Every market rent figure on this site is ZORI. It covers 172 Minnesota ZIP codes through 2026-07 with a median of $1,668, and it is an index, never a quote.
The Zillow Observed Rent Index is a smoothed, repeat rent index of asking rents. Zillow follows the same rental units over time and reports a monthly mean of listed asking rents in the 35th to 65th percentile band, weighted so the result reflects the whole rental stock of an area rather than whatever happened to be listed that month. The repeat unit design is the important part: it strips out the swings you would get from a month where mostly luxury units listed, or mostly basement studios.
On this site it is the market rent line on every ZIP code page and the market side of every Section 8 spread. Zillow covers 172 of the 914 Minnesota ZIP codes that have HUD data, currently through 2026-07, with a median across those ZIP codes of $1,668. Between the last two published months the median tracked Minnesota ZIP code moved +0.40 percent.
It is not a 2 bedroom number. ZORI blends every unit size in a ZIP code into one figure, so a ZIP code heavy in studios and one bedrooms reads lower than what a 2 bedroom there actually asks. That matters most when you set it against HUD fair market rent, which is a specific bedroom size.
It is not rent collected. It measures what landlords are asking on units coming to market, not the average of every lease in place, which includes long tenured tenants paying below market. That is why the Census ACS median gross rent for the same ZIP code usually reads lower than both ZORI and fair market rent.
And it is not a quote for an address. It is an index. Two buildings on the same block can rent thirty percent apart on condition alone, and no ZIP code level series can see that.
Zillow publishes ZORI only for ZIP codes with enough listing volume to support an index, which is why 742 Minnesota ZIP codes on this site carry a fair market rent and no market rent. We leave those blank rather than interpolate from a neighboring ZIP code. Where a ZIP code has fewer than six monthly points we suppress the trend line and show only the latest value, because a two point line implies a trend the data cannot support.
See the market rent series for any ZIP code in the MN Rent Explorer, compare it to fair market rent on the Section 8 spread table, or read how both are built in the methodology. Every series is also available as JSON from the data API. Data last updated 2026-09-05.
The Zillow Observed Rent Index, a smoothed repeat rent index of asking rents published monthly. It reports a mean of listed asking rents in the 35th to 65th percentile band, weighted to the whole rental stock. It covers 172 of the 914 Minnesota ZIP codes on this site, currently through 2026-07.
Not quite. It is a weighted index of asking rents across all unit sizes on units coming to market, not an average of rent being collected on every lease in place. Rent actually paid, which the Census measures, normally reads lower.
Zillow publishes ZORI only where listing volume supports an index. 742 Minnesota ZIP codes on this site have HUD fair market rent data and no Zillow series. We leave the field blank rather than borrow a number from a neighboring ZIP code.
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