ZIP 60202 presents a split screen: Zillow’s current typical observed asking-rent index is $2,204 per month, up 6.25% from the same month a year earlier, while later resale evidence shows softer prices. This is a Zillow ZIP market identifier matched to a Census ZCTA. A ZCTA is a statistical area used for tabulation and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. ZORI is a blended asking-rent index across rental types, so it is a current market-rent signal rather than a count of leased units, a utility-inclusive household cost, or a measure of any particular apartment.
The rent path remains positive but is not accelerating beyond every longer comparison. Exact same-month annualized growth was 6.25% over one year, 6.01% over three years, and 6.81% over five years. Recent direction therefore broadly confirms the longer upward path, though the latest pace sits below the five-year rate. The history has 138 monthly observations and 137 consecutive monthly returns with complete coverage. Annualized monthly-return variability of 2.74% suggests that changes have generally been contained, but the separate 2.97% maximum drawdown shows that declines have occurred. That combination supports moderate confidence in the current snapshot, not certainty. Transparent national discovery ranks were 147 for momentum, 1,126 for stability, and 158 for the balanced measure, where lower ranks are stronger; these are backward-looking discovery measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
The supplied bedroom ladder translates the ZIP-wide ZORI into modelled monthly estimates, not measured bedroom rents: $1,828 for a studio, $1,960 for one bedroom, $2,204 for two bedrooms, $2,834 for three bedrooms, and $3,281 for four bedrooms. These estimates scale the ZIP ZORI using the local HUD bedroom ladder. HUD FMR or SAFMR is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent, so neither the HUD amounts nor the scaled estimates establish what a particular available unit will rent for. The matched ACS five-year survey reports a $1,651 median gross rent for occupied renter homes, including selected utilities; that figure is 33.5% below ZORI, but the two sources describe different populations and cost concepts.
The income screen also requires careful separation from tenant outcomes. Median household income in the ZCTA is $98,989, while annualizing the current ZORI and applying a 30% housing-cost share produces $88,160 of required income. The resulting asking-rent-to-income comparison is 26.7%, an arithmetic screen rather than advice or an applicant qualification rule. ACS reports that 34.4% of renter households paid at least 30% of income toward gross rent. That burden measure concerns surveyed occupied renter homes and selected utilities, not a prediction about the affordability of a listed unit or the circumstances of any individual household.
Housing stock gives the rent and burden figures additional scale without proving current availability. The ZCTA contains 14,948 housing units, of which 921 were vacant in the ACS estimate, for a 6.2% vacancy rate. There were 238 units classified as vacant for rent, and renters occupied 41.9% of occupied homes. The stock includes both single-family homes and larger multifamily buildings, consistent with a mixed set of rental and ownership housing forms. Vacancy is a survey-area condition, not evidence that a specific property is vacant, competitively priced, habitable, or offered on the terms assumed by the ZORI index.
Wider Zillow asking-rent context places Evanston city scope at $2,561.65, Cook County scope at $2,336, and Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro scope at $2,275; each is above the ZIP’s current $2,204 index. These city, county, and metro figures are context only and should not replace the direct ZIP observation. Their broader geographies can contain different rental-type mixes, household profiles, and supply conditions. The ZIP’s lower index relative to all three reference areas is useful for positioning, but it does not reconcile the difference between current asking rents and the ACS gross-rent survey, nor does it establish a quality or value comparison among homes.
The direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation introduces the main counterweight to rent momentum. Median sold price was $407,518, down 4.11% year over year, with 123 homes sold and a median 41 days on market. Active listings totaled 211, up 15.22%, while inventory was 84, up 18.11%; there were 137 pending sales and 2.1 months of supply. At the same time, average sale-to-list was 103.19%, 49.21% of sales closed above list, and 58.08% went off market within two weeks. Those liquidity signals coexist with lower median price and rising listings, challenging a simple reading that rising asking rents alone imply broad market strengthening. This is for-sale evidence, not rental transactions. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price is a 6.49% cross-source screening ratio only, not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield.
The practical limit is that each series answers a different question at a different level of aggregation. ZORI can frame current ZIP asking-rent conditions; ACS describes surveyed occupied renter homes; HUD supplies administrative bedroom standards; and Redfin records recent ZIP resale activity. A property-level review would need the actual advertised rent, bedroom count, unit type, lease term, utility responsibility, concessions, availability date, and condition before comparing a listing with the modelled ladder. For a purchase comparison, it would also need property-specific sale records, list history, carrying costs, and the relevant resale time window. The evidence supports a documented rent-versus-resale tension, not a conclusion about any individual unit.