The distinctive decision question for 02169 is how a current blended asking-rent signal lines up with bedroom configuration, household resources, and the separate evidence on occupied homes—not whether a particular listing will transact at an index value. The five-digit 02169 label is both the Zillow ZIP market identifier and the Census ZCTA match; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. Zillow's June 2026 ZORI is $2,733 per month, up 2.6% from a year earlier. This is a typical observed asking-rent index across blended rental types, so it supplies a current ZIP-wide price signal rather than a lease quote, an all-in housing bill, or a direct description of every bedroom type.
Income and burden show why the current asking signal merits a separate household screen. In the matched ACS 2024 five-year ZCTA survey, median household income was $96,290. Applying the stated 30% arithmetic screen to the $2,733 monthly ZORI produces $109,320 in annual income; it is a budget comparison, not advice and not an applicant qualification rule. Renter-occupied homes represented 59.0% of all occupied homes, and 47.0% of surveyed renter homes reported rent burden at or above 30%. That observed burden measure describes survey households and their reported costs, not the income, lease terms, utilities, or burden of a prospective tenant or a particular available unit.
For configuration-sensitive comparison, the estimated ladder moves from a studio at $1,929 to one bedroom at $2,083, two bedrooms at $2,733, three bedrooms at $3,417, and four bedrooms at $3,619 per month. These are modelled ZIP estimates created by scaling ZORI with the local HUD bedroom ladder; they are never measured bedroom rents. Their shape is useful for comparing the implied relative price by bedroom count, but it cannot identify actual listings, concessions, utility treatment, building quality, or the distribution of rents within a size class. The modelled $2,733 result matches the overall index by model construction, not as an independent bedroom-specific observation.
These rent benchmarks answer different questions and should not be merged. Zillow ZORI is the current ZIP-level typical observed asking-rent index, blended across rental types. The ACS ZCTA five-year median gross rent was $2,089; it is a survey measure for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. The $644 gap, or 30.8%, between that survey median and current ZORI is therefore a contrast between sources, populations, timing, and rent concepts, not an estimate of rent growth for the same homes. HUD's FY2026 two-bedroom FMR/SAFMR standard is $2,311, making ZORI 18.3% higher in this comparison. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent; its role here is the ladder input and separate benchmark.
The stock figures qualify what a headline vacancy rate can and cannot say. The ZCTA contained 30,352 housing units, with 28,707 occupied and 1,645 vacant, for a 5.4% vacancy rate. Of the vacant stock, 605 units were classified as for rent; the supplied vacancy categories also separate for-sale and seasonal units. These categories are components of vacancy, not a count of currently advertised, rentable listings. The structure mix also spans 10,616 single-family units and 10,170 large-multifamily units, both counted across the area rather than only renter housing. Consequently, neither the vacancy rate nor the for-rent classification establishes price, condition, lease timing, bedroom count, eligibility, or availability for any particular unit.
Context changes the reference value with geographic scope, which is why these figures should remain context rather than be substituted for the ZIP. In Quincy city context, the asking-rent index was $2,750; that citywide series covers a broader area than the ZIP. In Norfolk County context, asking rent was $2,970 and renter share was 31.3%; these county figures include housing conditions beyond Quincy. In the Boston-Cambridge-Newton, MA-NH metro context, asking rent was $3,210, a wider-market benchmark rather than a ZIP estimate. The city, county, and metro series have their stated geographic scopes and cannot resolve differences among buildings or listings inside the ZIP.
Several limits govern a property-level use of this report. ZORI is an index and its blended rental types do not disclose the unit mix behind the figure; ACS estimates are ZCTA five-year survey results with sampling uncertainty; and HUD standards serve an administrative purpose. Before assigning any number to a property, check the live advertised rent and availability date, exact bedroom and bathroom count, lease term, whether selected utilities or other charges are included, concession terms, furnished status, income or program rules if stated, and the unit's location within the delivery area. Also distinguish a landlord's advertised price from the modelled bedroom estimate, and do not infer unit vacancy or tenant burden from area averages. These checks test the listing itself while preserving the separate ZIP, ZCTA, and HUD evidence universes.