At the June 2026 endpoint, Zillow ZORI for ZIP 80525 is $1,844 per month. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, rather than a quoted rent for a particular available home. In the same period, the Fort Collins city-context Zillow figure is about $1,938, the Larimer County context figure is $1,950, and the Fort Collins, CO metro context figure is $1,950; each is wider context only, not a substitute for the ZIP reading. These comparisons locate the index among supplied aggregates but do not establish a current listing price. The five-digit label is both a Zillow ZIP market identifier and a Census ZCTA match. A ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP, so geographic matching does not make the constructs interchangeable.
The history creates the central tension: the exact same-month annualized ZORI change was -0.10% over one year, versus 1.99% over three years and 4.39% over five years. Thus, the current cooling direction breaks from, rather than confirms, the longer positive path. Annualized monthly-return variability was 2.27%, maximum drawdown was 3.03%, and coverage was 100% across 113 consecutive monthly returns. On transparent national discovery measures among history-eligible ZIPs, the momentum score was 30.686 with rank 2,065, the stability score was 87.2113 with rank 372, and the balanced score was 53.2961 with rank 1,334; lower rank is higher. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations. Variability and drawdown show the range experienced by the index, providing necessary context for confidence in one current rent snapshot; the fresh directional break makes extrapolation from that snapshot especially unwarranted.
The rent series answer different questions and should be kept separate. The matched Census ZCTA ACS 2024 five-year survey reports median gross rent of $1,753 among occupied renter homes, and that measure includes selected utilities. The current asking-rent index is 5.2% above that survey median, but the gap is not automatically a property-level premium or discount because the source universes and rent definitions differ. HUD FY2026 FMR/SAFMR is an administrative bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent; its local two-bedroom standard is $1,732, which places ZORI 6.5% higher. The studio, one-bedroom, two-bedroom, three-bedroom, and four-bedroom figures of $1,607, $1,636, $1,844, $2,539, and $2,704 are modelled monthly ZIP estimates. They scale ZIP ZORI using the local HUD ladder and are never measured bedroom rents.
At a 30% required-income screen, annualizing the current monthly ZORI and dividing by that threshold produces $73,760. The ZIP's ACS median household income is $91,636, and the annualized asking-rent index equals 24.1% of that median income. This comparison is useful as a broad screen, but it does not describe the income or lease terms of a renter household. Separately, ACS identifies 5,732 of 10,165 renter households as spending at or above the screen on gross rent, a 56.4% burden share. The household-income, burden, and rent figures are survey estimates with sampling uncertainty, while ZORI is an asking-rent index. The required-income screen is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule, and the burden statistic is not proof about any particular home.
The ACS housing-stock backdrop is substantial but not a live inventory count. The matched area is estimated to have 54,211 people, 25,301 housing units, and 24,410 occupied units. Its 891 vacant units yield a 3.5% vacancy rate, with 541 classified as vacant for rent. Those counts and the vacancy rate describe survey-period housing status rather than verified current availability, advertised price, condition, or lease terms. A vacant-for-rent classification does not establish that a unit is actively marketed at the ZORI level or at any bedroom estimate. Likewise, neither the vacancy figures nor the burden share can be turned into proof about a particular unit. The stated ACS margins of error also matter when reading these stock and household estimates as precise totals.
Scope discipline is especially important here because the city, county, and metro figures are aggregate context, Zillow is a ZIP-level asking-rent index, ACS is matched to a statistical ZCTA, and HUD provides an administrative local ladder. An apparent difference between ZORI and the ACS median can arise from asking-rent observations versus occupied renter homes, selected-utility treatment, source design, and timing; the supplied evidence does not identify a cause. Similarly, the history documents cooling through its endpoint but does not explain it or establish a future path. The broader-context figures should therefore remain comparison anchors rather than inputs for assigning a rent, vacancy condition, burden outcome, or bedroom price to an individual property. The modelled bedroom ladder adds structure to the ZIP index, not a set of observed market medians.
For a specific offering, the missing property-level facts are the advertised base rent, effective rent after any written concessions, mandatory recurring fees, bedroom classification, included utilities, lease term, available date, and location within the relevant ZIP geography. Those facts determine whether the offering is comparable to a blended ZORI index, the modelled HUD-scaled ladder, or an ACS gross-rent benchmark. A reader should also distinguish an advertised amount from a signed lease and preserve the difference between an asking-rent measure and a gross-rent survey measure. The history can frame how the index has moved, but it cannot verify a property’s current terms. Does the advertised unit's all-in monthly structure align with the source definition that actually matches its bedroom count and rent treatment?
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow’s June 2026 ZIP ZORI is $1,844 per month, below the Fort Collins city, Larimer County, and Fort Collins metro context figures. The comparison is useful only as a scale check because each context figure covers a broader geography. ZORI is a blended typical observed asking-rent index across rental types, so it cannot identify an advertised unit’s rent, utilities, fees, or all-in lease cost.","title":"Current ZIP index sits below wider rental contexts"},{"body":"Exact same-month history shows a near-flat recent period after positive three-year and five-year paths. The series has complete coverage and quantified annualized variability, but the current cooling direction breaks from those longer gains. Discovery scores and national ranks are backward-looking ways to locate the ZIP among history-eligible markets, not forecasts, causal evidence, or investment conclusions.","title":"Recent cooling breaks from the longer observed path"},{"body":"ACS median gross rent describes occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities, while ZORI represents asking-rent observations. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard. The studio-through-four-bedroom figures are modelled by applying HUD’s local relative ladder to ZIP ZORI. They are comparative estimates, not observed bedroom rents or evidence of current listings at those prices.","title":"ACS, Zillow, and HUD values are not interchangeable"},{"body":"Applying the 30% screen to current ZORI generates a required-income benchmark, while ACS shows a substantial share of renter households at or above that screen. This is an arithmetic comparison between an asking-rent index, ZIP median household income, and a survey burden measure. It is not lending, leasing, or applicant-qualification guidance, and the burden statistic cannot characterize a particular unit.","title":"Income screen and burden measure address separate questions"}],"risks":["A ZIP-level asking-rent index cannot establish an asking price, effective rent after concessions, utilities, fees, bedroom count, or availability for a specific property, even when its historical coverage is complete.","The ZCTA match is useful for attaching ACS statistics, but a ZCTA is a statistical area rather than an identical USPS delivery ZIP, creating a geography-definition limitation.","ACS medians, vacancy counts, and burden shares are five-year survey estimates of occupied homes or households; they are not live listing inventories and should retain their sampling uncertainty.","HUD-based bedroom figures are modelled estimates from a relative administrative ladder. They are not measured bedroom rents, and a bedroom label alone does not capture actual lease terms."],"qa":[{"a":"Zillow ZORI measures a typical observed asking-rent index for the ZIP market. It blends rental types and is useful for tracking broad asking-rent conditions. It does not report an individual listing, a signed lease, a unit-specific utility package, or a measured bedroom-specific median.","q":"What does Zillow ZORI measure here?"},{"a":"The ACS value is a five-year survey estimate for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities, while ZORI is a current ZIP-level asking-rent index. Those sources have different populations, timing, and rent definitions. Their difference is informative context, but it does not prove a change, premium, or discount for a building.","q":"Why does ACS median gross rent differ from ZORI?"},{"a":"Each studio-through-four-bedroom estimate starts with the current ZIP ZORI and scales it by the corresponding local HUD bedroom standard relative to the local two-bedroom HUD standard. This preserves the local HUD ladder’s proportions. It does not collect asking rents by bedroom from listings, so every resulting figure is a modelled estimate rather than a measured bedroom rent.","q":"How were the bedroom estimates produced?"},{"a":"The burden share reports renter households whose survey-measured gross rent burden met the stated threshold, while the vacancy data report survey-period housing status. Together, they describe aggregate household and stock conditions in the matched area. They do not identify an available unit, establish its price or quality, or show that any particular renter faces the reported burden.","q":"What do the burden and vacancy figures establish?"}],"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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