The five-digit label 80528 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. In June 2026, Zillow’s ZIP-level ZORI was $2,248, up 1.26% from a year earlier. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, rather than a survey of occupied homes. The matched ACS 2024 five-year survey reports $1,929 median gross rent, including selected utilities, so the asking-rent index stands 16.5% higher. Current fiscal-year HUD two-bedroom FMR is $1,732, an administrative bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent. Those three measures answer different questions and should not be substituted for one another.
Income and burden readings create the central affordability tension. Applying the arithmetic 30% required-income screen to the current ZIP ZORI produces $89,920 in annual household income, below the ZCTA’s $130,350 median household income; the same rent screen equals 20.7% of that median income. This is a benchmark calculation, not advice or an applicant qualification rule. Meanwhile, ACS estimates that 1,279 of 3,069 renter households, or 41.7%, paid at least 30% of income toward gross rent. Because that burden measure concerns surveyed occupied renter homes and their reported gross rent, it neither establishes the cost of a currently listed unit nor proves a particular household’s circumstances.
The rent history shows continued growth but a distinctly cooler recent pace. Exact same-month annualized change was 1.26% over one year, versus 2.07% over three years and 4.33% over five years. Thus, the latest direction still confirms the longer upward path, but it breaks from its prior speed rather than extending it. The history has 67 monthly observations and 66 consecutive returns, providing complete stated-period coverage. Monthly rent movements translated to 2.32% annualized variability, which supports more confidence in a current snapshot than a highly erratic series would, while the maximum observed drawdown of 2.08% still shows that the path was not one-directional. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 1,681 for momentum, 429 for stability, and 958 for the balanced measure, with lower ranks stronger. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
The bedroom ladder should be read as a model, not a set of observed asking-rent medians. Modelled ZIP estimates are $1,959 for a studio, $1,995 for one bedroom, $2,248 for two bedrooms, $3,096 for three bedrooms, and $3,297 for four bedrooms. They scale the ZIP ZORI using the local HUD ladder and are never measured bedroom rents. For reference, the HUD ladder begins at $1,509 for a studio and reaches $2,540 for four bedrooms; HUD values are administrative standards used to establish the relative bedroom scaling. The exact match between the modelled two-bedroom estimate and ZIP ZORI reflects the construction method, not independent confirmation of a measured two-bedroom market rent.
The matched ZCTA’s housing base contains 9,639 units, including 6,824 single-family units, indicating that this structure type represents most recorded stock. Its 3.3% vacancy rate is below the broader context measures supplied for the city and county, while renter households account for 32.9% of occupied homes. Vacant units include homes classified for rent and for sale, but those categories do not establish effective availability, condition, pricing, lease terms, or concessions for a prospective rental. The stock and vacancy figures are ACS area-level descriptions, not a live listing count and not proof that a specific unit will be easy or difficult to secure.
Broader comparisons place the ZIP’s asking-rent index above each supplied rental context: Fort Collins city-scope Zillow rent is $1,938, Larimer County-scope Zillow rent is $1,950, and Fort Collins, CO metro-scope Zillow rent is $1,950. The city, county, and metro are wider contexts rather than substitutes for ZIP evidence. Their reported renter shares, vacancy measures, gross-rent surveys, income measures, and metro apartment-vacancy reading describe different geographic universes from the matched ZCTA and the ZIP ZORI. They help frame the ZIP’s relative position, but they do not convert city, county, or metro results into local rental comps.
Direct ZIP resale evidence introduces a separate for-sale-market tension. In Redfin’s rolling three-month ZIP observation, median sold price was $657,301, up 2.7% year over year; 174 homes sold, median marketing time was 53 days, reported inventory was 138 homes, and months of supply measured 2.4. The average sale-to-list ratio was 99.3%, while 20.1% of homes sold above list and 39.1% went off market within two weeks. These are resale liquidity and pricing signals, not rental transactions. The sale-price increase and limited supply contrast with the decelerating rent-growth path, so resale strength does not independently validate the current asking-rent snapshot. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price is 4.10% only as a cross-source screening ratio; it is not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield.
Several limits remain material. ZORI is an index rather than a property quote, ACS is a lagged five-year survey with sampling uncertainty, HUD is a standard, and Redfin describes sold homes rather than leases. Before attaching the ZIP reading to any property, the relevant checks are current bedroom-specific asking rents, concessions, lease duration, utility responsibility, fees, availability date, and comparable listings with similar size and condition. For a resale property, sale history, list changes, physical condition, ownership costs, and any restrictions also require separate verification. The unresolved property-level question is whether the actual unit’s all-in lease terms resemble the ZIP-wide asking-rent signal more closely than the older occupied-home survey benchmark.
","findings":[{"body":"The ZIP’s Zillow ZORI is above the matched ZCTA’s ACS median gross rent. That gap is informative but not a direct rent premium for a comparable unit: ZORI tracks a blended asking-rent index, whereas ACS summarizes occupied renter homes over five years and includes selected utilities. HUD FMR is a separate administrative benchmark and should not be treated as an asking-rent quote.","title":"Asking rents exceed the occupied-home survey benchmark"},{"body":"The arithmetic income screen places current ZORI below the ZCTA median household income threshold, yet a substantial ACS-estimated share of renter households is rent burdened. This difference is not contradictory once the universes are separated. The screen uses current asking rent and area median income, while burden reflects surveyed occupied renter households and gross-rent payments.","title":"Income screening and renter burden point in different directions"},{"body":"Same-month rent growth remains positive over the recent, medium, and longer windows, but the one-year result trails the three-year and five-year rates. Complete stated-period coverage and low annualized variability make the history useful for describing the current reading’s context. The observed drawdown and weaker momentum rank still caution against treating the path as uninterrupted growth.","title":"History remains positive but recent growth is slower"},{"body":"The direct ZIP resale observation shows a higher median sold price, limited months of supply, and sale-to-list metrics near list price. Those are for-sale market signals only. They sit alongside slower rent growth and a modest annualized-rent-to-price screen, creating a cross-source tension rather than evidence of rental economics, property yield, or a predicted outcome.","title":"Resale firmness does not settle the rental question"}],"risks":["A ZIP-wide asking-rent index can differ materially from a specific unit because bedroom count, condition, lease duration, utilities, concessions, fees, and listing timing are not resolved by the index.","ACS renter burden and median gross rent are survey estimates for occupied homes over a five-year period, so they cannot establish current vacancy, a landlord’s quoted rent, or an individual household’s affordability.","The modelled bedroom estimates inherit their shape from the local HUD ladder. They are useful scaling tools, but they are not observed bedroom-specific rent distributions or verified rental comparables.","Redfin resale metrics describe sold homes in a rolling ZIP observation. Median price, supply, marketing time, and sale-to-list measures should not be translated into lease demand, rental transactions, or property-level returns."],"qa":[{"a":"They measure distinct housing universes. Zillow ZORI is a ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, while ACS median gross rent is a five-year survey measure for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. Timing, occupied-versus-listed status, rental mix, and utility treatment can all produce a gap without either source being incorrect.","q":"Why does Zillow ZORI differ from ACS median gross rent?"},{"a":"The history indicates that rents were still higher than a year earlier, but the recent annualized pace was slower than the comparable three-year and five-year rates. Low measured variability supports moderate confidence that the current value is not an extreme monthly swing, while the documented drawdown shows the historical path included reversals. These are backward-looking descriptions, not forecasts.","q":"What does the rent history say about the current reading?"},{"a":"No. The studio-through-four-bedroom figures are modelled ZIP estimates created by scaling the overall ZIP ZORI with the local HUD bedroom ladder. The HUD figures themselves are administrative standards, not asking-rent observations. A property-level review should compare actual listed units with matching bedroom count, size, condition, utilities, fees, concessions, and lease structure.","q":"Are the bedroom figures measured rents for this ZIP?"},{"a":"The annualized ZORI divided by Redfin median sold price is only a cross-source screening ratio. It does not include operating costs, financing, taxes, insurance, repairs, vacancy experience, or property-specific rent, so it is not a cap rate or return measure. Redfin’s rolling resale data should remain evidence about for-sale liquidity and pricing, not rental-market transactions.","q":"How should the resale screen be used alongside rental information?"}],"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":"2020-12-01","rent":1735.874914},{"period":"2021-01-01","rent":1731.22059},{"period":"2021-02-01","rent":1744.023843},{"period":"2021-03-01","rent":1741.938463},{"period":"2021-04-01","rent":1757.724623},{"period":"2021-05-01","rent":1776.307421},{"period":"2021-06-01","rent":1818.516439},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":1851.182111},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":1875.59595},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":1890.721486},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":1921.833636},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":1942.499868},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":1947.624612},{"period":"2022-01-01","rent":1949.289538},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":1945.84681},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":1969.618148},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":1994.855045},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":2021.663782},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":2032.482563},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":2034.448511},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":2040.191991},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":2045.756146},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":2052.081728},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":2061.032882},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":2088.786997},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":2122.963878},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":2134.557843},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":2139.422847},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":2120.322077},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":2119.547614},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":2114.34666},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":2125.231681},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":2123.934416},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":2126.440011},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":2117.671997},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":2131.133437},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":2137.933871},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":2142.581017},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":2159.088525},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":2158.653547},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":2178.187843},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":2171.883682},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":2184.411239},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":2187.82485},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":2191.782888},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":2206.657609},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":2190.937365},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":2184.877465},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":2160.709726},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":2175.426626},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":2174.132175},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":2191.818138},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":2202.064694},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":2221.588357},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":2220.349331},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":2226.120021},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":2235.485076},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":2233.811116},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":2259.1543},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":2265.370294},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":2284.638859},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":2272.610922},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":2271.448149},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":2263.404291},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":2255.43897},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":2248.256127},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":2248.264435}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":67,"firstPeriod":"2020-12-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":67,"coverageRatio":1,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":2220.349331,"endRent":2248.264435,"change":0.012572392825874745,"cagr":0.012572392825874745},"3":{"years":3,"startPeriod":"2023-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":2114.34666,"endRent":2248.264435,"change":0.06333766242476058,"cagr":0.02068186575309605},"5":{"years":5,"startPeriod":"2021-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1818.516439,"endRent":2248.264435,"change":0.23631790551000909,"cagr":0.04334041793488663}},"maxDrawdown":-0.02082238894362154,"annualizedVolatility":0.02320074537952638,"consecutiveReturnCount":66}}