Zillow rent data for rental analysis

The job

The workflow

1. Split by status. Check homeStatus first. FOR_RENT means price is the asking rent; FOR_SALE means price is the asking price and the rent signal is the rent Zestimate.
2. Handle apartment buildings. A zillow.com/apartments link returns the building: price, beds, baths and living area describe its lowest-priced unit available now, and zpid is null.
3. Compute yield with its basis. calculated.gross_yield_pct uses the rent Zestimate over the price, or over the Zestimate when there is no sale price. calculated.rent_to_price_basis says which.
4. Keep the gaps visible. When Zillow shows no rent Zestimate the field is null. Count those homes separately instead of averaging them in as zero.

Asking rent vs rent Zestimate table

Python with pandas. Builds one row per home with the right rent column filled for its status.

import os, requests, pandas as pd

BASE = "https://api.propertiesapi.com/v1"
HEADERS = {"x-api-key": os.environ["PROPERTIESAPI_KEY"]}
links = [l.strip() for l in open("rentals.txt") if l.strip()][:50]

r = requests.post(f"{BASE}/zillow/batch", json={"items": links}, headers=HEADERS, timeout=320)
r.raise_for_status()

rows = []
for item in r.json()["data"]:
    if not item["ok"]:
        rows.append({"input": links[item["index"]], "error": item["error"]["code"]})
        continue
    h, c = item["data"], item["data"]["calculated"]
    for_rent = h["homeStatus"] == "FOR_RENT"
    rows.append({
        "address": h["address"], "status": h["homeStatus"], "beds": h["beds"], "sqft": h["livingArea"],
        "asking_rent": h["price"] if for_rent else None,
        "asking_price": None if for_rent else h["price"],
        "rent_zestimate": h["rentZestimate"],
        "gross_yield_pct": c["gross_yield_pct"], "yield_basis": c["rent_to_price_basis"],
        "building": h["zpid"] is None,
    })

df = pd.DataFrame(rows)
print(df.groupby("status")[["asking_rent", "rent_zestimate"]].describe())
print("no rent Zestimate:", df["rent_zestimate"].isna().sum())

Fields that matter here

What it won't do

• No rent comps search: you choose the homes to compare.
• A building link returns one unit's rent (the lowest-priced available now), not every unit's.
• Rent Zestimate is Zillow's estimate. PropertiesAPI doesn't estimate rents of its own.
• Not for tenant screening or any FCRA-covered decision.

Read next

• Asking rent vs rent Zestimate (guide)
• Missing Zestimate guide
• Excel with Power Query
• Property endpoint

Rental analysis: questions