The present rent signal is a Zillow Observed Rent Index of $2,596 for 60661. This is a typical observed asking-rent index blended across rental types, rather than a lease quote for a defined unit. The five-digit label is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and a Census ZCTA match; a ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. In the fully covered Zillow history, the one-year exact same-month rent change was 5.0%, the three-year annualized change was 3.5%, and the five-year annualized change was 4.9%. The series contains 123 monthly observations with 100% coverage. These are backward-looking measurements, not forecasts or investment recommendations.
The longer path supports a growth reading, but it is not a straight line. Monthly rent changes annualize to 3.2% variability, enough that a single current ZORI snapshot should be treated as a useful benchmark rather than a precise unit-level price. Separately, the historical maximum peak-to-trough drawdown reached 12.7%, showing that the index has experienced meaningful declines despite positive multi-year change. Recent one-year growth is above the three-year pace and roughly in line with the five-year pace, so it confirms the broader upward path more than it breaks from it. Transparent national discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs place momentum at 552, balanced history at 875, and stability at 1,918, with lower ranks indicating stronger relative placement; these ranks organize past data rather than predict outcomes.
The source comparison creates an important distinction. The matched Census ZCTA ACS five-year survey reports median gross rent of $2,306, making current ZIP ZORI 12.6% higher. ACS describes occupied renter homes and median gross rent includes selected utilities, so it is not an asking-rent series and should not be substituted for Zillow’s current asking-rent index. The local HUD FMR/SAFMR two-bedroom standard is $2,670, putting ZIP ZORI 2.8% below that administrative benchmark. HUD is a bedroom-specific program standard, not observed asking rent; its role here is to provide a consistent local bedroom ladder rather than a rental comparable.
That HUD ladder scales the ZIP ZORI into modelled monthly estimates of $2,158 for a studio, $2,304 for one bedroom, $2,596 for two bedrooms, $3,345 for three bedrooms, and $3,870 for four bedrooms. These are modelled estimates, never measured bedroom rents, because they use the local HUD bedroom relationships to allocate one blended ZIP index. The arithmetic 30% required-income screen implies $103,840 in annual income for the current ZORI. Against ACS median household income of $125,741, the ZIP-level asking-rent-to-income screen is 24.8%. This is not advice or an applicant qualification rule: household median income is not renter income, does not describe a particular household, and cannot establish affordability for a particular unit.
Housing composition helps explain why a blended index needs careful interpretation. The ACS ZCTA has 8,202 housing units and a 5.0% vacancy rate. Of occupied homes, 5,717 are renter occupied, or 73.4%, while 2,071 are owner occupied. Large multifamily structures account for 7,602 units, compared with 389 single-family units, so apartment-oriented stock dominates this statistical area. ACS also estimates that 1,962 renter households, or 34.3%, pay at least 30% of income toward gross rent. Survey margins of error and the inclusion of utilities matter here, and neither the vacancy figure nor the burden share proves anything about availability, condition, or cost for a specific residence.
Wider Zillow asking-rent context is $2,409 for Chicago city, $2,336 for Cook County, and $2,275 for the Chicago-Naperville-Elgin, IL-IN-WI metro. Each is a broader geographic context, not a substitute for the direct ZIP observation. The ZIP index therefore sits above the city, county, and metro asking-rent context, while the separate ACS city and county gross-rent measures are materially lower than the ZIP’s ACS median gross rent. Chicago city and Cook County also show higher ACS renter-burden shares than this ZCTA. Those comparisons identify a relatively higher-rent ZIP screen, but they do not establish why the difference exists or whether any particular building matches the ZIP average.
Redfin’s direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale observation supplies a separate for-sale-market signal. Median sold price was $414,906, down 1.2% year over year. Redfin recorded 74 homes sold with a median 46 days on market, while 133 active listings and reported inventory of 48 homes describe the available resale environment. Months of supply stood at 2.0. Buyers paid an average 101.8% of list price, and 52.8% of sales closed above list, both sale-to-list signals within the resale universe only. Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by median sold price produces a 7.5% cross-source screening ratio, not a cap rate, net return, expected return, or property yield. The price decline challenges an uncomplicated reading of rent growth, although the short supply and sale-to-list results indicate active ZIP resale conditions rather than rental transactions.
The usable conclusion is bounded by the data design. ZORI does not identify unit size, utility treatment, lease term, concessions, or availability; ACS is a survey of occupied homes; HUD is administrative; and Redfin tracks resale activity rather than rentals. Property-level checks should therefore match current asking rents to the actual bedroom count, lease duration, utilities, concessions, and move-in timing, then separately verify resale records, list dates, sale-to-list terms, and the inventory definition used in the sales observation. Those checks determine whether the ZIP-level screens align with a real property without converting historical rent movement, burden, vacancy, or resale signals into proof about that property.