The five-digit label 29483 is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and a Census ZCTA match, but the central tension is a current index that has accelerated from its medium-term pace without overtaking its longer-run pace. At the June 2026 endpoint, Zillow ZORI is $1,878 per month. It is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, rather than a quote for every unit. Exact same-month history shows a 5.58% one-year change, a 3.12% annualized three-year change, and a 6.19% annualized five-year change. Recent direction therefore confirms a positive longer path and accelerates from the three-year cadence, while remaining short of the five-year pace. Those backward-looking measurements are not forecasts or investment recommendations.
Comparisons need separate evidence universes. The ACS comparison uses the matched Census ZCTA, a statistical area rather than a USPS delivery ZIP and therefore not identical to one; its 2024 five-year survey covers occupied renter homes. Its median gross rent is $1,378 and includes selected utilities, so it trails the ZORI by 36.3%; survey timing, occupied-home coverage, and utility treatment make that gap non-interchangeable with a current asking-rent spread. The supplied ACS field also carries sampling uncertainty. The available local HUD FY2026 FMR/SAFMR two-bedroom standard is $1,510. HUD is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard—not asking rent—and ZORI is 24.4% above that standard. Neither benchmark establishes an advertised price for an individual home.
For a bedroom view, the local HUD ladder scales the ZIP ZORI into modelled monthly estimates: $1,642 for a studio, $1,716 for one bedroom, $1,878 for two bedrooms, $2,338 for three bedrooms, and $2,686 for four bedrooms. These are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents. The scaling preserves the local HUD bedroom relationship while anchoring its level to the ZIP’s blended ZORI; it does not observe a matched set of listings by bedroom count. A unit can differ because the index covers blended rental types and the HUD ladder is a standard, not a local asking-rent sample. Use the ladder as a consistent sizing frame, not a substitute for a property’s advertised terms.
The monthly ZIP index produces a $75,120 annual income screen at 30% of gross income. That arithmetic is not advice, an applicant qualification rule, or a statement about any household’s budget. The matched ZCTA’s median household income is $85,750, making the index-to-income calculation 26.3%; this is a broad household-income comparison, not renter-income evidence. Separately, ACS reports 2,462 of 4,751 renter households with gross-rent burden at or above 30%, a 51.8% group estimate. That burden rate describes surveyed occupied renter homes and cannot prove affordability, payment stress, or utility treatment for a particular unit.
The matched ZCTA has 23,728 housing units, of which 1,533 are vacant, yielding a 6.46% all-unit vacancy rate; that leaves the balance occupied in the survey snapshot. The count specifically coded vacant for rent is 488. These are stock-level measures across the ZCTA rather than a contemporaneous inventory of available listings. They do not identify lease-ready condition, asking price, bedroom mix, or the vacancy status of a particular property. The evidence can therefore describe the scale of stock and the broad vacancy mix, but it cannot turn an aggregate vacancy count into proof that an individual unit is available or negotiable.
Wider geography gives a different scale, not a replacement benchmark. In the same comparison, Summerville city context rent is $1,896, Dorchester County context rent is $1,760, and Charleston–North Charleston, SC metro context rent is $2,066. These city-, county-, and metro-scope values must remain named as wider context: they are not ZIP-level observations, are not a property-comparable set, and should not be blended into the ZIP index. The ZIP figure sits between the county reading and the city and metro readings, a useful orientation only. It says nothing by itself about the features, lease terms, or availability of a given rental.
Confidence in the current index should rest on coverage and variability, not on direction alone. The history contains 138 monthly observations and 137 consecutive returns through the stated endpoint, with 100% recorded coverage, annualized monthly-return variability of 2.38%, and a maximum drawdown of -2.14%. Its transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs are 553 for momentum, 503 for stability, and 156 for the balanced measure; lower rank is higher. These are backward-looking discovery measurements, not forecasts, valuations, or investment recommendations. The full record and limited past decline support use of the index as a historical reference, but the variability and blended coverage limit confidence in any single rent snapshot. For a property-level check, does the actual asking rent align with the bedroom count, lease term, utilities, fees or concessions, condition, and availability being offered?