The decision question in ZIP 60804 is whether a current marketwide asking-rent signal can be used as a useful starting point while avoiding a false comparison with survey and administrative benchmarks. For June 2026, Zillow’s ZORI is $1,229 per month, up 7.2% from a year earlier. This is a ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, not a quote for a specific vacant home. It is a reading of broad market conditions, not an inventory count or an advertised-price range. The five-digit label is both a Zillow ZIP market identifier and a match to a Census ZCTA. A ZCTA is a statistical area, however, and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. That scope distinction is material whenever an address sits near a delivery or reporting boundary.
The ACS 2024 five-year ZCTA survey places median gross rent at $1,154, with a $34 90% margin of error. That measure describes occupied renter homes rather than advertised availability and includes selected utilities; it is therefore a different universe from ZORI. The gap between the measures cannot isolate property quality, timing, utilities, or lease terms. HUD’s FY2026 two-bedroom fair market rent is $1,490. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent, and the ZIP index sits below this two-bedroom standard. These are aligned benchmarks for comparison, not interchangeable definitions of rent. The survey result also is not an offer made during the current month.
ACS reports median household income of $70,842 for the matched ZCTA. Applying a 30% rent-to-income screen to the $1,229 monthly index produces $49,160 in annual income; that is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule. Annualized index rent is roughly 20.8% of the reported median household income. Renters occupy 11,103 of the 24,432 occupied homes, a 45.4% share. Separately, 4,930 renter households, or 44.4%, report gross-rent burdens of 30% or more. This observed burden describes surveyed renter households, not a prediction of affordability or evidence about any particular home or applicant.
The ACS stock and vacancy counts show why the headline vacancy rate needs composition. Of 26,203 housing units in the ZCTA, 1,771 are vacant, yielding a 6.8% vacancy rate. Only 184 vacant units are identified as for rent, while 139 are for sale and none are seasonal; these categories do not establish how many rentals are currently listed, habitable, priced near the index, or suitable for a given household. The inventory includes 11,783 single-family units but only 449 units in large multifamily structures. This mix describes the survey’s stock categories, not the availability, condition, or turnover of an individual property.
For size-specific orientation, the local HUD ladder scales the ZIP ZORI into modelled monthly estimates: $1,023 for a studio, $1,089 for one bedroom, $1,229 for two, $1,584 for three, and $1,831 for four. The underlying HUD standards run from $1,240 for a studio to $2,220 for four-bedroom homes. These estimates retain the overall index as their base and use local HUD bedroom relationships to distribute it by size. They are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents: the two-bedroom estimate equals the overall ZORI by construction, and no observed ZIP-level listing sample for each bedroom count is supplied.
The Cicero city context in this packet closely aligns with the ZIP package’s rental, renter-share, and vacancy values, so it functions as a scope check rather than an independent market comparison. The Cook County context has a $2,336 rental level and a 7.7% vacancy rate, both broader measures than ZIP data. The Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro context has a $2,275 rental level, a 30.0% rent-to-income measure, and 6.2% apartment vacancy. City, county, and metro figures are wider context only; their geographic coverage, housing mix, and measurement framework cannot establish the price or availability of a property in this ZIP geography. The gaps describe geography-level measures, not a direct price adjustment for a particular address.
Limits are substantial. ZORI is an index rather than a listing distribution; ACS is a lagged five-year survey with sampling uncertainty; and HUD standards serve an administrative function. The ZIP/ZCTA correspondence does not turn either geography into an address-level record, and the model does not observe utilities, concessions, fees, lease duration, condition, availability date, or exact bedroom count. At property level, verify the current advertised rent, listed bedroom count, which selected utilities are included or excluded, all recurring charges, lease term, occupancy date, and whether the unit is actively available. Also compare the address’s delivery ZIP with the reporting geography used by the source. These checks test the match to the property; they do not convert area measures into a forecast or a qualification decision.
","findings":[{"body":"The June 2026 ZIP index records a $1,229 typical observed asking-rent level and a 7.2% annual rise. It is most useful for locating the current area-level asking environment, not for determining an actual listing price. The index blends rental types and does not identify a unit’s size, utility treatment, terms, availability, or condition.","title":"Current index is a market starting point"},{"body":"Zillow measures observed asking-rent conditions, ACS reports median gross rent for occupied renter homes, and HUD offers a bedroom-specific administrative standard. The $1,154 ACS figure includes selected utilities, while the $1,490 HUD two-bedroom standard is not asking rent. Differences between them should be read as definitional and timing context rather than a single rent series.","title":"Three rent measures answer different questions"},{"body":"Studio through four-bedroom values are modelled from the ZIP index using the local HUD size ladder. They supply a consistent size pattern when only an all-type index is directly observed. They do not constitute measured ZIP rents by bedroom, do not replace a listing search, and should not be treated as evidence that a particular home will price at the estimate.","title":"Bedroom figures are scaled estimates"},{"body":"Survey results show a substantial share of renter households reporting gross-rent burdens at or above 30%, while the vacancy total is divided among rent, sale, and other statuses. Neither statistic reveals the availability or affordability of a specific home. The required-income calculation is a mathematical benchmark, not an applicant rule or a determination about qualification.","title":"Burden and vacancy require careful interpretation"}],"risks":["The ZIP label corresponds to a Zillow market identifier and a Census ZCTA, but a ZCTA is statistical and not identical to USPS delivery geography, creating address-boundary interpretation risk.","Current asking index, occupied-home gross-rent survey, and HUD standard differ in population, timing, utility treatment, and purpose; comparing them as identical rents can misstate a property-level conclusion.","Modelled bedroom estimates inherit the all-type ZIP index and the HUD ladder, so they cannot show actual unit-size availability, concessions, amenities, condition, or lease-specific price dispersion.","Vacancy and rent-burden statistics describe aggregate categories and surveyed households; they do not establish whether a given listing is vacant, affordable, actively marketed, or suitable."],"qa":[{"a":"It is Zillow’s June 2026 ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index, blended across rental types. It reflects area-level asking-rent observations rather than a lease quote, median contracted rent, or a guarantee that any available address, bedroom count, or utility package is priced at that level.","q":"What does the ZIP rent represent?"},{"a":"ACS 2024 five-year median gross rent covers occupied renter homes in the matched ZCTA and includes selected utilities. Its lower value should not be mechanically read as a discount because it has different timing, sampled population, utility treatment, and survey purpose. The reported margin of error also applies to the survey estimate.","q":"Why does the ACS rent measure differ from Zillow’s index?"},{"a":"No. They are modelled monthly estimates created by applying the local HUD bedroom ladder to the overall ZIP index. The two-bedroom value anchors to the overall index by construction, and the packet supplies no observed ZIP listing series broken out by studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom, and four-bedroom categories.","q":"Are the bedroom values actual observed rents?"},{"a":"The required income at the 30% screen is simply the annualized rent needed for rent to equal that share of income. It is not advice, an affordability finding, or an applicant qualification rule. Survey-reported burden reflects renter households across the ZCTA and cannot determine whether an individual unit or household meets a particular threshold.","q":"How should income and burden results be read?"}],"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":"2024-03-01","rent":1104.01057},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1116.877652},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1118.716745},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1125.250521},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1119.583294},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1114.496886},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":1122.545979},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1122.653836},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1115.740741},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1119.513076},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1132.082796},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1148.69816},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1155.788269},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":1145.447896},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1142.93275},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1146.057738},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1157.360644},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1168.939897},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1172.730594},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1177.311712},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1184.086238},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1182.392318},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1178.708111},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":1176.337727},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":1184.559154},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":1202.646519},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":1218.215276},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":1228.543651}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":28,"firstPeriod":"2024-03-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":28,"coverageRatio":1,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1146.057738,"endRent":1228.543651,"change":0.07197361028594185,"cagr":0.07197361028594185}},"maxDrawdown":-0.011122728396545045,"annualizedVolatility":0.023101027800548395,"consecutiveReturnCount":27}}