At June 2026, 90815’s Zillow Observed Rent Index was $2,951 per month, up 3.1% from a year earlier. This is a ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, rather than a lease-specific quote or a measure of every available unit. The 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. The immediate signal is continued asking-rent growth, but the strength of that snapshot needs to be weighed against a more uneven historical path and a resale market that has recently softened on price.
Same-month Zillow rent history shows annualized change of 3.1% over one year, 3.4% over three years, and 5.4% over five years. Thus, the recent direction still confirms the longer upward path, while the one-year pace breaks from the stronger average pace recorded over the longer windows. The series has 97 observations, 96 consecutive monthly returns, and 100% coverage, providing a complete supplied history window. It is classified as high variability: monthly changes produced 4.4% annualized variability, while the largest peak-to-trough decline was 3.9%. That movement warrants less confidence in any single current-rent snapshot than a steadier series would. National discovery ranks were 890 for momentum, 2,720 for stability, and 1,851 for the balanced measure; lower ranks are stronger, and these backward-looking measures are neither forecasts nor investment recommendations.
The supplied bedroom figures are modelled ZIP estimates, not measured bedroom rents. They scale the ZIP ZORI through the local HUD bedroom ladder and place a studio at $2,289, a one-bedroom at $2,439, a two-bedroom at $2,951, a three-bedroom at $3,881, and a four-bedroom at $4,492 per month. The modelled two-bedroom estimate is 96.1% of the local HUD two-bedroom standard. HUD FMR or SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent, so its role here is to set the relative ladder; it does not verify that a particular unit is available, leased, or priced at any of these estimates.
The matched ACS five-year survey has a different universe: it covers occupied renter homes and its median gross rent includes selected utilities. Its median gross rent was $2,372, meaning the current asking-rent index is 24.4% above that survey median. The ZCTA’s median household income was $119,716. Applying a 30% screen arithmetically to the current ZORI produces required annual income of $118,040 and an asking-rent-to-income screen of 29.6%. This is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule. Separately, 2,477 renter households, or 45.8%, reported spending at least 30% of income on rent in ACS data. That burden statistic describes surveyed households, not the affordability of a particular available unit or household.
The same ACS ZCTA inventory counted 15,875 housing units, including 443 vacant units, for an all-unit vacancy rate of 2.8%. Single-family structures outweighed the large-multifamily portion of the stock, which matters when interpreting a blended asking-rent index across rental types rather than assuming an apartment-only market. The vacancy figure is a broad housing-stock measure, not proof that a specific rental is vacant, readily rentable, competitively priced, or in equivalent condition. It also cannot determine landlord concessions, lease turnover, or the availability of a particular bedroom type.
For wider context only, Long Beach city-context rent was $2,364, Los Angeles County context rent was $2,808, and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro context rent was $2,927. Each sits below the ZIP’s current asking-rent index, but these city, county, and metro figures are broader benchmarks rather than substitutes for the direct 90815 series. They should not be used to infer conditions for a particular building or to treat the ZCTA as a neighborhood boundary. The ZIP’s stronger current rent reading is therefore a localized index comparison, not evidence of causation, superior unit quality, or a durable future gap against the wider geographies.
Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation belongs wholly to the for-sale market, not rental transactions. Median sold price was $1,059,761, down 3.3% year over year; 87 homes sold and median marketing time was 36 days. Inventory stood at 80 homes and months of supply measured 2.8. The average sale-to-list result was 100.67%, while 40.0% of sales closed above list, signals that must remain in the resale universe. This creates the key cross-market tension: asking rents and their longer history were still positive, yet resale median price was lower from a year earlier, even as the supplied sale-to-list measures indicate some competitive closing outcomes. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price was 3.34%, solely a cross-source screening ratio, not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield.
The evidence has important limits. Zillow measures a blended asking-rent index; ACS is a sampled survey with a different timing and occupied-home universe; HUD supplies an administrative standard; and Redfin describes completed ZIP resale activity over a rolling period. None identifies the actual contract rent, utility treatment, concessions, condition, size, parking, maintenance obligations, or financing terms of an individual property. Property-level review therefore needs the current listing or lease quote, exact bedroom and bathroom count, included utilities, availability date, lease term, concessions, unit condition, and a check that the physical address is within the applicable market geography. The central unresolved question is whether a specific unit’s documented terms resemble the blended asking-rent index closely enough for this ZIP-level evidence to be relevant.
","findings":[{"body":"The current ZIP asking-rent index rose year over year, and same-month history remains positive across one-, three-, and five-year windows. However, the one-year rate trails the longer-window annualized rates. The complete history coverage supports the comparison, while the high-variability classification and prior drawdown mean the current index should be treated as a moving market measure rather than a fixed rent conclusion.","title":"Rent growth persists but has moderated"},{"body":"ACS median gross rent is lower than current Zillow ZORI, but this is not a direct pricing contradiction. ZORI is a blended asking-rent index, whereas ACS is a five-year survey of occupied renter homes that includes selected utilities. The difference may reflect timing, unit mix, occupancy status, utility treatment, and the distinction between marketed rents and rents paid by surveyed households.","title":"Survey rent and asking rent answer different questions"},{"body":"The arithmetic income screen places the ZIP’s median household income near the annual income implied by spending 30% of income on current ZORI. Yet the ACS burden measure reports a substantial share of renter households already above that threshold. The screen is an aggregate calculation, not a qualification test, and the burden figure cannot establish the circumstances or affordability of any individual household.","title":"Income screen is narrow beside observed burden"},{"body":"Direct ZIP resale data show a year-over-year decline in median sold price while the Zillow asking-rent index increased. At the same time, sale-to-list results and above-list sales indicate that resale activity was not uniformly weak. This mixed resale evidence complicates any attempt to read rent growth alone as a complete market signal, especially because the rent-to-price figure is only a cross-source screen.","title":"Resale pricing challenges an uncomplicated rent narrative"}],"risks":["The Zillow index is a blended asking-rent measure across rental types, so it may not match the rent, condition, utilities, concessions, or availability of a specific studio, apartment, house, or lease.","ACS gross rent and rent burden describe surveyed occupied renter homes over a five-year period. They are not current listings, and they cannot prove affordability, payment stress, or utility costs for a particular household.","The broad ZCTA vacancy measure describes housing stock rather than current rental availability. It does not establish that a listed unit is vacant, rentable, appropriately priced, or comparable with the ZIP rent index.","Redfin resale observations concern for-sale transactions and should not be converted into rental economics. The rent-to-price screen excludes operating costs, financing, taxes, maintenance, vacancies, and property-specific characteristics."],"qa":[{"a":"The measures have different universes and construction. Zillow ZORI is a current ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types. ACS median gross rent is a five-year survey measure for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. Timing, occupied versus marketed homes, unit mix, and utility inclusion can all separate the two figures without making either measure incorrect.","q":"Why is the current asking-rent index higher than the ACS median gross rent?"},{"a":"The history indicates that rents were still rising in the most recent one-year period, consistent with positive longer-term changes. However, the recent annualized pace is slower than the three- and five-year figures. The complete series coverage strengthens the measurement record, but elevated monthly variability and a documented drawdown reduce confidence that one current index value represents a stable trend.","q":"What does the rent history say about the present reading?"},{"a":"No. The studio through four-bedroom figures are modelled estimates created by scaling ZIP ZORI with the local HUD bedroom ladder. They are useful for showing the implied relative size pattern, but they do not measure advertised or leased rents for individual bedroom types. HUD FMR or SAFMR itself is an administrative standard, not an asking-rent dataset.","q":"Are the bedroom amounts observed market rents?"},{"a":"It is simply annualized ZIP ZORI divided by Redfin’s direct ZIP median sold price. Because it combines an asking-rent index with a resale median, it can flag a cross-source relationship but cannot measure property income, expenses, financing, taxes, or returns. It is not a cap rate, property yield, net return, expected return, or evidence of an individual property’s economics.","q":"How should the Redfin rent-to-price screen be interpreted?"}],"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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