In 60607, the most decision-relevant tension is not a weak rent reading but a high asking-rent level paired with a comparatively strong area income benchmark. The current typical asking rent is $2,985 per month, and the ZIP’s median household income is $127,732. Zillow’s asking-rent index rose 4.3% from the same month a year earlier, while the asking-rent-to-income calculation is 28.0%. That arithmetic sits below a simple 30% screen, but it does not establish any individual renter’s budget, lease terms, utility costs, or qualification outcome. The central question is whether a current asking-rent snapshot is sufficiently representative of the homes or units being evaluated.
The backward-looking rent path supports a stable-growth description rather than a recent break from trend. Exact same-month annualized change was 4.3% over one-year, 4.0% over three-year, and 4.7% over five-year periods. The latest one-year result is close to both longer measures, so recent direction broadly confirms the longer path instead of reversing it. Annualized monthly-return variability of 2.5% suggests the index has generally moved with limited month-to-month instability, increasing confidence in the current snapshot relative to a more erratic series. Still, the historical maximum drawdown reached 9.7%, showing that a smooth longer trend did not eliminate periods of decline. History coverage is 99.3%, and transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 568 for momentum, 700 for stability, and 232 for the balanced measure; lower ranks are stronger. These are historical measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
The five-digit 60607 label is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and a matched Census ZCTA label; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. Zillow ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. By contrast, the ACS 2024 five-year median gross rent was $2,346, with a $77 margin of error, for occupied renter homes and including selected utilities. The current asking index is 27.2% above that survey median, a difference that should not be read as a simple market rent increase because the sources describe different populations and cost concepts. HUD’s FY2026 two-bedroom standard is $2,670, and the asking index stands 11.8% above it. HUD FMR or SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent.
Bedroom detail is available only as a modelled ladder, not as observed bedroom rents. Scaling ZIP ZORI through the local HUD ladder produces modelled monthly estimates of $2,482 for a studio, $2,650 for one bedroom, $2,985 for two bedrooms, $3,846 for three bedrooms, and $4,450 for four bedrooms. The two-bedroom result aligns with the all-types ZORI by construction, rather than confirming a measured two-bedroom market median. At the index level, annual income of $119,400 is required for rent to equal 30% of gross income. This required-income screen is arithmetic only: it is not financial advice, an applicant qualification rule, or evidence that any particular household can afford a particular available unit.
Housing-stock evidence helps frame the rental base but does not identify presently available choices. The matched ZCTA contains 17,899 housing units, with renter-occupied homes representing 58.7% of occupied units, and large multifamily structures make up most of the stock. Its overall vacancy rate is 7.5%, while 578 vacant homes were classified as for rent. Neither figure proves vacancy, condition, price, or lease availability for a specific building or unit. Among renter households in the ACS universe, 41.4% reported spending at least 30% of income on gross rent. That burden measure includes occupied renter homes and selected utilities, so it neither contradicts the index-level income screen nor proves financial pressure for a given prospective tenant.
Wider geographies point to a ZIP that is priced above surrounding rental context, though none is a substitute for ZIP evidence. Chicago city context shows a $2,409 asking-rent measure and a 48.3% renter-burden share. Cook County context shows a $2,336 asking-rent measure and a 42.3% renter share. The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro context shows a $2,275 asking-rent measure and a 30.0% rent-to-income measure. City, county, and metro figures are context with their respective geographies, not local rental comps. The ZIP’s lower burden share relative to the city and its higher asking index relative to all three areas can coexist because the measures use different populations, income levels, and rent definitions.
Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation is for-sale evidence, not rental transactions or rental comparables. It reports a median sold price of $534,879, up 17.8% year over year, with 197 homes sold and median marketing time of 47 days. Inventory was 168 homes, down 7.3% from a year earlier, and months of supply measured 2.6. Sale-to-list indicators remained firm: the average sale-to-list result was 101.5%, 50.6% of sales closed above list, and 45.4% went off market within two weeks. Those resale signals are consistent with active buyer-side conditions, yet the much faster sold-price change than the 4.3% asking-rent change challenges any assumption that resale appreciation and rent movement are advancing at the same pace. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price is 6.7%, but this is only a cross-source screening ratio, not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield.
The evidence has clear limits. ZORI cannot identify exact rents, concessions, utility treatment, availability dates, or condition for a particular unit; ACS cannot provide current asking rents; HUD standards are administrative; and Redfin resale observations cannot establish rental economics. A property-level review would need current comparable asking listings matched by bedroom count, lease length, concessions, fees, utility inclusions, furnishing status, building condition, and availability timing. For a resale comparison, it would also need unit-specific sale records, listing histories, physical attributes, and transaction terms. The measured case for 60607 is therefore a stable but elevated ZIP asking-rent index alongside firmer for-sale signals, with confidence tempered by source differences and the fact that an index is not a property-specific quote.
","findings":[{"body":"Same-month rent change over one-year, three-year, and five-year intervals remains tightly grouped at roughly four to five percent annually. That alignment indicates that the latest rent movement broadly follows the established historical path. Low monthly-return variability improves the usefulness of the current index, but the recorded drawdown shows that even this relatively stable series has experienced meaningful declines.","title":"Rent growth is steady, not accelerating sharply"},{"body":"The ZIP asking-rent index is materially higher than the ACS median gross-rent figure, but the gap is not a direct measure of rent inflation. Zillow reflects observed asking rents across rental types, whereas ACS summarizes occupied renter homes over five survey years and includes selected utilities. HUD’s bedroom standards add an administrative reference, not a measured asking-rent benchmark.","title":"Asking rent exceeds survey gross rent for definitional reasons"},{"body":"The index-level income calculation falls below the 30% threshold because the ZCTA median household income is high relative to current ZORI. Meanwhile, a substantial share of ACS renter households report gross-rent burdens at or above that threshold. These measures can both be true because one is a ZIP-level arithmetic screen and the other is a survey result for occupied renter homes.","title":"Affordability screens and burden data describe different populations"},{"body":"Redfin’s direct ZIP resale data show rising sold prices, limited months of supply, above-list sales, and a meaningful share of homes leaving the market quickly. Those for-sale conditions are stronger than the contemporaneous rent-growth signal. The annualized-rent-to-sold-price figure is useful only as a cross-source screen and cannot translate resale activity into property-level rental economics.","title":"Resale strength creates a cross-market tension"}],"risks":["A particular available unit may differ substantially from the blended asking-rent index because concessions, fees, lease length, utilities, furnishing, condition, timing, and bedroom count are not resolved by ZORI.","ACS burden, income, vacancy, and gross-rent measures describe a matched ZCTA survey universe of occupied homes, not necessarily the current residents, applicants, or available units associated with a USPS delivery ZIP.","The apparent strength in Redfin resale indicators may not transfer to rental demand or unit economics because those observations track for-sale transactions, buyer behavior, listing conditions, and sold-price outcomes rather than leases.","The modelled bedroom ladder inherits both the ZIP-wide ZORI level and HUD bedroom relationships, so it should not be treated as direct evidence of achieved rents for studio through four-bedroom units."],"qa":[{"a":"The measures cover different evidence universes. Zillow ZORI is a current typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. ACS median gross rent is a five-year survey estimate for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. The difference therefore cannot be treated as a simple current-rent premium for equivalent units.","q":"Why does the Zillow asking-rent figure exceed the ACS median gross rent?"},{"a":"The one-year increase is close to the three-year and five-year annualized changes, so the latest direction broadly confirms rather than breaks from the longer rent path. Low monthly-return variability lends some stability to the snapshot, while the historical maximum drawdown means the index has not been immune to periods of decline.","q":"What does the rent-history pattern say about the current rent snapshot?"},{"a":"No. The studio through four-bedroom figures are modelled monthly estimates created by scaling ZIP ZORI through the local HUD bedroom ladder. They are useful for showing the implied relative bedroom structure, but they are not measured bedroom asking rents, signed leases, or property-specific rental comparables.","q":"Are the bedroom rents observed market medians?"},{"a":"It is an arithmetic cross-source screen that divides annualized ZIP ZORI by the direct ZIP median sold price. It can highlight the relationship between an asking-rent index and resale pricing, but it excludes expenses, financing, taxes, unit condition, vacancies, and transaction-specific terms, so it is not a return measure.","q":"How should the Redfin rent-price screening ratio be used?"}],"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":"2015-01-01","rent":2014.738052},{"period":"2015-02-01","rent":2030.438804},{"period":"2015-03-01","rent":2029.504865},{"period":"2015-04-01","rent":2030.573979},{"period":"2015-05-01","rent":2041.260347},{"period":"2015-06-01","rent":2051.609721},{"period":"2015-07-01","rent":2058.456485},{"period":"2015-08-01","rent":2067.541943},{"period":"2015-09-01","rent":2066.953126},{"period":"2015-10-01","rent":2076.758861},{"period":"2015-11-01","rent":2099.361658},{"period":"2015-12-01","rent":2106.28019},{"period":"2016-01-01","rent":2097.045042},{"period":"2016-02-01","rent":2096.664062},{"period":"2016-03-01","rent":2110.263397},{"period":"2016-04-01","rent":2108.229384},{"period":"2016-05-01","rent":2094.319924},{"period":"2016-06-01","rent":2102.310868},{"period":"2016-07-01","rent":2142.070935},{"period":"2016-08-01","rent":2159.036194},{"period":"2016-09-01","rent":2173.715444},{"period":"2016-10-01","rent":2168.2397},{"period":"2016-11-01","rent":2168.521437},{"period":"2017-01-01","rent":2141.388806},{"period":"2017-02-01","rent":2156.2544},{"period":"2017-03-01","rent":2177.043216},{"period":"2017-04-01","rent":2232.626202},{"period":"2017-05-01","rent":2246.465724},{"period":"2017-06-01","rent":2242.764868},{"period":"2017-07-01","rent":2209.252695},{"period":"2017-08-01","rent":2211.899497},{"period":"2017-09-01","rent":2214.359622},{"period":"2017-10-01","rent":2224.951244},{"period":"2017-11-01","rent":2217.00189},{"period":"2017-12-01","rent":2234.819077},{"period":"2018-01-01","rent":2249.726382},{"period":"2018-02-01","rent":2252.68289},{"period":"2018-03-01","rent":2256.981153},{"period":"2018-04-01","rent":2258.47359},{"period":"2018-05-01","rent":2259.770207},{"period":"2018-06-01","rent":2269.071553},{"period":"2018-07-01","rent":2281.774782},{"period":"2018-08-01","rent":2296.81197},{"period":"2018-09-01","rent":2281.180378},{"period":"2018-10-01","rent":2259.407127},{"period":"2018-11-01","rent":2270.293136},{"period":"2018-12-01","rent":2276.96333},{"period":"2019-01-01","rent":2340.040523},{"period":"2019-02-01","rent":2331.097518},{"period":"2019-03-01","rent":2331.9712},{"period":"2019-04-01","rent":2321.619727},{"period":"2019-05-01","rent":2334.556533},{"period":"2019-06-01","rent":2345.346256},{"period":"2019-07-01","rent":2361.709927},{"period":"2019-08-01","rent":2363.819771},{"period":"2019-09-01","rent":2390.498735},{"period":"2019-10-01","rent":2422.110704},{"period":"2019-11-01","rent":2435.683993},{"period":"2019-12-01","rent":2443.691435},{"period":"2020-01-01","rent":2407.346636},{"period":"2020-02-01","rent":2428.942023},{"period":"2020-03-01","rent":2420.943645},{"period":"2020-04-01","rent":2434.244883},{"period":"2020-05-01","rent":2407.851142},{"period":"2020-06-01","rent":2373.146212},{"period":"2020-07-01","rent":2341.33144},{"period":"2020-08-01","rent":2320.446173},{"period":"2020-09-01","rent":2287.510701},{"period":"2020-10-01","rent":2247.675231},{"period":"2020-11-01","rent":2222.19954},{"period":"2020-12-01","rent":2206.079429},{"period":"2021-01-01","rent":2222.556765},{"period":"2021-02-01","rent":2241.901781},{"period":"2021-03-01","rent":2266.091345},{"period":"2021-04-01","rent":2298.921895},{"period":"2021-05-01","rent":2327.217029},{"period":"2021-06-01","rent":2370.709086},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":2397.594958},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":2420.61626},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":2449.306044},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":2495.385749},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":2522.736027},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":2546.666299},{"period":"2022-01-01","rent":2542.660933},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":2541.091133},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":2534.850795},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":2522.075173},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":2531.045208},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":2547.529904},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":2570.706859},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":2585.092948},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":2596.227025},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":2591.251903},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":2589.540899},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":2598.074837},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":2620.915054},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":2632.593027},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":2638.9214},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":2645.146387},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":2656.028919},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":2653.400628},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":2658.444508},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":2669.261641},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":2671.296535},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":2672.747363},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":2696.298843},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":2699.307371},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":2701.927646},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":2688.50869},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":2706.816658},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":2721.05707},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":2722.914119},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":2714.78914},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":2712.428597},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":2718.688588},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":2731.249134},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":2748.196759},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":2748.82872},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":2753.611951},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":2768.386759},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":2800.101763},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":2822.389799},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":2840.630038},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":2850.008721},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":2862.692175},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":2881.437559},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":2892.298156},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":2902.931098},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":2913.287181},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":2925.514251},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":2942.796133},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":2950.269059},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":2954.432477},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":2951.321532},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":2953.475756},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":2966.912604},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":2985.072839}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":137,"firstPeriod":"2015-01-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":138,"coverageRatio":0.9927536231884058,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":2862.692175,"endRent":2985.072839,"change":0.042750200342445144,"cagr":0.042750200342445144},"3":{"years":3,"startPeriod":"2023-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":2653.400628,"endRent":2985.072839,"change":0.12499891931132834,"cagr":0.04004157850021217},"5":{"years":5,"startPeriod":"2021-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":2370.709086,"endRent":2985.072839,"change":0.2591476772194732,"cagr":0.04716551990568174}},"maxDrawdown":-0.0972348646792226,"annualizedVolatility":0.025045891045014763,"consecutiveReturnCount":135}}