Home · Methodology
RentalAnalytics treats methodology as a product feature. Below is exactly how each estimate is computed, sourced, and aged.
The hero “Estimated market rent” is a statistical median / public-data estimate, not MLS asking rent and not a listing scrape. Industry contacts comparing to live 3BR SFR listings will usually see a higher number. Free public files do not close that gap.
Primary lift — HUD FY2026 50th-percentile rents (these are not FMR). HUD publishes a separate 50th-percentile series by FMR area / county. We keep ZIP shape with:
ZIP FMR or SAFMR × (area 50th ÷ area 40th) for that bedroom, then age from 2025-10-01 with BLS CPI Shelter (3.2% YoY as of July 2026, BLS CPI release 2026-08-12) and apply the property-type multiplier (single-family +8%, townhouse +5%, condo +2%, duplex unit −3%).
Area 40th is the official metro-wide FY2026 FMR (Fort Wayne: $892 / $916 / $1,113 / $1,381 / $1,512). ZIP 40th is the revised county FMR for the 15 city markets, or the official FY2026 Small Area FMR for every ZIP HUD publishes under the Fort Wayne, IN HUD Metro FMR Area. Bedroom counts 0–4 use published values; 5+ BR extrapolates +18% per additional bedroom. The low/high band is ±~15% around the hero.
Second anchor — Census ACS 2024 5-year B25031 (median gross rent by bedrooms at ZCTA). Shown with the Census margin of error and CPI-aged from mid-2024. ACS is an occupied-unit median, not asking rent, and is not the hero. ZIPs that are not ZCTAs (including Fort Wayne PO-box ZIPs 46850–46899) have no ACS row — we do not invent one.
HUD FMR / SAFMR remains the labeled 40th-percentile / voucher number on the result. We do not call FMR “market rent.”
ZORI / Apartment List are not assigned as ZIP all-homes dollars to a 0–4BR estimate. A typical all-homes ZORI (for example ZIP 46835 ≈ $1,212 through July 2026) is not a 3BR. Metro asking-rent change was reviewed as a possible overlay; it is not clean across covered metros (Fort Wayne SFR ZORI is near the old FMR-aged 3BR SF figure; Austin metro ZORI is flat-to-down vs CPI), so ZORI is omitted from the hero.
Each estimate ships with a confidence score (0-100) and a list of sources that fired. Direct ZIP matches with a HUD 50th scaler land in the mid-70s to ~90. ZIPs outside our sample fall back to the national FMR median, score ~38, are flagged extrapolated, and do not invent ZORI, ACS, or a HUD 50th.
Benchmarks are stored in /assets/data/cap-rate-benchmarks.json by metro tier (1/2/3) and property type. The bands are estimated from:
We classify ZIPs into Tier 1 (gateway/major metros), Tier 2 (secondary), or Tier 3 (tertiary/cash-flow). Unknown ZIPs default to Tier 2.
Vacancy and YoY rent-growth values on city pages are estimated blends drawn from U.S. Census Housing Vacancy Survey (HVS), ApartmentList national rent reports, and Zillow Research ZORI. They are always labeled as estimated and dated to the most recent quarter.
For markets in the LandlordIQ /get_rent_growth endpoint, the forward 12-month projection is a 60/40 blend of recent metro YoY and BLS shelter CPI.
Our regulation dataset is editorial summary of state and city landlord-tenant law for the top 20 U.S. cities. Each entry has a reviewed_on date. We re-review annually or when ordinances change. Plain-English summary only — not legal advice.
Every API response and on-page estimate includes a confidence_score field between 0 and 100. Higher means we had a direct data anchor; lower means we extrapolated or fell back to a national figure. Treat anything below 50 as a rough directional estimate, not a deal underwrite.
Methodology last updated 2026-08-28. Questions: methodology@rentalanalytics.com.