The five-digit label 91104 is both Zillow’s 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 $2,772 per month, representing a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types rather than the quoted rent of any specific home. For wider context, the City of Pasadena asking-rent context was $2,939, Los Angeles County asking-rent context was $2,808, and the Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim, CA metro asking-rent context was $2,927. Thus, the ZIP index sat below each named broader-area reference, although those city, county, and metro figures are context rather than substitutes for ZIP evidence.
Different rent sources produce a material comparison gap because they describe different universes. The matched ACS five-year survey reports a $2,063 median gross rent for occupied renter homes; gross rent includes selected utilities and is not an asking-rent measure. The current Zillow asking-rent index is 34.4% above that ACS measure, a difference that should not be read simply as market appreciation or an affordability result. HUD’s FY2026 two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR standard is $3,070, and ZIP ZORI is 90.3% of that amount. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent, so it provides a scaling benchmark, not a competing listing observation.
Using the local HUD bedroom ladder to scale the ZIP ZORI produces modelled monthly estimates of $2,150 for a studio, $2,291 for one bedroom, $2,772 for two bedrooms, $3,646 for three bedrooms, and $4,219 for four bedrooms. These are modelled estimates, not measured bedroom rents: the procedure preserves the ZIP-wide ZORI level while applying local HUD relative bedroom steps. That makes the ladder useful for a consistent initial screen across unit sizes, but it cannot establish that a particular listing, building, lease term, utility package, or property condition will match the displayed amount.
At the current ZORI, the arithmetic income amount associated with a 30% rent screen is $110,880 annually. That is slightly above the ZCTA’s $105,958 median household income, and the ZIP asking-rent-to-income screen equals 31.4%. This is arithmetic only, not advice and not an applicant qualification rule. In the separate ACS occupied-renter universe, 2,854 of 6,010 renter households, or 47.5%, reported paying at least 30% of income toward gross rent. The burden figure describes surveyed renter households and their gross-rent circumstances; it does not prove affordability, hardship, or likely rent for any particular vacant unit.
The ACS ZCTA estimate records 35,937 residents and 14,498 housing units, of which 13,488 were occupied and 1,010 were vacant. That produces a 7.0% vacancy rate across all housing vacancy categories, not a direct reading of homes available to a renter today. Renter-occupied homes account for 44.6% of occupied units, while the housing stock is weighted toward single-family structures relative to large multifamily structures. These stock and tenure measures help frame the rental base, but they do not identify unit turnover, concessions, listing quality, or a usable vacancy rate for a specific bedroom category.
The backward-looking ZORI path shows deceleration relative to its longer run. The exact same-month one-year annualized change was 0.8%, versus 2.4% over three years and 6.0% over five years. Recent direction therefore breaks from, rather than confirms, the faster longer-path pace. Monthly rent-return variability annualized to 4.6%, which limits confidence in any single current index snapshot; separately, the largest recorded peak-to-trough drawdown was 4.1%. Coverage was 99.0% across 102 observations and 100 consecutive returns. The transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 1,735 for momentum, 2,764 for stability, and 2,544 for the balanced measure, where a lower rank is higher. These are retrospective measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation supplies a separate for-sale signal, not rental transactions or rental comps. Its median sold price was $1,314,703, down 3.8% year over year, with 57 homes sold and a median 29 days on market. Redfin reported inventory of 48 homes and 2.6 months of supply. At the same time, the average sale-to-list ratio was 108.5%, and 80.1% of sales closed above list, signals that should remain within the resale universe. The annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price is a 2.53% cross-source screening ratio only, not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield. Lower resale pricing aligns with slower rent momentum, while above-list sale signals complicate any simple reading of softening conditions.
The evidence is strongest as a structured comparison rather than a property-level conclusion. Zillow captures a blended ZIP asking-rent index; ACS captures surveyed occupied renter homes with selected utilities; HUD supplies administrative standards; and Redfin describes direct ZIP resale conditions. Useful property-level checks include confirming actual bedroom count, current advertised rent, utility inclusion, lease length, concessions, listing date, sale date, condition, and whether the offered home is comparable to the index’s rental mix. Readers should also distinguish all-housing vacancy from current rental availability and treat the volatile historical path as a reason to verify the current listing rather than rely on one index point alone.
","findings":[{"body":"ZIP ZORI is below the named City of Pasadena, Los Angeles County, and Los Angeles-Long Beach-Anaheim metro asking-rent context measures. That relative position is useful for orientation, but it does not show that any specific ZIP unit is cheaper, because ZORI is a blended asking-rent index and broader geographies are context only.","title":"Current asking rent is below broader rent context"},{"body":"The ACS median gross-rent figure comes from occupied renter households and includes selected utilities, while ZORI tracks typical observed asking rents. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative bedroom-specific standard. The gaps among these measures reflect their different populations, timing, and intended uses, so they should not be combined into a single rent conclusion.","title":"Rent measures are not interchangeable"},{"body":"The one-year rent change trails the three-year and five-year annualized measures, indicating that the latest period is slower than the longer backward-looking path. Elevated monthly variability and a recorded drawdown mean the current ZORI is informative but should carry less certainty as a stand-alone snapshot than a highly stable series would.","title":"History shows slowing growth with meaningful variability"},{"body":"Redfin resale evidence shows a lower median sold price from a year earlier, consistent with slower recent rent momentum. Yet limited months of supply and above-list sale signals point in a different direction within the for-sale market. Neither pattern converts the rent-price screening ratio into property economics or a rental-market transaction measure.","title":"Resale indicators present a mixed cross-market signal"}],"risks":["ZORI, ACS gross rent, and HUD standards answer different questions; treating their differences as a particular home’s attainable rent, utility cost, or affordability outcome can materially misstate conditions.","The rent history has substantial variability and a documented drawdown, so a single current index reading may not represent a stable trend and should not be treated as a forecast.","Redfin reports direct ZIP resale activity rather than rental transactions, meaning sale prices, marketing time, inventory, and sale-to-list outcomes cannot establish rental demand or a property’s operating performance.","ACS housing, vacancy, income, and burden measures are survey estimates for the ZCTA and do not identify current unit availability, tenant circumstances, lease terms, or the condition of an individual property."],"qa":[{"a":"Zillow ZORI is a 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. The measures therefore cover different housing populations, use different collection approaches, and should not be interpreted as competing readings of the same lease market.","q":"Why does Zillow ZORI differ from ACS median gross rent?"},{"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 a consistent size-based screen, but they are not measured bedroom rents and cannot replace verification of a listing’s actual rent, utility treatment, condition, or lease terms.","q":"Are the bedroom figures observed rents for available units?"},{"a":"The required-income figure is simply the arithmetic income associated with paying the current ZIP ZORI at a thirty-percent rent share. ACS burden statistics separately report the share of surveyed occupied renter households paying at least that share of income toward gross rent. Neither calculation is advice, an applicant qualification rule, or proof about a particular household or unit.","q":"What does the income and rent-burden analysis establish?"},{"a":"It should be used only as a cross-source screen formed by annualizing ZIP ZORI and dividing it by Redfin’s median sold price. It is not a cap rate, property yield, expected return, or net return because it excludes operating expenses, financing, taxes, maintenance, vacancies, property-specific rents, and other essential property-level inputs.","q":"How should the Redfin rent-price screening ratio be used?"}],"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 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