90011 poses a source-interpretation question: how should a current blended asking-rent signal be read beside household and program benchmarks that describe different populations? 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. In 2026-06, Zillow ZORI is $2,606 per month, down 2.01% from a year earlier. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, so it describes the current asking-rent environment, not all leases and not an offer for any particular home. The decision issue is whether a listing is being compared with an asking signal, an occupied-home survey statistic, or a program rule.
Household arithmetic is the sharper constraint in the matched ZCTA’s ACS 2024 five-year survey. Median household income is $59,017. Of 17,944 occupied renter households, renters constitute 74.4% of occupied units, and 10,923, or 60.9%, are observed paying 30% or more of income toward rent. Annualizing the ZIP index and applying a 30% screen yields $104,240 in required annual income; the index’s annualized cost is 52.99% of reported median household income. Because income is a household median, the comparison is an aggregate reference point and does not identify the income profile or payment terms of any listing. That screen is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule, and the burden result for occupied renter homes cannot prove the burden of a particular unit.
These measures should remain separate. The matched ZCTA’s ACS median gross rent is $1,542, with a $61 margin of error, from a five-year survey of occupied renter homes; median gross rent includes selected utilities. Zillow ZORI stands at 169.0% of that ACS median, but neither is a re-expression of the other because the Zillow measure is a current asking-rent index and ACS concerns occupied renter homes. The difference in levels should be interpreted as a difference in definitions, timing, and coverage, not as a single measure of movement. The local HUD FY2026 two-bedroom FMR is $3,070, and ZORI equals 84.9% of that standard. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent, so its relationship to ZORI is context rather than a market-price comparison.
The bedroom view is deliberately modelled rather than observed. Scaling ZIP ZORI with the local HUD ladder yields modelled monthly ZIP estimates of $2,021, $2,154, $2,606, $3,427, and $3,967, ordered from studio through four-bedroom homes. The sequence carries the local HUD ladder’s relative bedroom steps into the ZIP’s all-type ZORI level; its middle value matches the overall index by construction. Each figure is a modelled estimate, never a measured bedroom rent. It therefore provides a consistent size-oriented lens, while leaving the actual bedroom mix, unit features, lease terms, and listing availability unobserved. It does not allocate housing units among bedroom categories or report the distribution of advertised rents within any category.
Stock counts offer a separate view of aggregate availability. Of 25,201 housing units, 24,106 are occupied and 1,095 are vacant, yielding a 4.35% vacancy rate. The vacant stock includes 331 units marked for rent, alongside for-sale and seasonal categories, so the vacancy total has mixed purposes. The entire stock includes 14,371 single-family units and 1,178 units in large multifamily structures. These are aggregate housing counts rather than a listing inventory, and they do not establish that a particular home is vacant, available, or priced at the ZIP index. They also do not say how long a vacancy has existed or whether it is actively marketed.
Wider geography gives scale but not a substitute benchmark. At the City of Los Angeles scope, context rent is $2,773.19 and renter share is 64.0%, both wider-area context rather than ZIP measures. At the Los Angeles County scope, context rent is $2,808 and two-bedroom HUD FMR is $2,903. At the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metro scope, context rent is $2,927 and apartment vacancy is 5.37%. All three scope-specific rent values exceed the ZIP index, while the renter-share, FMR, and apartment-vacancy figures retain their respective city, county, and metro scopes. The comparisons position the ZIP within larger aggregates without converting broader values into local estimates.
Several limits remain decisive. ZORI is a ZIP-level blended index, not a property quote; ACS is a pooled survey estimate with sampling uncertainty; and HUD is an administrative standard. Before using these aggregates to read a specific listing, verify the stated asking rent, bedroom designation, address, availability date, lease term, concessions, which utilities are included, and recurring charges. Confirming the address also matters because the ZCTA match is statistical rather than a USPS delivery-ZIP identity. Keep the comparison source-specific: a listing’s effective payment and availability require property-level evidence, while these data describe ZIP, ZCTA, or wider-area conditions. The supplied aggregates also do not provide a unit-specific utility bill, effective-rent calculation, or confirmation that an advertised price remains active.
","findings":[{"body":"In June 2026, ZIP ZORI is $2,606 after a 2.01% year-over-year decline. The index is current blended asking-rent evidence, while the $104,240 required-income result only annualizes that index under a 30% calculation. Median household income of $59,017 and the 60.9% observed ACS burden share indicate an aggregate tension, not an applicant eligibility test or a claim about a specific home.","title":"Current asking signal versus household screen"},{"body":"Matched-ZCTA ACS reports $1,542 median gross rent across occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities; ZORI is 169.0% of it. The FY2026 HUD two-bedroom FMR is $3,070, an administrative standard for a specific bedroom size. Keeping all three labels intact prevents an asking index, survey median, and program standard from becoming one false rent estimate.","title":"Three rent concepts are not interchangeable"},{"body":"Applying local HUD bedroom proportions to ZIP ZORI produces modelled monthly estimates from $2,021 for a studio to $3,967 for a four-bedroom, with $2,606 at the central two-bedroom point. This is a scaling exercise, not a sample of measured rents by bedroom. The ladder helps organize size differences around the ZIP index but cannot validate a listing price, availability, or unit quality.","title":"Modelled size sequence"},{"body":"Renters account for 74.4% of occupied units, while 4.35% of the ZIP’s housing units are vacant. Only 331 vacant units are categorized for rent; other vacancy uses remain in the total. City of Los Angeles city-scope, Los Angeles County county-scope, and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro-scope rents—$2,773.19, $2,808, and $2,927, respectively—supply geographic context but are not replacements for the ZIP’s $2,606 ZORI.","title":"Stock and broader geography require separate readings"}],"risks":["ZORI is a blended ZIP asking-rent index. A particular listing can differ by bedroom configuration, lease terms, concessions, included utilities, and recurring charges, none of which the index resolves.","ACS values summarize a matched ZCTA’s occupied renter homes across a five-year survey and carry margins of error. They cannot be treated as current asking rents, lease records, or proof of burden for a specific unit.","HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard. It supports the modelled ladder but does not measure what a landlord is asking, what utilities a home includes, or whether that home is available.","Vacancy and stock counts are aggregate categories. The for-rent component does not show unit condition, advertised price, timing, qualification terms, or whether any particular address remains on the market."],"qa":[{"a":"They describe deliberately different universes. ZORI is a June 2026 typical observed asking-rent index across rental types. ACS is a 2024 five-year survey of occupied renter homes and its median gross rent includes selected utilities. The 169.0% relationship is a comparison of levels, not evidence that one source has measured the same homes differently.","q":"Why is ZORI so much higher than ACS median gross rent?"},{"a":"No. The studio-through-four-bedroom figures are modelled monthly ZIP estimates obtained by scaling the all-type ZIP ZORI with the local HUD ladder. They preserve a bedroom-size pattern for comparison, but they are never measured bedroom rents, and they do not reveal a given home’s listed price, availability, features, or lease structure.","q":"Are the bedroom figures observed local rents?"},{"a":"The $104,240 figure is the arithmetic result of annualizing the $2,606 monthly ZORI and dividing by 30%. It is a standardized screening calculation for interpreting the index against income, not advice, a tenant-selection rule, a guarantee of affordability, or a statement about any applicant’s qualification.","q":"What does required annual income represent?"},{"a":"Check the advertised monthly rent, bedroom designation, availability date, lease term, concessions, utility treatment, recurring charges, and street address. Confirm whether the address corresponds to the relevant delivery ZIP despite the ZCTA match. These property-level facts are necessary because aggregate ZIP, ZCTA, city, county, and metro measures cannot establish conditions for a particular listing.","q":"What checks are needed to use this report on a property?"}],"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":"2023-06-01","rent":2399.614905},{"period":"2023-07-01","rent":2430.452356},{"period":"2023-08-01","rent":2408.964056},{"period":"2023-09-01","rent":2416.052295},{"period":"2023-11-01","rent":2416.495522},{"period":"2023-12-01","rent":2495.97368},{"period":"2024-01-01","rent":2522.722521},{"period":"2024-02-01","rent":2623.511334},{"period":"2024-03-01","rent":2587.063964},{"period":"2024-04-01","rent":2595.294598},{"period":"2024-05-01","rent":2570.013812},{"period":"2024-06-01","rent":2576.927653},{"period":"2024-07-01","rent":2600.365304},{"period":"2024-08-01","rent":2606.01235},{"period":"2024-09-01","rent":2637.387546},{"period":"2024-11-01","rent":2571.034719},{"period":"2024-12-01","rent":2594.019109},{"period":"2025-01-01","rent":2660.848604},{"period":"2025-02-01","rent":2763.236588},{"period":"2025-03-01","rent":2741.642708},{"period":"2025-04-01","rent":2714.002266},{"period":"2025-05-01","rent":2655.687476},{"period":"2025-06-01","rent":2659.633362},{"period":"2025-07-01","rent":2654.155162},{"period":"2025-08-01","rent":2655.88144},{"period":"2025-09-01","rent":2635.603001},{"period":"2025-10-01","rent":2685.923723},{"period":"2025-11-01","rent":2695.735855},{"period":"2025-12-01","rent":2656.937972},{"period":"2026-01-01","rent":2602.019231},{"period":"2026-02-01","rent":2514.41372},{"period":"2026-03-01","rent":2551.127554},{"period":"2026-04-01","rent":2564.350001},{"period":"2026-05-01","rent":2609.084394},{"period":"2026-06-01","rent":2606.297436}],"historySummary":{"pointCount":35,"firstPeriod":"2023-06-01","latestPeriod":"2026-06-01","coverageMonths":37,"coverageRatio":0.9459459459459459,"changes":{"1":{"years":1,"startPeriod":"2025-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":2659.633362,"endRent":2606.297436,"change":-0.020053864100987417,"cagr":-0.020053864100987417},"3":{"years":3,"startPeriod":"2023-06-01","endPeriod":"2026-06-01","startRent":2399.614905,"endRent":2606.297436,"change":0.0861315415941708,"cagr":0.027923532642961435}},"maxDrawdown":-0.09004761629191349,"annualizedVolatility":0.058339261778626555,"consecutiveReturnCount":32}}