Current asking rent and the longer record point in different directions. ZIP 80917’s Zillow ZORI is $1,385 in June 2026, after a 3.4% one-year exact same-month decline. Its three-year exact same-month annualized change is essentially flat at -0.1%, while the five-year exact same-month annualized change remains positive at 2.5%. The one-year movement therefore breaks from, rather than confirms, the longer five-year path; the three-year measure indicates that the earlier advance had already largely stalled. These are backward-looking rent measurements, not a forecast or an investment recommendation, so the present index is a current benchmark rather than proof of a continuing direction.
The rent-history record is complete, with 76 monthly observations and 100% stated coverage. Annualized monthly-return variability is 3.9%, which means that modest month-to-month movement has occurred around the longer path and reduces confidence in treating one current rent snapshot as a precise trend signal. Separately, the maximum drawdown was 6.4%, an observed peak-to-trough decline that is consistent with the recent negative direction. Transparent national discovery ranks place momentum at 2,782, stability at 2,520, and the balanced measure at 2,852 among history-eligible ZIPs, where lower ranks are higher. These ranks organize past measurements; they do not rate property quality or predict future rent behavior.
Definitions matter before comparing the rent figures. The five-digit 80917 label is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and a matched Census ZCTA; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. Zillow ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. In the ACS 2024 five-year survey of occupied renter homes, median gross rent was $1,528, including selected utilities, so the current asking index is 9.4% lower. HUD’s FY2026 two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR standard is $1,550, putting ZORI 10.6% below that administrative bedroom-specific standard. Neither comparison converts a survey rent or HUD standard into a current advertised rent.
The bedroom series is best read as a proportional ladder, not as a set of observed apartment rents. By scaling ZIP ZORI through the supplied local HUD ladder, the model produces monthly estimates of $956 for a studio, $1,171 for one bedroom, $1,385 for two bedrooms, $1,930 for three bedrooms, and $2,189 for four bedrooms. These are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents. Their purpose is to preserve the local HUD bedroom relationships while anchoring the ladder to the ZIP asking-rent index. The two-bedroom alignment with ZORI is mathematical and does not show that every advertised two-bedroom rents at that amount.
The income and burden evidence presents another important split. At a 30% rent-to-income screen, annual income of $55,400 is required to support the current ZORI arithmetically. The matched ZCTA’s ACS median household income is $72,991, making annualized current asking rent equal to 22.8% of that median income. That screen is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule. Meanwhile, 3,054 of 5,535 occupied renter households, or 55.2%, reported paying at least 30% of income toward gross rent in the ACS survey. The burden measure covers occupied renter homes and includes their gross-rent circumstances; it cannot establish the affordability of a particular available unit.
Housing counts provide useful scale but not a unit-availability conclusion. The ZCTA contains 13,502 housing units, including 8,613 single-family units and 1,731 units in large multifamily structures. Its recorded vacancy rate is 1.0%, with 20 vacant units identified as for rent, while renters occupy 41.4% of occupied homes. Those survey counts do not identify lease terms, condition, concessions, or whether any particular unit can be rented. For wider context only, Colorado Springs city context rent is $1,739, El Paso County context rent is $1,777, and Colorado Springs, CO metro context rent is $1,779. The lower ZIP asking index is a geographic comparison, not evidence that a specific property is cheaper on like-for-like terms.
Redfin supplies a separate, direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation rather than rental transactions. Its median sold price was $399,910, down 5.9% year over year; 86 homes sold, median days on market were 37, inventory was 123 homes, and months of supply stood at 4.3. The average sale-to-list ratio was 99.97%, while 26.2% of sales closed above list, showing that the resale signals are not uniformly weak despite the lower median sold price. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by that median sold price produces a 4.16% cross-source screening ratio only. It is not a property-level return measure. The resale price decline confirms the recent rent softening direction, but near-list sale outcomes challenge a simple conclusion that all current market signals are loosening equally.
The evidence has material limits: ZORI reflects blended asking rents, ACS is a lagged five-year survey of occupied homes, HUD is an administrative standard, and Redfin records resale conditions rather than rental economics. A property-level review would need the actual advertised rent, bedroom count, utility responsibility, lease term, concessions, unit condition, and current availability. A resale comparison would also need transaction date, property type, condition, and whether the sale is comparable to the unit being evaluated. Those checks matter especially where the ZIP-level history has recently weakened but longer-run rent growth remains positive. What do the unit-specific asking terms and directly comparable sales show beyond these ZIP-level screens?
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow ZORI for 80917 is $1,385 after a negative one-year change, while the five-year exact same-month measure remains positive. The nearly flat three-year result suggests that earlier growth had already slowed before the latest decline. This is a backward-looking reversal signal, not a forecast of the next rent move.","title":"Recent rent direction has broken from the longer path"},{"body":"The current Zillow asking-rent index sits below both ACS median gross rent and the HUD two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR standard, but these gaps are not interchangeable discounts. ACS covers occupied renter homes and selected utilities, while HUD is an administrative bedroom standard. ZORI is a blended observed asking-rent index across rental types.","title":"Rent benchmarks describe different populations and purposes"},{"body":"The current rent-to-income screen is below the matched ZCTA median household-income benchmark, yet more than half of occupied renter households report gross-rent burdens at or above 30% of income. The contrast identifies a ZIP-level distributional tension rather than proving that any particular available home is affordable or unaffordable.","title":"Household-income arithmetic and reported burden diverge"},{"body":"Redfin’s direct ZIP resale data show a lower median sold price year over year, which aligns with the recent rent decline. However, sales occurred close to list price on average and a meaningful share closed above list. That mixed resale evidence tempers any simple reading of the rent history as uniformly weak across housing-market measures.","title":"Resale conditions soften on price but retain near-list execution"}],"risks":["A Zillow ZORI snapshot is a blended asking-rent index rather than a lease-level rent roll, so it can differ from current listings for a particular bedroom count, building type, utility package, or lease duration.","ACS median gross rent and renter burden are five-year survey measures for occupied renter homes, not current advertised units; their timing, selected utilities, and household mix limit direct comparison with asking rents.","Redfin’s rolling-three-month ZIP observation concerns resale transactions only. Median sold price, marketing time, supply, and sale-to-list outcomes do not measure rental demand, operating costs, or lease economics.","The low recorded ZCTA vacancy rate and small vacant-for-rent count do not verify availability, condition, pricing, or eligibility for any specific home, apartment, lease term, or household."],"qa":[{"a":"Zillow ZORI is the ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index supplied for 80917. It is blended across rental types, so it is useful as a current market-wide asking-rent benchmark but is not a measured rent for a specified bedroom count, building, or individual listing.","q":"What does Zillow ZORI represent in this report?"},{"a":"ACS median gross rent comes from the matched Census ZCTA’s five-year survey of occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. Zillow ZORI instead tracks observed asking rents. The ZCTA is a statistical area matched to the ZIP identifier, not the same thing as a USPS delivery ZIP.","q":"Why is ACS median gross rent different from Zillow asking rent?"},{"a":"The one-year exact same-month rent change is negative, the three-year annualized result is nearly flat, and the five-year annualized result remains positive. Together, those backward-looking measures show a recent break from longer-run growth. Variability and maximum drawdown mean a single current index should receive measured confidence.","q":"How should the one-year, three-year, and five-year rent history be read?"},{"a":"The screening ratio divides annualized ZIP ZORI by Redfin’s direct ZIP median sold price. It is a cross-source comparison between asking-rent and resale data, not a property-level return calculation. It excludes financing, taxes, insurance, repairs, vacancies, expenses, and differences among individual homes.","q":"What is the Redfin rent-price screening ratio?"}],"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":"2020-03-01","rent":1080.004615},{"period":"2020-04-01","rent":1072.098738},{"period":"2020-05-01","rent":1067.261287},{"period":"2020-06-01","rent":1070.132429},{"period":"2020-07-01","rent":1065.770055},{"period":"2020-08-01","rent":1071.707214},{"period":"2020-09-01","rent":1086.240264},{"period":"2020-10-01","rent":1105.359063},{"period":"2020-11-01","rent":1131.901043},{"period":"2020-12-01","rent":1139.266233},{"period":"2021-01-01","rent":1120.645917},{"period":"2021-02-01","rent":1130.2482},{"period":"2021-03-01","rent":1135.080375},{"period":"2021-04-01","rent":1169.156433},{"period":"2021-05-01","rent":1183.133725},{"period":"2021-06-01","rent":1223.109266},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":1264.120845},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":1300.143417},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":1301.144647},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":1307.140678},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":1291.617793},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":1293.537681},{"period":"2022-01-01","rent":1299.442527},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":1305.76345},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":1327.53596},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":1346.608649},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":1367.461591},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":1357.999844},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":1353.0662},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":1352.258419},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":1360.164398},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":1360.63867},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":1359.68493},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":1363.870666},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":1381.785536},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":1401.89904},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":1417.654722},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":1401.695433},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":1394.016159},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":1388.450968},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":1390.83225},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":1377.429465},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":1396.338191},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":1406.381343},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":1422.825155},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":1434.590259},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":1445.268358},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":1456.756099},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":1448.979829},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1446.126644},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1434.969882},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1420.736861},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1419.286758},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1419.577938},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":1413.231337},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1411.138347},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1434.221436},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1460.096246},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1457.7537},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1436.618759},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1424.600793},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":1428.325409},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1432.800266},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1433.424893},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1433.191133},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1438.037455},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1431.247129},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1426.658871},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1400.801023},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1374.402563},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1366.593055},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":1371.659575},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":1379.271832},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":1379.133142},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":1379.946456},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":1384.827407}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":76,"firstPeriod":"2020-03-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":76,"coverageRatio":1,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1433.424893,"endRent":1384.827407,"change":-0.033903057102832146,"cagr":-0.033903057102832146},"3":{"years":3,"startPeriod":"2023-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1388.450968,"endRent":1384.827407,"change":-0.002609786793709934,"cagr":-0.0008706868067308582},"5":{"years":5,"startPeriod":"2021-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":1223.109266,"endRent":1384.827407,"change":0.13221888305112395,"cagr":0.025146843350809522}},"maxDrawdown":-0.06403905992920411,"annualizedVolatility":0.03856452203835798,"consecutiveReturnCount":75}}