The five-digit label 80920 is both Zillow’s ZIP market identifier and its matched Census ZCTA. A ZCTA is a statistical area and is not identical to a USPS delivery ZIP. Zillow’s current typical observed asking-rent index for this ZIP is $1,957, up 2.5% from the same month a year earlier. ZORI is a blended asking-rent index across rental types, not a record of a single lease. It sits 5.0% below the $2,061 ACS median gross rent, a different measure drawn from occupied renter homes and including selected utilities.
The backward-looking asking-rent record supports stable growth rather than a sharp reversal. Exact same-month annualized change was 2.5% over one year, 1.2% over three years, and 2.7% over five years. Thus, the recent advance confirms the longer upward path and is stronger than the middle-period pace, while remaining close to the five-year rate. The history contains 124 observations with 100% coverage. Monthly-return variability annualized to 2.1%, suggesting that one current ZORI reading has comparatively limited month-to-month noise but is still an index snapshot. Separately, the deepest recorded peak-to-trough decline was 2.2%, which limits the evidence of severe historical rent retrenchment without making a forecast. National discovery ranks among history-eligible ZIPs were 1,534 for momentum, 210 for stability, and 657 for the balanced measure; these are transparent discovery tools, not investment ratings.
The bedroom figures are modelled estimates, not measured bedroom rents. Scaling the ZIP ZORI through the local HUD ladder produces estimates of $1,347 for a studio, $1,648 for one bedroom, $1,957 for two bedrooms, $2,722 for three bedrooms, and $3,095 for four bedrooms. HUD’s two-bedroom standard is $2,150, but that Fair Market Rent or Small Area Fair Market Rent input is an administrative, bedroom-specific standard rather than asking rent. The ladder is useful for maintaining a locally consistent bedroom relationship; it does not establish what any available unit is advertised for or leased at.
The income and burden evidence creates an important distinction between a ZIP-level screen and renter-household experience. Median household income in the matched ACS ZCTA five-year survey is $113,036. Applying the arithmetic 30% screen to annualized ZORI produces required income of $78,280, and the index equals 20.8% of that median household income. This is only a calculation, not advice and not an applicant qualification rule. Meanwhile, 43.3% of surveyed renter households reported gross-rent burdens at or above 30%. Because ACS gross rent includes selected utilities and reflects occupied homes rather than current listings, that burden share cannot prove affordability or burden for a particular available unit.
The housing base provides limited but relevant supply context. Of 14,860 housing units in the ZCTA, 14,386 were occupied and 474 were vacant, producing a 3.2% overall vacancy rate. Renters represented 34.6% of occupied homes. The stock count was concentrated in 11,687 single-family units, compared with 1,101 units in larger multifamily structures. Those counts describe the survey geography’s housing composition, not currently marketable rental inventory. Likewise, the vacancy result is not evidence that a particular home is available, rentable, or subject to concessions; property-level availability requires direct verification.
Wider comparisons point to a higher ZIP asking-rent reading than its surrounding geographies, but they are context only: Colorado Springs city’s rent context is $1,739, El Paso County’s rent context is $1,777, and the Colorado Springs, CO metro rent context is $1,779. These city, county, and metro values are not substitutes for the ZIP observation. The gap aligns with the ZIP’s higher median-income screen, but it does not identify the source of that difference or establish that every property in 80920 commands a premium.
The direct rolling-three-month ZIP resale evidence supplies the principal counterweight to the rent history. Redfin reported a $529,880 median sold price, down 1.0% year over year, alongside 166 homes sold and a median 34 days on market. Available resale inventory was 153 homes, up 15.7%, with 2.8 months of supply. At the same time, the average sale-to-list ratio was 99.5% and 24.3% of sales closed above list. These are for-sale-market observations, not rental transactions or rental comparables. Rising ZORI and a historically stable rent path therefore coexist with a modest decline in resale pricing and a larger inventory position; the completed-sale and near-list-price signals show continuing resale activity, but they challenge any simple reading that rent resilience alone describes all housing-market conditions.
Annualized ZIP ZORI divided by the Redfin median sold price is a 4.4% cross-source screening ratio only. It is not a cap rate, net return, expected return, property yield, or valuation conclusion. The ratio combines an asking-rent index with a resale median and does not resolve unit size, condition, utility treatment, lease terms, operating costs, or the relationship between a specific dwelling and the index. Before a property-level conclusion, concrete checks include current asking rents for comparable bedroom counts, included utilities, lease structure, unit condition, current availability, and directly comparable recent sales. ACS survey margins of error and the different source universes further limit precision.