ZIP 77493 is both the Zillow ZIP market identifier and the matched Census ZCTA label; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. At June 2026, Zillow’s ZIP-level ZORI was $2,194 per month. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, rather than a lease-specific quote or a survey median. For context in the same rent universe, Katy city context rent was $1,935, Harris County context rent was $1,600, and Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX metro context rent was $1,648. The ZIP index therefore sits above each wider reference, but those broader figures are context rather than substitutes for ZIP-level asking-rent evidence.
The current softening is a break from the longer rent path, not evidence that the prior trend never occurred. Exact same-month ZORI changes were negative 0.3% over 1 year, positive 0.9% annualized over 3 years, and positive 3.4% annualized over 5 years. The history has complete documented coverage. Monthly rent changes translated to 2.1% annualized variability, which is relatively limited movement in the index but does not establish stability for any one available home. Separately, the maximum historical drawdown was 2.1%, suggesting the observed pullback was shallow. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 2,345 for momentum, 205 for stability, and 1,471 for the balanced measure, where lower ranks are higher. These backward-looking measurements are neither forecasts nor investment recommendations; the recent decline warrants less confidence in a single current-rent snapshot than the multi-year gains alone would imply.
The bedroom view is a modelled estimate, not a measurement of bedroom-specific asking rents. It scales ZIP ZORI by the relative local HUD bedroom ladder, producing monthly estimates of $1,783 for a studio, $1,848 for one bedroom, $2,951 for three bedrooms, and $3,685 for four bedrooms; the modelled two-bedroom rung equals the current ZIP index stated above. HUD FMR or SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent, and the calculation preserves its local bedroom spacing rather than claiming that HUD values are market quotes. This construction can help frame size differences, but it cannot identify a lease payment, building type, utility package, concession, or condition for a specific rental.
The matched ACS ZCTA five-year survey reports median gross rent of $1,867, making the current asking-rent index 17.5% higher. These figures describe different universes: ACS median gross rent covers occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities, while ZORI tracks typical observed asking rents across rental types. The ACS median household income was $118,464. Applying the structural 30% required-income screen to the ZIP asking-rent index yields $87,760; this is arithmetic, not advice and not an applicant qualification rule. In the ACS renter sample, 2,136 of 4,528 renter households, or 47.2%, were recorded as spending at least 30% of income on gross rent. That burden measure cannot show that a particular available unit is unaffordable, especially because its universe is occupied renter households rather than current listings.
Housing composition gives important limits to the rent comparisons. The ZCTA contained 21,485 single-family units, indicating that this stock category dominates the reported structure mix. It also recorded 1,829 vacant units, a 7.6% area-wide vacancy rate. Vacancy is a stock measure across all reported vacant uses and does not demonstrate that a particular house is offered for rent, competitively priced, habitable, or available on a given date. Likewise, the presence of a substantial single-family stock does not prove that the blended ZORI or the modelled bedroom ladder matches any selected property. The stock evidence is best read as broad survey context alongside, rather than inside, the direct asking-rent index.
Comparisons across geographies should remain scoped and separate. Katy city context rent of $1,935, Harris County context rent of $1,600, and Houston-The Woodlands-Sugar Land, TX metro context rent of $1,648 are wider-area reference values, not ZIP 77493 observations. Their gap below the ZIP index may indicate that the ZIP’s blended asking-rent level is higher than those contexts, but it cannot identify the cause or establish a premium for a particular property. It would also be incorrect to blend city, county, metro, ACS, HUD, and Zillow figures into one supposedly interchangeable rent number because each source observes a different geography, period, or housing universe.
The resale evidence creates a notable cross-source tension. Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP for-sale observation, which is not rental-transaction evidence, reported a median sold price of $341,048, up 3.4% from a year earlier. It recorded 786 homes sold, a median 55 days on market, inventory of 1,134 homes, and 4.4 months of supply. Months of supply is a pace-based resale measure: at the observed sales pace, the listed supply would represent about that many months, not a projection of future conditions. Average sale-to-list was 93.8%, while 7.6% of sales closed above list, signals consistent with transaction prices commonly landing below list in this observation. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price is 7.7%, but that is only a cross-source screening ratio, not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield. Rising resale prices alongside a slightly declining recent rent index challenge any broad conclusion drawn from either series alone.
Several limits remain material before applying these data to an address. Verify the actual advertised rent, lease term, bedroom count, utility responsibility, concessions, deposit, condition, and date of availability rather than treating ZORI or a modelled rung as a quote. For a resale comparison, check the individual sale date, living area, lot, condition, property type, list-price history, and whether the transaction is genuinely comparable. Confirm the property’s relationship to the ZCTA boundary rather than assuming a delivery ZIP determines census geography. The central unresolved question is whether a specific property’s current terms and physical attributes align with the blended rent index, the occupied-home ACS survey, and the separate resale evidence without conflating their scopes.
","findings":[{"body":"ZIP ZORI was $2,194 in June 2026, with a 0.3% same-month decline over one year. That cooling contrasts with annualized gains of 0.9% over three years and 3.4% over five years. The history supports a longer positive path, but the latest reading should not be treated as a continuation assumption.","title":"Recent rent direction differs from the longer record"},{"body":"The Zillow asking-rent index exceeded ACS median gross rent by 17.5%. This does not establish an error in either source: ZORI is a blended observed asking-rent index, whereas ACS is a five-year survey of occupied renter homes that includes selected utilities. The difference is useful for scope awareness, not for replacing one measure with the other.","title":"Asking rent and occupied-home rent are materially different measures"},{"body":"Redfin’s ZIP resale observation showed a 3.4% year-over-year increase in median sold price, while the one-year ZORI change was slightly negative. The resale series also showed 4.4 months of supply and an average sale-to-list ratio below 100%. These signals describe for-sale transactions only and complicate a simple rent-led market narrative.","title":"Resale pricing rose while the recent rent index eased"},{"body":"Modelled studio through four-bedroom estimates use the local HUD ladder to scale the ZIP’s blended ZORI. They are not observed bedroom rents and should not be used as listing comparables without checking size, property type, utilities, lease terms, condition, concessions, and availability for the actual rental.","title":"The bedroom ladder is a scaling tool"}],"risks":["The current ZORI figure is a blended asking-rent index, so it may not match a particular detached home, apartment, lease duration, utility arrangement, renovation level, concession package, or current availability status.","ACS gross-rent and rent-burden measures cover occupied renter households in the matched ZCTA survey universe, not current listings, and survey-based results should not be used to classify affordability for an individual applicant or unit.","The direct Redfin data concern ZIP resale transactions rather than rental economics. Median sold price, marketing time, supply, and sale-to-list measures cannot establish a property’s operating costs, lease revenue, or net financial result.","Area-wide vacancy includes multiple vacant-use categories and cannot prove that a particular unit is rentable, vacant today, offered at the displayed rent, or likely to remain available under a specific lease structure."],"qa":[{"a":"The sources observe different rental universes. ZORI is a Zillow ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, while ACS median gross rent comes from occupied renter homes in a five-year ZCTA survey and includes selected utilities. A gap between them does not make either source a direct substitute for the other.","q":"Why is the ACS median gross rent below ZIP ZORI?"},{"a":"No. The studio through four-bedroom figures are modelled monthly estimates created by scaling the ZIP ZORI using the relative local HUD bedroom ladder. HUD FMR or SAFMR is an administrative bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent, so these estimates do not measure a specific unit’s market asking rent or lease payment.","q":"Are the bedroom figures observed rents for ZIP 77493?"},{"a":"It is a pace-based measure within Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP for-sale observation. It relates the available resale inventory to the observed selling pace, indicating how many months that supply represents at that pace. It is not a rental vacancy measure, a forecast, or evidence about future resale conditions.","q":"What does 4.4 months of supply mean in the resale data?"},{"a":"The screen simply annualizes the current ZIP asking-rent index and applies a 30% housing-cost share to derive a comparison income level. It is arithmetic only. It is not financial advice, a prediction of tenant outcomes, an applicant qualification rule, or proof that a particular household can or cannot afford a specific rental.","q":"How should the 30% required-income screen be interpreted?"}],"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 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