At June 2026, Zillow’s ZIP ZORI for 29407 was $1,785 per month. It is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, not a quoted rent for a particular home or a uniform apartment category. The five-digit label 29407 is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and a matched Census ZCTA. A ZCTA is a Census statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP, so an address-level delivery ZIP or property boundary should not be inferred from this market label alone. The current index is most useful as a broad asking-market reference, with property-specific terms still requiring direct verification.
The historical record fits a stable-growth label, but its pace has cooled. Exact same-month annualized ZIP ZORI change was 0.83% over one year, compared with 2.12% over three years and 6.17% over five years. The latest direction therefore remains positive while breaking from the faster longer-run path; it does not support simply extending the earlier rate. Coverage was 100%, which strengthens confidence that the trend is not built from missing periods. Monthly Zillow returns produced 2.82% annualized variability, indicating that this index did move around its trend. Its maximum peak-to-trough fall was 2.18%, confirming that even this historical path included retrenchments. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 1,789 for momentum, 1,282 for stability, and 1,724 for the balanced measure, where lower rank is higher placement. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
Bedroom detail needs especially careful treatment here. Scaling the ZIP ZORI with the local HUD ladder produces modelled monthly ZIP estimates of $1,557 for a studio, $1,633 for one bedroom, $1,785 for two bedrooms, $2,222 for three bedrooms, and $2,564 for four bedrooms. They are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents, and should not be treated as observed asking quotes for available units. The local HUD FMR/SAFMR ladder supplies the bedroom ratios used in the scaling. HUD FMR/SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent, so it belongs in a different evidence universe from Zillow’s blended asking-rent index.
ACS answers a materially different rent question. The matched ZCTA’s ACS 2024 five-year survey reported median gross rent of $1,431, a measure of occupied renter homes that includes selected utilities; its stated margin of error was $51. Zillow’s current asking index is 24.7% higher, but that gap is not a measured rent increase for the same homes because the samples, timing, and utility treatment differ. At a 30% rent share, $1,785 implies $71,400 in annual income under the required-income screen, versus a ZCTA median household income of $85,367. That calculation is arithmetic, not advice or an applicant qualification rule. Separately, 43.7% of surveyed renter households had gross-rent burdens at or above 30%. The burden statistic cannot prove that any particular available unit is affordable or unaffordable.
Tenure, stock, and vacancy add another layer of context. Renter households accounted for 43.1% of occupied homes in the matched ZCTA, while the overall housing vacancy rate was 10.5%. The stock is more concentrated in single-family structures than in large multifamily buildings, but that aggregate composition neither identifies a current vacancy nor establishes the condition, terms, or rent of a specific property. In wider reference scopes, the City of Charleston context rent was $2,245, the Charleston County context rent was $2,156, and the Charleston-North Charleston, SC metro context rent was $2,066; each exceeds the ZIP index. Those city, county, and metro figures are broader context only and are not substitutes for direct ZIP evidence or property-level rent comparisons.
The resale picture is separate from rental evidence and shows softer pricing alongside measurable transaction activity. In Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation through June 30, 2026, the median sold price was $557,374, down 3.4% year over year. There were 162 homes sold, and median marketing time was 55 days. Inventory stood at 171 homes with 3.2 months of supply. Sale-to-list evidence remained below full list pricing: the average sale-to-list ratio was 97.61%, 17.74% of sales closed above list, and 42.24% went off market within two weeks. These are direct ZIP for-sale and resale observations, not rental transactions, rental comparables, or evidence of property operating economics.
Set beside one another, the rent and resale data create a meaningful tension. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by the direct ZIP median sold price equals a 3.84% cross-source screening ratio only. It cannot stand in for a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield because it omits property-specific expenses, financing, taxes, maintenance, vacancy experience, and unit-level rent. More importantly, the one-year asking-rent index still rose 0.83% while the median resale price fell 3.4%. That resale decline challenges any uncomplicated reading of the longer rent-growth history. Likewise, the median-income arithmetic and the renter-burden share describe different affordability lenses rather than a single conclusion about a household or dwelling.
Important limits remain before applying these ZIP indicators to a property. Zillow measures a blended current asking-rent index; ACS is a five-year survey of occupied renter homes; HUD provides a bedroom-specific administrative standard; and Redfin records resale activity. A property-level review should verify the exact address geography, bedroom count, advertised rent, concessions, lease duration, included utilities, condition, and date of the listing. For a resale comparison, verify whether completed nearby sales match the property’s type and whether active-list terms differ from sold terms. The central unresolved question is whether verified unit terms resemble the broad ZIP index, rather than an assumed average drawn from incompatible source universes.