At the June 2026 reading, Zillow’s ZIP ZORI for 94606 was $2,412 per month, a 7.0% year-over-year increase. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, so it is not a lease-by-lease quote or a bedroom-specific measurement. For context only, the Oakland city rent was $2,614, the Alameda County rent was $2,895, and the San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley, CA metro rent was $3,301; each is a broader geographic context rather than a ZIP result. 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.
That current rise is an acceleration relative to the longer Zillow history. Exact same-month annualized changes were 7.0% over one year, 1.2% over three years, and 2.0% over five years, meaning the recent direction breaks above the earlier, slower path rather than simply extending it. The history has full 100% coverage and 99 consecutive monthly return changes. Annualized monthly-return variability was 3.2%, which supports some confidence in the completeness of the current snapshot but still leaves room for meaningful month-to-month movement. Separately, the maximum observed peak-to-trough drawdown was 9.0%, showing that prior rent-index declines occurred. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 865 for momentum, 1,927 for stability, and 1,270 for the balanced measure. These are backward-looking measurements, not rent forecasts or investment recommendations.
Universe distinctions explain why several rent figures do not match. The matched 2024 ACS five-year ZCTA survey reports median gross rent of $1,873 with a margin of error of $75; it covers occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. Current ZORI is 28.8% above that survey median because it represents typical observed asking rents, not the same occupied-home universe. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR standard is $3,604, an administrative bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent. The bedroom ladder contains modelled estimates created by scaling ZIP ZORI with the local HUD ladder: $1,663 for a studio, $1,992 for one bedroom, $2,412 for two bedrooms, $3,081 for three bedrooms, and $3,194 for four bedrooms. These are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents.
Household arithmetic presents a separate affordability tension. The ZCTA median household income is $72,470, with a reported margin of error of $6,459. Applying the 30% required-income screen to the current index produces $96,480 in annual income, while the annualized asking-rent index equals 39.9% of median household income. This screen is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule. The ACS burden measure shows that 49.8% of renter households meet or exceed the threshold, but that aggregate result cannot establish what any specific household or unit pays. Renters account for 79.8% of occupied homes. The housing stock totals 17,905 units, with 1,568 vacant units, an 8.8% overall vacancy rate, and 704 units reported vacant for rent; those counts describe the ZCTA stock rather than availability at a particular property.
Broader benchmark differences are descriptive rather than interchangeable evidence. The Oakland city, Alameda County, and San Francisco–Oakland–Berkeley metro figures remain context only, each covering a geography wider than this ZIP market. The ZCTA’s renter share is above the city and county context shares, while its all-housing vacancy measure is also defined differently from the metro apartment vacancy measure. Neither comparison identifies a local submarket or explains the observed rent level. Likewise, the lower ZIP asking-rent index relative to the wider city, county, and metro context rents does not create a property-level rent comparison. Source construction, boundary differences, renter composition, and the distinction between asking rents and occupied-home gross rents all remain material when interpreting the gap.
Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation belongs entirely to the for-sale market. Median sold price was $842,310, up 21.9% year over year, with 39 homes sold. Median marketing time was 22 days, which records the recent resale period on market rather than rental turnover or lease-up speed. The active-listing count was 126, while the separately reported inventory measure was 55 homes, down 8.6% from a year earlier; months of supply stood at 4.3. Sale-to-list signals were also firm within this resale dataset: the average sale-to-list ratio was 107.4%, 50.1% of sales closed above list, and 43.1% went off market within two weeks. These are ZIP resale liquidity and transaction-price signals, not rental transactions or rental comparables.
Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by the median sold price produces a 3.4% cross-source screening ratio. It is only a screening ratio and cannot show property operating costs, financing, taxes, property-specific vacancy, or an investment outcome. The resale evidence creates an important tension: the sold-price increase outpaced both current ZORI growth and the longer asking-rent history, challenging any simple reading that rent acceleration alone aligns with resale pricing. At the same time, the sale-to-list and marketing-time observations confirm that recent resale transactions had strong price and timing signals. The income screen and renter burden measure provide a separate affordability constraint, but neither establishes buyer behavior, a renter’s actual payment, or a future price or rent path.
Decision use now depends on verification beneath these aggregate measures. Useful property-level checks include current advertised rents and concessions for genuinely comparable bedroom counts and conditions, lease terms, responsibility for utilities, and whether a listing is newly available or repeatedly marketed. The ZCTA vacancy and burden statistics cannot verify vacancy, affordability, or tenant payment at a particular address. For a resale reference, closed-sale records, listing histories, condition, unit type, and whether an observed transaction resembles the subject property are more specific than the ZIP median. The principal question is whether the actual unit’s asking terms, utility treatment, condition, and sale evidence are consistent with the separate ZIP-level rent, ZCTA survey, HUD standard, and resale datasets.
","findings":[{"body":"The latest Zillow ZIP asking-rent index rose 7.0% over the year, exceeding the exact same-month three- and five-year annual rates. That confirms acceleration in the observed asking-rent series, not a forecast. Modest monthly-return variability still coexists with a prior maximum drawdown, so a single current index value merits more confidence than an incomplete series but not certainty about future direction.","title":"Recent asking-rent acceleration exceeds the longer path"},{"body":"ACS median gross rent pertains to occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities, while ZORI is a blended asking-rent index. HUD FMR/SAFMR is instead an administrative bedroom standard. The studio-through-four-bedroom figures are modelled estimates made by scaling ZIP ZORI with the HUD ladder; they help organize size assumptions but are never measured bedroom rents or lease comparables.","title":"Rent sources answer different questions"},{"body":"The required-income screen is an arithmetic comparison between the current asking-rent index and ZCTA median household income, not a tenant qualification test. Nearly half of renter households meet the ACS burden threshold. The renter-heavy occupancy mix, housing-unit count, overall vacancy, and vacant-for-rent count describe area-level housing stock, but none confirms payment capacity or vacancy for a specific unit.","title":"Affordability and stock measures indicate a broad constraint"},{"body":"Redfin reports a direct ZIP resale observation with a rising median sold price, above-list sale signals, and short recent marketing time. Those data describe for-sale transactions and resale liquidity, not rental deals. The annualized ZORI-to-sale-price calculation is useful only as a cross-source screen; it cannot represent operating expenses, financing, property condition, or a property-specific economic result.","title":"Resale metrics are strong but remain a separate market"}],"risks":["Mixing Zillow asking-rent index values with ACS gross rent, HUD administrative standards, or wider city, county, and metro context figures can create a false impression that all measures describe the same rental market.","The required-income and rent-burden screens use area-level income and survey households. They identify aggregate pressure but cannot establish whether a particular applicant, household, building, or unit is affordable.","History coverage is complete, but the record includes both recent acceleration and a prior drawdown. Backward-looking variability and drawdown statistics limit confidence that one current rent index reading will persist.","Redfin’s resale measures are based on a rolling ZIP for-sale observation. Short marketing time, above-list sales, and price change do not provide rental comparables, property expenses, lease terms, or tenant demand evidence."],"qa":[{"a":"The measures cover different universes. Zillow ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, whereas ACS median gross rent is a five-year survey measure for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. Timing, household occupancy, utility treatment, and measure design can therefore produce different values without either figure being a correction of the other.","q":"Why is the Zillow asking-rent index above ACS median gross rent?"},{"a":"No. The studio through four-bedroom figures are modelled ZIP estimates. They scale the ZIP-wide ZORI using the local HUD bedroom ladder, which preserves HUD’s relative bedroom structure. They are not direct observations of asking rents for each bedroom count, and they should not be used as measured lease comparables.","q":"Are the bedroom rent figures observed market rents for each unit size?"},{"a":"It indicates the median time on market within Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation. It is a for-sale timing measure that helps describe recent resale transaction pace alongside homes sold, inventory, supply, and sale-to-list outcomes. It does not measure rental vacancy duration, leasing speed, tenant turnover, or the time required to rent a specific property.","q":"What does the Redfin marketing-time figure indicate?"},{"a":"No. It simply divides annualized ZIP ZORI by the ZIP median sold price, joining two separate source universes for a high-level screen. It does not contain operating costs, taxes, financing, insurance, repairs, concessions, property condition, unit mix, actual rent collection, or address-level vacancy. Those omissions prevent it from establishing a property-specific financial result.","q":"Can the ZORI-to-sale-price screening ratio determine property performance?"}],"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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