ZIP 27704 is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and the matched Census ZCTA; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. In June 2026, Zillow ZORI was $1,775 per month. ZORI is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, rather than a lease-specific quote. Against wider context only, the City of Durham asking-rent figure is $1,699.68, the Durham County figure is $1,690, and the Durham-Chapel Hill, NC metro figure is $1,691; none is a substitute ZIP estimate. The ZIP’s asking-rent level therefore sits above each broader benchmark. A $71,000 annual income is the arithmetic result of applying a 30% screen to ZORI, versus a ZCTA ACS median household income of $69,668. That produces a 30.6% asking-rent-to-income screen, not advice, an applicant qualification rule, or evidence about any household’s actual budget.
The same-month rent record presents stable growth rather than a straight-line rise. The one-year change was 3.47%, the three-year annualized change was 2.84%, and the five-year annualized change was 4.81%. Recent direction confirms the longer positive path because all three measures are positive, although the one-year pace remains below the faster five-year result. Monthly history has complete coverage. Variability, measured as annualized monthly-return volatility, was 2.56%, which supports somewhat more confidence in the current ZORI snapshot than a highly erratic series would. Still, the history’s maximum drawdown was 3.33%, showing that rent index declines have occurred. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 930 for momentum, 805 for stability, and 534 for the balanced measure, where a lower rank indicates a higher position. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
The large gap between sources should not be read as a contradiction without regard to their universes. The ACS 2024 five-year estimate reports median gross rent of $1,382, with a $71 margin of error, for occupied renter homes and includes selected utilities. Zillow’s current asking index is 128.4% of that ACS median, a difference consistent with unlike populations and rent concepts rather than a direct estimate of lease renewal terms. HUD’s FY2026 two-bedroom FMR is $1,711. HUD FMR or SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard, not asking rent. The bedroom ladder shown here is therefore modelled: scaling ZIP ZORI with the local HUD ladder produces estimates of $1,470 for a studio, $1,563 for one bedroom, $1,775 for two bedrooms, $2,196 for three bedrooms, and $2,622 for four bedrooms. They are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents.
ACS provides a separate affordability and stock lens for the matched ZCTA. Of 6,100 renter-occupied homes, 2,922 households were estimated to spend at least 30% of income on gross rent, a 47.9% burden share. Gross rent includes selected utilities, so this burden statistic cannot be equated to the ZORI screen. It also cannot prove that a particular available unit is affordable or burdensome. The housing stock totals 16,578 units, including separately identified single-family and large-multifamily categories. There were 1,055 vacant units, producing a 6.4% vacancy rate. This is an all-housing ACS vacancy measure, not a current count of rentable listings, lease concessions, or unit-level availability.
Scope discipline is especially important in comparing these figures. The City of Durham values are citywide context, Durham County values are county context, and Durham-Chapel Hill values are metro context; each can frame the ZIP result but cannot replace it. The ZIP’s lower ACS gross-rent level and higher current ZORI also reflect different measurement populations and timing, rather than a single rent trend that can be transferred across geographies. Likewise, renter share, vacancy, median income, and burden statistics describe aggregate ZCTA conditions. They establish useful context for the rent screen, but they do not identify the mix, quality, utility treatment, or terms of a specific rental listing.
Redfin supplies a different and direct ZIP evidence universe: a rolling-three-month for-sale/resale observation, not rental transactions. It reported a $308,430 median sold price, down 6.53% year over year, alongside 157 homes sold and 33 median days on market. Inventory stood at 146 homes and was up 24.97%. The 2.8 months of supply describes the amount of for-sale inventory relative to the current sales pace, signaling a market with less than a fully exhausted listing base; it is not rental vacancy. Sale-to-list evidence also leaned below list-price conditions: the average sale-to-list ratio was 97.3%, while 9.16% of sales closed above list. These resale measures must remain in the for-sale market rather than being treated as rental comparables or property economics.
Annualizing ZIP ZORI and dividing it by the Redfin median sold price produces a 6.91% cross-source screening ratio. That arithmetic ratio is not a cap rate, net return, expected return, property yield, or evidence of property-level cash flow. Its main use here is to place a current asking-rent index beside a ZIP resale-price observation. The tension is clear: the rent history remains positive and the latest asking index exceeds the broader rent contexts, while Redfin records a lower median sold price, rising inventory, and below-list sale-to-list signals. Resale evidence therefore challenges any simple reading that rent growth alone describes all current housing-market conditions. Conversely, it does not disprove the rent series because the two datasets observe different transactions, units, and timing.
Important limits remain before applying this ZIP summary to a property. Check contemporaneous asking rents for genuinely comparable bedroom counts, property types, conditions, lease lengths, concessions, and included utilities. Verify whether an address falls within the relevant delivery area as well as the statistical geography, because the ZCTA match is not a USPS boundary. For a prospective sale comparison, inspect recent ZIP listing and sale records for property characteristics, list-price changes, marketing exposure, and transaction status rather than relying on the median alone. Confirm the bedroom count used in the modelled ladder and distinguish any administrative HUD standard from an owner’s actual asking price. The central unresolved question is whether a specific home’s current terms match the broad indicators summarized here.