than a quoted unit rent, so lease term, concessions, utility inclusion, condition, and availability can make a specific listing materially different from the snapshot.","ACS measures occupied renter households in a statistical ZCTA over a five-year survey period, with provided margins of error, and does not identify current listings or match every USPS delivery ZIP address.","Bedroom figures are modelled by scaling ZIP ZORI with a local HUD ladder. They should not be treated as measured bedroom rents, rental inventory, lease quotes, or evidence of unit-level affordability.","Redfin’s rolling resale evidence concerns for-sale transactions only. Its rent-to-price screen cannot establish a cap rate, net return, expected return, property yield, or the economics of an individual home."],"qa":[{"a":"It represents the ZIP-level Zillow Observed Rent Index at the reported endpoint: a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. It is not an advertised quote for a specified apartment, a signed lease rent, an all-in utility bill, or a census estimate of occupied renter households.","q":"What does the current Zillow number represent?"},{"a":"They use different universes. Zillow observes and indexes asking rents, ACS surveys occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities in gross rent, and HUD publishes an administrative bedroom-specific standard. Differences between the figures can be informative, but they do not establish that any current listing is mispriced or affordable.","q":"Why are Zillow rent, ACS gross rent, and HUD FMR not interchangeable?"},{"a":"No. The bedroom amounts are modelled monthly estimates created by scaling the all-types ZIP ZORI with the local HUD ladder. They provide a transparent size-based framework, but do not measure advertised rents, completed leases, utility packages, concessions, condition, or actual availability by bedroom count.","q":"Are the bedroom amounts observed rents for available units?"},{"a":"It should remain a separate for-sale market observation. The lower median sold-price change alongside a rising rent index introduces a meaningful tension rather than a conclusion. Sale pace, supply, and sale-to-list measures do not establish rental demand, lease income, property expenses, or an individual asset’s financial performance.","q":"How should the resale evidence affect interpretation of the rent data?"}],"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":"2019-12-01","rent":1202.745077},{"period":"2020-01-01","rent":1202.01313},{"period":"2020-02-01","rent":1188.9611},{"period":"2020-03-01","rent":1203.050392},{"period":"2020-04-01","rent":1205.929731},{"period":"2020-05-01","rent":1205.200734},{"period":"2020-06-01","rent":1200.973929},{"period":"2020-07-01","rent":1200.940142},{"period":"2020-08-01","rent":1217.40563},{"period":"2020-09-01","rent":1217.964366},{"period":"2020-10-01","rent":1206.344887},{"period":"2020-11-01","rent":1198.80585},{"period":"2020-12-01","rent":1204.975937},{"period":"2021-01-01","rent":1209.094651},{"period":"2021-02-01","rent":1213.263765},{"period":"2021-03-01","rent":1208.776113},{"period":"2021-04-01","rent":1229.355807},{"period":"2021-05-01","rent":1227.018545},{"period":"2021-06-01","rent":1237.202441},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":1231.873844},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":1222.666372},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":1229.568952},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":1244.358328},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":1257.595958},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":1248.760818},{"period":"2022-01-01","rent":1245.714244},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":1250.935826},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":1263.143794},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":1257.013293},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":1259.592021},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":1258.962721},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":1267.143735},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":1283.201367},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":1295.043808},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":1294.531108},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":1283.105246},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":1279.971211},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":1290.97133},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":1293.496606},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":1282.013724},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":1278.017961},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":1277.185283},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":1281.728493},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":1283.522752},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":1282.310777},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":1276.324725},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":1269.54805},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":1271.013191},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":1286.550156},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":1286.861955},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":1299.88949},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":1304.129631},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1306.510412},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1303.74814},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1305.026927},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1313.473984},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1316.46369},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":1313.209649},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1308.553869},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1318.129736},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1323.807434},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1349.245009},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1337.114023},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1339.166571},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":1333.750108},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1347.220835},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1350.204645},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1348.412309},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1351.032585},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1361.206309},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1375.193036},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1376.37485},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1372.799209},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1358.798588},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":1369.108381},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":1375.778139},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":1388.442318},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":1388.224086},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":1393.382716}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":79,"firstPeriod":"2019-12-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":79,"coverageRatio":1,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1350.204645,"endRent":1393.382716,"change":0.03197890864906627,"cagr":0.03197890864906627},"3":{"years":3,"startPeriod":"2023-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1281.728493,"endRent":1393.382716,"change":0.08711222666093921,"cagr":0.02823281562612312},"5":{"years":5,"startPeriod":"2021-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1237.202441,"endRent":1393.382716,"change":0.12623663664433415,"cagr":0.024061243467971005}},"maxDrawdown":-0.019687178026335794,"annualizedVolatility":0.022838557306178432,"consecutiveReturnCount":78}}