At $1,544 in June 2026, 87110’s Zillow ZORI presents a current asking-rent snapshot, but its apparent premium carries a source-definition tension. This five-digit label is both a Zillow ZIP market identifier and a matched Census ZCTA; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. It is therefore not interchangeable with the $1,127 ACS 2024 five-year median gross rent, which surveys occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. The difference establishes neither a current lease price nor a change in a like-for-like unit; it shows why the asking-rent and survey universes must remain separate.
\nBroader asking-rent context puts the ZIP modestly above several surrounding benchmarks: the City of Albuquerque context value was $1,485.51, the Bernalillo County context value was $1,488, and the Albuquerque, NM metro context value was $1,522. Those city, county, and metro figures are wider context, not substitutes for the ZIP index. The FY 2026 local HUD FMR/SAFMR two-bedroom standard is $1,464, an administrative bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent. Scaling the ZIP ZORI with that local HUD ladder produces modelled monthly ZIP estimates—not measured bedroom rents—of $1,064 for a studio, $1,250 for one bedroom, $1,544 for two, $2,147 for three, and $2,530 for four. The ladder organizes size-sensitive screening, not actual advertised availability, unit quality, or utility terms.
\nThe history moderates the current headline. Exact same-month Zillow ZORI growth annualized to 2.07% over one year, 3.01% over three years, and 6.16% over five years through the stated endpoint. Thus, rent direction remained positive recently, but its pace broke from the faster longer-run path rather than confirming it. Coverage reached 99.12%, supporting continuity of the historical record. Monthly rent-return variability annualized to 3.37%; that observed movement means confidence in one current rent snapshot should be tempered rather than treating it as a fixed quote. Separately, the largest peak-to-trough historical decline was 3.51%, documenting that the series did retreat. The transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs, where lower ranks place higher, were 1,242 for momentum, 2,110 for stability, and 1,775 for the balanced measure. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts, investment recommendations, or explanations of what will happen next.
\nThe affordability screen is internally close but not conclusive. Applying the 30% rule arithmetically to a $1,544 monthly asking-rent index produces a required annual income of $61,760, against the ACS matched-ZCTA median household income of $64,892; the resulting rent-to-income screen is 28.6%. This is arithmetic, not advice and not an applicant qualification rule. A different ACS measure adds tension: 3,506 of 7,176 occupied renter households, or 48.9%, reported spending at least 30% of income on gross rent. That burden estimate describes surveyed occupied renter homes, not the household behind a new listing. It also has survey uncertainty, and it cannot be reconciled one-for-one with Zillow’s blended current asking-rent index.
\nThe housing base further cautions against treating a ZIP average as a vacancy claim. In the matched ACS ZCTA, 19,653 housing units included 18,332 occupied units, yielding a 6.7% vacancy rate; renters represented 39.1% of occupied homes. Single-family structures accounted for 71.7% of the stock, while the packet separately identifies a large-multifamily segment. These are multiyear survey stock and tenure measures, not live listing counts. The ACS also records units vacant for rent, sale, seasonal use, and other reasons, so the overall vacancy rate cannot prove an opening in any particular building or rent band. The City of Albuquerque and Bernalillo County vacancy context and the Albuquerque, NM metro apartment-vacancy context are wider, differently scoped reference points rather than confirmation of ZIP-level availability.
\nDirect ZIP resale evidence introduces a separate market signal. In Redfin’s rolling-three-month ZIP for-sale observation, median sold price was $334,924, up 3.05% year over year; 147 homes sold with a median 33 days on market. Redfin reported 81 inventory homes, down 15.12% from a year earlier, and 1.7 months of supply. The average sale-to-list result was 98.93%, while 27.3% of sales went above list. These are direct ZIP resale liquidity and pricing observations, not rental transactions, asking-rent comparisons, or proof of leasing conditions. The signals can be read alongside, but not merged into, the ZORI, ACS, or HUD evidence.
\nThe main decision tension is that resale prices rose in the most recent annual comparison while the asking-rent history shows a marked slowdown from its five-year pace, even though its latest direction remained positive. The resale data’s supply and sale-to-list readings may coexist with that divergence, but neither establishes a cause or a rental outcome. Annualizing ZIP ZORI and dividing by the median sold price gives a 5.53% cross-source screening ratio only. It is not property-level economics: the calculation contains neither property-specific rent nor expenses, financing, taxes, insurance, maintenance, fees, or physical characteristics. As a result, the resale evidence challenges any simple reading that current rent momentum and sale-price movement are aligned, while the ACS burden result independently shows that aggregate occupied-renter pressure can remain material.
\nLimits remain decisive at the property level. A current ZORI reading does not identify bedrooms, square footage, condition, included utilities, lease length, deposits, concessions, availability date, or a particular building; ACS is a survey median, and HUD is an administrative standard. Before treating any ZIP screen as a unit conclusion, the concrete checks are the actual asking rent and signed-lease terms for comparable bedrooms, the utility and fee schedule, current concessions, days available, vacancy at the property, and the unit’s physical condition. For a resale comparison, verify the specific sale’s property type, size, condition, transaction date, list history, and whether it is genuinely comparable. Those checks preserve the evidence boundaries rather than converting aggregate measures into claims about a particular home.
","findings":[{"body":"Zillow’s June 2026 ZIP ZORI is an asking-rent index, whereas ACS gross rent is a five-year, utility-inclusive survey median for occupied renter homes. The gap should be interpreted as a source and timing difference as well as a price-position signal. HUD’s bedroom ladder supplies proportions for the modelled ZIP estimates; it does not observe bedroom-specific market rents.","title":"Asking-rent position and modelled bedrooms"},{"body":"Same-month rent growth stayed positive across each reported horizon, but the one-year pace is below the three- and five-year annualized rates. The nearly complete historical coverage improves confidence that the series is continuous, while recorded variability and a peak-to-trough decline show why a single month should not be treated as a settled level. The ranks are discovery tools, not forecasts.","title":"Growth slowed despite strong record continuity"},{"body":"The 30% calculation places the current asking-rent index near the matched ZCTA median-household-income screen, yet nearly half of surveyed occupied renter households reported gross-rent burdens at or above that threshold. These observations refer to different populations and time constructions. They flag an aggregate affordability tension without determining whether an individual household qualifies for, or can sustain, a specific lease.","title":"Affordability screen has a burden tension"},{"body":"Redfin reports direct ZIP resale outcomes over a rolling three-month window, including price, sales, marketing time, inventory, supply, and sale-to-list behavior. Those observations show a for-sale market that cannot be turned into rental transactions or operating results. The annualized-rent-to-sale-price calculation is useful only as a cross-source screen because it lacks property-level revenue, cost, and financing inputs.","title":"Resale liquidity is not rental evidence"}],"risks":["ZORI’s blended asking-rent index, ACS’s utility-inclusive survey median, and HUD’s administrative bedroom standards describe different populations and constructions; percentage gaps among them cannot establish a current lease price or unit-level comparability.","The matched ZCTA is a statistical area rather than a USPS delivery ZIP, and the ACS five-year survey has sampling uncertainty, so its income, burden, vacancy, and stock measures are neither real-time nor parcel-specific.","Vacant-for-rent and burden figures are aggregate ZCTA survey results; they do not demonstrate current availability, condition, utility responsibility, concessions, household income, or affordability for any particular apartment, house, or lease term.","The cross-source sale-price screen omits financing, taxes, insurance, maintenance, fees, operating expenses, property condition, and transaction-specific attributes; it cannot measure property-level economics, cash flow, or a purchaser’s outcome."],"qa":[{"a":"ZORI is a current ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. The ACS figure is a matched-ZCTA five-year survey median for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. Different dates, boundaries, units, populations, and treatment of utilities mean the two figures are complementary context, not interchangeable rent quotations.","q":"Why is ZORI higher than the ACS median gross rent?"},{"a":"The studio-through-four-bedroom figures are modelled monthly ZIP estimates. They start with the ZIP ZORI and scale it using the local HUD FMR/SAFMR bedroom ladder. HUD’s values are administrative standards, not asking rents, so the resulting figures do not measure advertised units, concessions, condition, utilities, or availability in any bedroom category.","q":"Are the bedroom figures observed asking rents?"},{"a":"No. Dividing the annualized ZORI by the 30% threshold produces an arithmetic income screen only. It is not advice, underwriting, or an applicant qualification rule. Actual affordability depends on verified household income, lease terms, included utilities, debts, fees, deposits, assistance, and other circumstances that the aggregate sources do not provide.","q":"Does the 30% income calculation assess eligibility?"},{"a":"Redfin’s rolling-three-month ZIP figures describe completed for-sale activity and listing-market signals, not rental transactions. They can test whether recent resale movement aligns or conflicts with the rent-history and affordability picture. The rent-to-sale-price ratio remains a cross-source screen; it cannot quantify property economics without property-specific rent, expense, condition, and financing evidence.","q":"How should the resale block be read beside the rent data?"}],"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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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":"2017-01-01","rent":901.442819},{"period":"2017-02-01","rent":894.152117},{"period":"2017-03-01","rent":880.917482},{"period":"2017-04-01","rent":880.568155},{"period":"2017-05-01","rent":894.31622},{"period":"2017-06-01","rent":900.224591},{"period":"2017-07-01","rent":897.282171},{"period":"2017-08-01","rent":899.240474},{"period":"2017-09-01","rent":899.132365},{"period":"2017-10-01","rent":900.088884},{"period":"2017-11-01","rent":893.12325},{"period":"2017-12-01","rent":894.697814},{"period":"2018-01-01","rent":906.503172},{"period":"2018-02-01","rent":915.61758},{"period":"2018-04-01","rent":936.964987},{"period":"2018-05-01","rent":933.073759},{"period":"2018-06-01","rent":917.197416},{"period":"2018-07-01","rent":918.931742},{"period":"2018-08-01","rent":928.38133},{"period":"2018-09-01","rent":929.868979},{"period":"2018-10-01","rent":946.862688},{"period":"2018-11-01","rent":952.826994},{"period":"2018-12-01","rent":959.388848},{"period":"2019-01-01","rent":951.074118},{"period":"2019-02-01","rent":951.257562},{"period":"2019-03-01","rent":941.039031},{"period":"2019-04-01","rent":951.78739},{"period":"2019-05-01","rent":955.734843},{"period":"2019-06-01","rent":972.078343},{"period":"2019-07-01","rent":980.226731},{"period":"2019-08-01","rent":980.565835},{"period":"2019-09-01","rent":986.235826},{"period":"2019-10-01","rent":980.915323},{"period":"2019-11-01","rent":986.874291},{"period":"2019-12-01","rent":989.146361},{"period":"2020-01-01","rent":999.690949},{"period":"2020-02-01","rent":1006.495576},{"period":"2020-03-01","rent":1006.260525},{"period":"2020-04-01","rent":990.98148},{"period":"2020-05-01","rent":992.827091},{"period":"2020-06-01","rent":1008.193492},{"period":"2020-07-01","rent":1033.857896},{"period":"2020-08-01","rent":1038.749879},{"period":"2020-09-01","rent":1051.033803},{"period":"2020-10-01","rent":1050.736608},{"period":"2020-11-01","rent":1073.031453},{"period":"2020-12-01","rent":1061.851526},{"period":"2021-01-01","rent":1062.095071},{"period":"2021-02-01","rent":1056.208518},{"period":"2021-03-01","rent":1094.54291},{"period":"2021-04-01","rent":1117.135336},{"period":"2021-05-01","rent":1141.273859},{"period":"2021-06-01","rent":1145.10776},{"period":"2021-07-01","rent":1157.889775},{"period":"2021-08-01","rent":1175.055061},{"period":"2021-09-01","rent":1201.011558},{"period":"2021-10-01","rent":1221.738244},{"period":"2021-11-01","rent":1234.960257},{"period":"2021-12-01","rent":1265.971},{"period":"2022-01-01","rent":1290.874774},{"period":"2022-02-01","rent":1319.510482},{"period":"2022-03-01","rent":1308.059273},{"period":"2022-04-01","rent":1320.995147},{"period":"2022-05-01","rent":1319.941719},{"period":"2022-06-01","rent":1325.918161},{"period":"2022-07-01","rent":1325.536679},{"period":"2022-08-01","rent":1332.358084},{"period":"2022-09-01","rent":1337.78608},{"period":"2022-10-01","rent":1351.518923},{"period":"2022-11-01","rent":1350.460971},{"period":"2022-12-01","rent":1361.288506},{"period":"2023-01-01","rent":1363.306274},{"period":"2023-02-01","rent":1364.000229},{"period":"2023-03-01","rent":1371.492093},{"period":"2023-04-01","rent":1377.266395},{"period":"2023-05-01","rent":1394.473261},{"period":"2023-06-01","rent":1412.273948},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":1411.936057},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":1430.460231},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":1431.626787},{"period":"2023-10-01","rent":1455.890317},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":1468.182743},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":1473.021374},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":1462.606667},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":1470.277996},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":1493.83737},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":1514.467144},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":1506.960531},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":1483.730536},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":1474.728333},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":1472.201277},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":1471.748662},{"period":"2024-10-01","rent":1462.87065},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":1461.372834},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":1477.315242},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":1504.848937},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":1507.014377},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":1499.489014},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":1485.864906},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":1501.231546},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":1512.504462},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":1531.911546},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":1534.390221},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":1543.385728},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":1545.206452},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":1550.263008},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":1541.346962},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":1532.682567},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":1534.937025},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":1536.623541},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":1543.716262},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":1539.02923},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":1543.745238}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":113,"firstPeriod":"2017-01-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMo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