The five-digit label 70506 is both a Zillow ZIP market identifier and a Census ZCTA match. At the June 2026 endpoint, Zillow’s ZIP-level ZORI was $1,396 per month, a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types rather than a quote for any particular home. Exact same-month annualized change was 1.4% over one year, versus 2.3% over three years and 3.8% over five years. Rents therefore remained above their year-earlier level, but the latest pace is below both longer trailing rates. That recent positive direction confirms the longer path’s positive sign but breaks from its faster pace by signaling deceleration; none of these backward-looking measurements forecasts the next lease price.
That deceleration arrives in a comparatively even historical record, not a claim of future stability. The series has 100% coverage through the stated endpoint, with annualized volatility of monthly returns at 2.2% and a maximum drawdown of 2.2%. Those measures describe the dispersion and deepest peak-to-trough decline observed in the available history; they are not investment recommendations. The transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 1,596 for momentum, 330 for stability, and 787 for balanced history, where a lower rank is higher. Limited month-to-month variation in this record lends more confidence to one current ZORI snapshot as a description of recent index conditions than larger swings would, while the slowed short-run gain still merits attention.
Source boundaries are central to reading the current gap. The ACS 2024 five-year survey for the matched ZCTA reports median gross rent of $1,042, with a margin of error of $47, for occupied renter homes and including selected utilities. The ZORI asking-rent index is 34.0% higher than that survey median, but the two series are not competing price tags. Zillow measures typical observed asking rent across blended rental types; ACS measures rents in occupied homes under a different survey universe. A Census ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP, so the matched geography is useful for context without being a delivery-boundary substitute.
The local HUD FMR/SAFMR ladder is a bedroom-specific administrative standard, not asking rent. Its monthly levels are $693 for a studio, $830 for one bedroom, $950 for two bedrooms, $1,200 for three bedrooms, and $1,388 for four bedrooms. Scaling the ZIP ZORI by that local ladder produces modelled monthly estimates of $1,019 for a studio, $1,220 for one bedroom, $1,396 for two bedrooms, $1,765 for three bedrooms, and $2,040 for four bedrooms. These are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents: they preserve the HUD relative ladder around the ZIP index rather than reporting observed listing medians for each bedroom size.
Affordability evidence creates a separate household-level tension. The matched ZCTA’s ACS median household income is $57,379, with a $4,758 margin of error. Annualizing the $1,396 asking-rent index gives $55,840 as the required income under a 30% screen, and the resulting asking-rent-to-income arithmetic is 29.2%. This screen is arithmetic, not advice and not an applicant qualification rule; it also compares an index with an area-level household median. Separately, ACS burden reporting places 4,137 of 9,435 renter households at or above the threshold, or 43.8%. That share describes reported household burdens in aggregate and cannot prove that a particular available unit is affordable to a particular household.
The matched ZCTA housing inventory counts 20,374 units, with 18,738 occupied and 1,636 vacant, an 8.0% vacancy rate. Its structure inventory includes 12,895 single-family units and 1,556 large-multifamily units, describing part of the composition behind the aggregate renter and vacancy evidence without identifying individual properties. As wider-context rent values, the Lafayette city context is about $1,324, the Lafayette Parish county context is $1,382, and the Lafayette, LA metro context is $1,370; each is a city, county, or metro scope rather than a ZIP value. The ZIP index sits above all three wider-context rent values, while those benchmarks should remain separated from the local ACS and HUD universes.
Important limits remain at the property level. Neither the aggregated ZORI nor the ACS survey identifies a listing’s condition, exact bedroom count, included utilities, lease terms, fees, or availability status. The HUD-derived ladder supplies a transparent comparison framework but cannot replace a property-specific asking price. Likewise, vacancy is an aggregate inventory classification and does not demonstrate that any particular listing is currently available, and burden data do not establish eligibility or affordability for an individual household. For a specific property, verify the advertised rent, actual bedrooms, included utilities, lease length, fees, availability, and stated geography. Does that listing-level evidence align with the relevant modelled estimate and the household’s own budget?
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow’s index shows ongoing upward movement, but the short same-month pace is below both the three-year and five-year annualized paths. That is the central current tension: positive momentum remains, yet the earlier pace has cooled. The complete history, limited monthly-return variability, and observed drawdown make the current index a steadier description of recent conditions than an erratic series, not a forecast.","title":"Deceleration is the key current signal"},{"body":"ACS and Zillow are not alternate readings of the same lease market. ACS describes occupied renter homes over a five-year survey window, while Zillow summarizes contemporary asking rent across a blended rental inventory. The reported gap is therefore a scope and timing difference as well as a level difference. The ACS margin of error adds survey uncertainty that should remain visible in any comparison.","title":"ACS and Zillow answer different rent questions"},{"body":"The bedroom ladder is useful for internal comparison because each estimate is scaled from the same ZIP ZORI by the local HUD schedule. It provides a transparent studio-to-four-bedroom range without asserting that those are observed bedroom-specific asking rents. HUD’s administrative standards have a different purpose from market listings, so the estimates are model outputs rather than property valuations.","title":"Bedroom figures are transparent model outputs"},{"body":"The ZCTA has a sizable occupied housing base and a vacancy measure below the city and county context rates, while its ZIP asking index is above all three wider-context rent figures. ACS also records a substantial share of renter households at or above the burden threshold. These aggregates clarify market context but cannot demonstrate affordability, condition, or availability for a specific unit.","title":"Aggregate inventory and burden require unit-level follow-up"}],"risks":["An asking-rent index can move differently from rents paid by occupied households, especially because the index blends rental types while survey gross rent includes selected utilities and reports a median.","Survey margins of error, the ZCTA’s statistical geography, and differences from USPS delivery boundaries limit precision when applying aggregate figures to a property advertised with a ZIP code.","Bedroom figures are modelled by applying a HUD administrative ladder to the blended ZORI; they are not observed rents, and unusual unit features or lease terms can differ.","Vacancy and rent-burden totals summarize groups of homes and households. They cannot establish that a specific listing is available, affordable to a particular household, or representative of the local aggregate."],"qa":[{"a":"Zillow ZORI is a ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. ACS gross rent is a matched-ZCTA five-year survey median for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. Different timing, populations, price concepts, and geography mean the two values answer different questions and should not be treated as interchangeable.","q":"Why does the ACS median gross rent differ from Zillow’s asking-rent index?"},{"a":"The studio through four-bedroom figures use the local HUD bedroom ladder as proportional weights applied to the ZIP ZORI. This makes them consistent modelled estimates for comparing bedroom sizes within the provided framework. They remain neither collected listing medians nor evidence of the rent that any particular bedroom count will command at a specific property.","q":"How were the bedroom estimates produced?"},{"a":"The screen annualizes the current ZORI and divides it by the stated share of income, then compares that arithmetic result with the area’s ACS median household income. It is useful only as a standardized comparison. It does not measure an applicant’s income, account for debts or household choices, or determine eligibility for a rental.","q":"What does the required-income screen mean?"},{"a":"Confirm the property’s advertised asking rent, actual bedroom count, included utilities, lease length, fees, and current availability. Also confirm the listing’s stated geography rather than assuming that a delivery ZIP and the statistical ZCTA identify identical households. These checks address unit-level facts that aggregate index, survey, HUD, and vacancy data cannot supply.","q":"What should be checked for a particular rental 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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