Rent-minus-income gap: +62.0 pp.
Household pressure · constrained national screen
Markets where rent growth outpaced household income
A fixed-endpoint comparison of asking-rent growth and nominal household-income growth from 2019 to 2024.
Question answeredWhere did Zillow asking rents rise faster than ACS median household income across the same fixed endpoints?
Visual ranking
The leading ten, with one metric encoded.
The chart stays intentionally narrow: it shows the ordering metric, while the table and counter-signals keep the rest of the decision visible.
The median of the ten displayed leaders, not a national threshold.
The table preserves the counter-metrics needed before opening a market brief.
Evidence table
Top twenty qualifying market areas.
Each row links to the full metro evidence. Figures retain the units and concepts named in the column headers.
| Rank | Market area | Growth gap | Rent change | Income change | 2024 market rent |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| #1 | Florence, SC | +62.0 pp | 85.4% | 23.4% | $1.2k |
| #2 | Barnstable Town, MA | +56.2 pp | 84.3% | 28.1% | $2.6k |
| #3 | Torrington, CT | +51.4 pp | 68.4% | 17.1% | $1.8k |
| #4 | Binghamton, NY | +40.9 pp | 59.9% | 19.0% | $1.2k |
| #5 | Hinesville, GA | +37.1 pp | 60.1% | 23.0% | $1.6k |
| #6 | Bloomington, IL | +36.8 pp | 54.9% | 18.1% | $1.3k |
| #7 | Norwich, CT | +35.5 pp | 53.4% | 17.8% | $1.8k |
| #8 | Heber, UT | +33.7 pp | 67.6% | 33.9% | $3.1k |
| #9 | Kokomo, IN | +31.8 pp | 54.0% | 22.3% | $938 |
| #10 | Augusta, ME | +31.1 pp | 55.9% | 24.8% | $1.4k |
| #11 | Atlantic City, NJ | +31.1 pp | 63.3% | 32.2% | $1.9k |
| #12 | Naples, FL | +30.8 pp | 60.1% | 29.3% | $2.7k |
| #13 | Johnson City, TN | +28.7 pp | 58.7% | 30.0% | $1.4k |
| #14 | Knoxville, TN | +28.5 pp | 61.1% | 32.6% | $1.7k |
| #15 | State College, PA | +28.5 pp | 51.5% | 23.0% | $1.6k |
| #16 | Lafayette, IN | +27.2 pp | 43.5% | 16.3% | $1.3k |
| #17 | Lawton, OK | +26.7 pp | 43.2% | 16.5% | $1k |
| #18 | South Bend, IN | +26.5 pp | 52.6% | 26.1% | $1.2k |
| #19 | Sebastian, FL | +26.4 pp | 60.7% | 34.3% | $2.1k |
| #20 | Fayetteville, NC | +26.4 pp | 53.8% | 27.5% | $1.4k |
Method and limits
What this order means—and what it does not.
This is a repeatable screening order, not an investment recommendation, forecast or property-level estimate.
Inclusion and ordering rule: Include every current RentMarker metro with direct Zillow ZORI annual averages for 2019 and 2024 plus direct ACS five-year median household income estimates for the 2019 and 2024 vintages. Rank by rent change minus nominal income change, highest first.
How it is calculated
- Cumulative rent change divides the 2024 Zillow ZORI annual average by its 2019 annual average and subtracts one.
- Cumulative nominal income change divides the ACS 2024 five-year median household income estimate by the ACS 2019 five-year estimate and subtracts one.
- Growth gap subtracts income change from rent change; it is a descriptive percentage-point difference, not a renter-specific budget change.
Counter-signals to carry
- Median household income covers all households, not only renters or recent movers.
- A metro with income keeping pace can still have a high current rent burden or unequal gains across households.
- Supply, jobs, migration and unit mix can move differently from this two-endpoint comparison.
Limits before use
- ACS five-year estimates summarize multi-year survey periods and are not synchronized annual income observations.
- Both changes are nominal; inflation is not removed and the result is not real purchasing-power growth.
- ZORI is a market asking-rent index, not the rent paid by the same households represented in ACS.
Source ledger
Named releases behind this ranking.
Release period and pull date remain attached so a later refresh can reproduce a different order honestly.
Next decision
Move from a market screen to a property test.
Open the market evidence first, then replace market-wide typicals with the candidate property’s actual price, rent and operating assumptions.