ZIP 60202 presents a split screen: Zillow’s current typical observed asking-rent index is $2,204 per month, up 6.25% from the same month a year earlier, while later resale evidence shows softer prices. This is a Zillow ZIP market identifier matched to a Census ZCTA. A ZCTA is a statistical area used for tabulation and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. ZORI is a blended asking-rent index across rental types, so it is a current market-rent signal rather than a count of leased units, a utility-inclusive household cost, or a measure of any particular apartment.
The rent path remains positive but is not accelerating beyond every longer comparison. Exact same-month annualized growth was 6.25% over one year, 6.01% over three years, and 6.81% over five years. Recent direction therefore broadly confirms the longer upward path, though the latest pace sits below the five-year rate. The history has 138 monthly observations and 137 consecutive monthly returns with complete coverage. Annualized monthly-return variability of 2.74% suggests that changes have generally been contained, but the separate 2.97% maximum drawdown shows that declines have occurred. That combination supports moderate confidence in the current snapshot, not certainty. Transparent national discovery ranks were 147 for momentum, 1,126 for stability, and 158 for the balanced measure, where lower ranks are stronger; these are backward-looking discovery measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
The supplied bedroom ladder translates the ZIP-wide ZORI into modelled monthly estimates, not measured bedroom rents: $1,828 for a studio, $1,960 for one bedroom, $2,204 for two bedrooms, $2,834 for three bedrooms, and $3,281 for four bedrooms. These estimates scale the ZIP ZORI using the local HUD bedroom ladder. HUD FMR or SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent, so neither the HUD amounts nor the scaled estimates establish what a particular available unit will rent for. The matched ACS five-year survey reports a $1,651 median gross rent for occupied renter homes, including selected utilities; that figure is 33.5% below ZORI, but the two sources describe different populations and cost concepts.
The income screen also requires careful separation from tenant outcomes. Median household income in the ZCTA is $98,989, while annualizing the current ZORI and applying a 30% housing-cost share produces $88,160 of required income. The resulting asking-rent-to-income comparison is 26.7%, an arithmetic screen rather than advice or an applicant qualification rule. ACS reports that 34.4% of renter households paid at least 30% of income toward gross rent. That burden measure concerns surveyed occupied renter homes and selected utilities, not a prediction about the affordability of a listed unit or the circumstances of any individual household.
Housing stock gives the rent and burden figures additional scale without proving current availability. The ZCTA contains 14,948 housing units, of which 921 were vacant in the ACS estimate, for a 6.2% vacancy rate. There were 238 units classified as vacant for rent, and renters occupied 41.9% of occupied homes. The stock includes both single-family homes and larger multifamily buildings, consistent with a mixed set of rental and ownership housing forms. Vacancy is a survey-area condition, not evidence that a specific property is vacant, competitively priced, habitable, or offered on the terms assumed by the ZORI index.
Wider Zillow asking-rent context places Evanston city scope at $2,561.65, Cook County scope at $2,336, and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro scope at $2,275; each is above the ZIP’s current $2,204 index. These city, county, and metro figures are context only and should not replace the direct ZIP observation. Their broader geographies can contain different rental-type mixes, household profiles, and supply conditions. The ZIP’s lower index relative to all three reference areas is useful for positioning, but it does not reconcile the difference between current asking rents and the ACS gross-rent survey, nor does it establish a quality or value comparison among homes.
The direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation introduces the main counterweight to rent momentum. Median sold price was $407,518, down 4.11% year over year, with 123 homes sold and a median 41 days on market. Active listings totaled 211, up 15.22%, while inventory was 84, up 18.11%; there were 137 pending sales and 2.1 months of supply. At the same time, average sale-to-list was 103.19%, 49.21% of sales closed above list, and 58.08% went off market within two weeks. Those liquidity signals coexist with lower median price and rising listings, challenging a simple reading that rising asking rents alone imply broad market strengthening. This is for-sale evidence, not rental transactions. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price is a 6.49% cross-source screening ratio only, not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield.
The practical limit is that each series answers a different question at a different level of aggregation. ZORI can frame current ZIP asking-rent conditions; ACS describes surveyed occupied renter homes; HUD supplies administrative bedroom standards; and Redfin records recent ZIP resale activity. A property-level review would need the actual advertised rent, bedroom count, unit type, lease term, utility responsibility, concessions, availability date, and condition before comparing a listing with the modelled ladder. For a purchase comparison, it would also need property-specific sale records, list history, carrying costs, and the relevant resale time window. The evidence supports a documented rent-versus-resale tension, not a conclusion about any individual unit.
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow’s ZIP-level ZORI shows a current asking-rent index of $2,204 and a positive same-month annual change. The matched ACS ZCTA median gross rent is lower because ACS surveys occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities, while ZORI tracks a blended asking-rent index. The difference is informative, but it is not a like-for-like rent comparison.","title":"Asking rents are rising, but the benchmark depends on the source"},{"body":"One-, three-, and five-year same-month rent changes are all positive, placing the latest reading within a longer upward history. Monthly variability was limited relative to the cumulative trend, yet the history still recorded a measurable maximum drawdown. Full series coverage improves confidence in the measurement record, while the backward-looking record cannot determine future rents.","title":"The historical trend is positive with contained, not absent, downside"},{"body":"The simple 30% required-income calculation falls below the ZCTA median household income, but ACS still estimates that more than one-third of renter households are rent burdened. These statements are compatible because the income screen annualizes current asking rent, whereas the ACS burden statistic covers occupied renter homes, gross rent, and actual household income distributions.","title":"Household affordability measures are more mixed than the ZIP income screen"},{"body":"The direct ZIP resale series reports a year-over-year decline in median sold price alongside higher active listings and inventory. Yet above-list closings, quick off-market activity, pending sales, and limited months of supply indicate continuing transaction activity. This creates a meaningful tension with the rising rent index, but neither data set supplies property-level operating economics.","title":"Resale liquidity appears active despite a lower median sold price"}],"risks":["Zillow ZORI is a blended asking-rent index across rental types and may not match the bedroom count, utility package, lease term, condition, concessions, or availability of a specific advertised unit.","ACS values come from a five-year survey of a matched statistical ZCTA, carry survey uncertainty, describe occupied renter homes, and should not be treated as a current quote for a vacant rental.","HUD bedroom standards support the modelled ladder but are administrative benchmarks rather than observed asking rents; applying them to ZORI cannot establish a measured bedroom rent for a particular property.","The resale screen combines an annualized asking-rent index with a rolling-three-month median sold price. It omits financing, taxes, maintenance, vacancy, insurance, unit characteristics, and all property-specific cash-flow items."],"qa":[{"a":"The measures have different universes. Zillow ZORI is a current ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. ACS is a five-year survey of occupied renter homes in the matched ZCTA and its gross-rent concept includes selected utilities. A ZCTA is statistical geography, not the same thing as a USPS delivery ZIP.","q":"Why is the ZIP asking-rent index higher than the ACS median gross rent?"},{"a":"No. They are modelled monthly ZIP estimates created by scaling the ZIP-wide ZORI with the supplied local HUD bedroom ladder. HUD FMR or SAFMR is an administrative bedroom-specific standard, not an asking-rent survey. A listing can differ because of property type, lease structure, condition, utilities, concessions, and timing.","q":"Are the bedroom figures observed rents for studios through four-bedroom homes?"},{"a":"It provides a qualified challenge rather than a direct confirmation. Asking-rent history is positive, while the rolling-three-month ZIP resale data show a lower median sold price and more listings or inventory. Competitive sale-to-list and speed indicators show transaction activity, but for-sale activity is not rental evidence and cannot explain property-level economics.","q":"Does the resale data confirm the rent trend?"},{"a":"Match the property’s actual advertised rent, bedroom count, rental type, lease duration, utility obligations, concessions, availability date, and physical condition against the relevant benchmark. For a sale comparison, verify recent comparable sales, list history, property characteristics, and timing. Those checks are necessary because ZIP aggregates do not describe a particular unit.","q":"What should be checked before using these ZIP figures for a specific property?"}],"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 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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":"2015-01-01","rent":1260.341163},{"period":"2015-02-01","rent":1263.207074},{"period":"2015-03-01","rent":1277.753232},{"period":"2015-04-01","rent":1284.167734},{"period":"2015-05-01","rent":1296.104362},{"period":"2015-06-01","rent":1299.596236},{"period":"2015-07-01","rent":1306.811354},{"period":"2015-08-01","rent":1307.579525},{"period":"2015-09-01","rent":1307.646551},{"period":"2015-10-01","rent":1304.509939},{"period":"2015-11-01","rent":1304.129485},{"period":"2015-12-01","rent":1318.255753},{"period":"2016-01-01","rent":1336.404971},{"period":"2016-02-01","rent":1336.834794},{"period":"2016-03-01","rent":1338.804682},{"period":"2016-04-01","rent":1325.789788},{"period":"2016-05-01","rent":1336.555754},{"period":"2016-06-01","rent":1337.17029},{"period":"2016-07-01","rent":1348.816282},{"period":"2016-08-01","rent":1353.670575},{"period":"2016-09-01","rent":1342.122527},{"period":"2016-10-01","rent":1353.355828},{"period":"2016-11-01","rent":1363.190018},{"period":"2016-12-01","rent":1361.162281},{"period":"2017-01-01","rent":1349.244942},{"period":"2017-02-01","rent":1340.352039},{"period":"2017-03-01","rent":1366.947982},{"period":"2017-04-01","rent":1385.797558},{"period":"2017-05-01","rent":1388.474624},{"period":"2017-06-01","rent":1387.916079},{"period":"2017-07-01","rent":1387.620664},{"period":"2017-08-01","rent":1396.836226},{"period":"2017-09-01","rent":1392.660091},{"period":"2017-10-01","rent":1385.245062},{"period":"2017-11-01","rent":1378.561839},{"period":"2017-12-01","rent":1402.584183},{"period":"2018-01-01","rent":1419.623811},{"period":"2018-02-01","rent":1441.916957},{"period":"2018-03-01","rent":1429.271189},{"period":"2018-04-01","rent":1434.230851},{"period":"2018-05-01","rent":1431.185383},{"period":"2018-06-01","rent":1447.221925},{"period":"2018-07-01","rent":1450.075962},{"period":"2018-08-01","rent":1454.519739},{"period":"2018-09-01","rent":1432.618302},{"period":"2018-10-01","rent":1426.509878},{"period":"2018-11-01","rent":1437.461136},{"period":"2018-12-01","rent":1466.793122},{"period":"2019-01-01","rent":1468.20368},{"period":"2019-02-01","rent":1465.579903},{"period":"2019-03-01","rent":1473.042322},{"period":"2019-04-01","rent":1474.833621},{"period":"2019-05-01","rent":1486.000263},{"period":"2019-06-01","rent":1486.606276},{"period":"2019-07-01","rent":1495.088073},{"period":"2019-08-01","rent":1499.135818},{"period":"2019-09-01","rent":1533.607009},{"period":"2019-10-01","rent":1553.057616},{"period":"2019-11-01","rent":1558.838948},{"period":"2019-12-01","rent":1535.79673},{"period":"2020-01-01","rent":1541.491106},{"period":"2020-02-01","rent":1548.010545},{"period":"2020-03-01","rent":1547.56643},{"period":"2020-04-01","rent":1545.370052},{"period":"2020-05-01","rent":1541.342673},{"period":"2020-06-01","rent":1541.584661},{"period":"2020-07-01","rent":1536.322832},{"period":"2020-08-01","rent":1533.265976},{"period":"2020-09-01","rent":1513.212867},{"period":"2020-10-01","rent":1512.536588},{"period":"2020-11-01","rent":1523.237892},{"period":"2020-12-01","rent":1533.062682},{"period":"2021-01-01","rent":1548.350164},{"period":"2021-02-01","rent":1535.510753},{"period":"2021-03-01","rent":1547.897553},{"period":"2021-04-01","rent":1556.871498},{"period":"2021-05-01","rent":1576.588585},{"period":"2021-06-01","rent":1584.888944},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":1589.251796},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":1604.665928},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":1611.519314},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":1617.470246},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":1622.576438},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":1648.742359},{"period":"2022-01-01","rent":1676.012248},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":1692.091449},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":1692.629216},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":1692.514505},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":1701.351946},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":1721.098002},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":1744.853301},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":1746.298296},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":1747.699938},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":1758.661023},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":1763.017733},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":1816.155162},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":1817.321678},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":1853.823409},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":1830.500584},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":1846.885301},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":1840.689172},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":1849.809227},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":1857.533628},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":1883.180481},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":1893.406569},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":1891.473687},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":1919.530542},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":1920.626161},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":1938.581157},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":1918.349896},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":1942.805712},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1961.318465},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1980.969976},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1981.3353},{"period":"2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