Rentcast Rental Market Intelligence MCP

Rental market statistics, rent estimates, active listing comparables, and investor demand scores for any US ZIP code or city — powered by the Rentcast API.

Built for landlords, property managers, rental investors, and PropTech platforms that need real-time rental pricing intelligence without building their own data pipeline.

What it does

Pulls three data streams from Rentcast and synthesizes them into a single market intelligence record per query:

1. Market aggregate stats — median rent, vacancy rate, rent growth YoY, listing count
2. AVM rent estimate — AI-powered rent estimate for the specific property type and bedroom count
3. Active rental comparables — individual listings with price, beds, sqft, DOM

Plus calculates Market Grade (A+ to C-) and Investor Demand (Very High → Low) from the underlying metrics.

Inputs

Parameter	Type	Default	Description
api_key	string	—	Rentcast API key (free at rentcast.io)
zip_code	string	—	ZIP code to analyze (e.g. 44103)
city	string	—	City name (use with state if no ZIP)
state	string	—	State abbreviation
property_type	string	"Single Family"	Single Family / Condo / Townhouse / Multi Family
bedrooms	integer	—	Bedroom count filter
bathrooms	number	—	Bathroom count filter
include_comparables	boolean	true	Include individual listing records in output
limit	integer	20	Max total records

Outputs

Field	Type	Description
zip_code	string	ZIP code
city	string	City
state	string	State abbreviation
property_type	string	Property type analyzed
bedrooms	integer	Bedroom count
rent_estimate	integer	AVM rent estimate (USD/month)
rent_range_low	integer	25th percentile rent
rent_range_high	integer	75th percentile rent
median_market_rent	integer	Market median rent
rent_growth_yoy_pct	float	Year-over-year rent growth %
vacancy_rate_pct	float	Current vacancy rate %
avg_days_on_market	float	Average rental listing DOM
listing_count	integer	Active listings in market
rent_per_sqft	float	Estimated rent per sqft
price_to_rent_ratio	float	Annual purchase price ÷ annual rent
gross_yield_pct	float	Annual gross rent yield %
cap_rate_estimate_pct	float	Estimated cap rate %
population	integer	Market population
median_household_income	integer	Median household income
renter_occupied_pct	float	% renter-occupied housing units
hud_fmr_2br	integer	HUD 2024 Fair Market Rent (2BR)
market_grade	string	A+ to C- composite grade
investor_demand	string	Very High / High / Moderate / Low
comparable_count	integer	Number of active comps found
comparables_summary	string	Human-readable comp summary
data_freshness	string	live or 2026-Q1 (fallback)

Market Grade Algorithm

Metric	Points
Vacancy ≤4%	+3
Vacancy 4-6%	+2
Vacancy 6-8%	+1
Rent growth ≥6% YoY	+3
Rent growth 4-6%	+2
Rent growth 2-4%	+1
Rent growth negative	-2
DOM ≤15 days	+2
DOM 15-25 days	+1
DOM ≥45 days	-1

Score maps to: A+ (9) → A (8) → A- (7) → B+ (6) → B (5) → B- (4) → C+ (3) → C (2) → C- (1)

Example Use Cases

• Landlord pricing: Benchmark your rental unit vs. market to set competitive rent
• Investor market selection: Screen 20 cities to find the highest-yield markets in 2 API calls
• PropTech integration: Feed rental intelligence into CRM or underwriting platform via MCP
• Property management: Track market movement to time rent increases for renewals
• Acquisition underwriting: Validate rental income assumptions before closing

Example Inputs

Identify best cash-flow markets

[
  {"zip_code": "44103", "property_type": "Single Family", "bedrooms": 3},
  {"zip_code": "64127", "property_type": "Multi Family",  "bedrooms": 2},
  {"zip_code": "48205", "property_type": "Single Family", "bedrooms": 3}
]

Full market scan for a city

{
  "city": "Memphis",
  "state": "TN",
  "property_type": "Single Family",
  "bedrooms": 3,
  "include_comparables": true,
  "limit": 50
}

API Key

Get a free Rentcast API key at rentcast.io. Free tier: 50 requests/month. Paid plans start at ~$29/month for 1,000+ requests.

Without an API key, the actor returns curated market data for 15 major US rental markets.

Fallback Data

15 curated rental market records covering: Cleveland OH, Indianapolis IN, Memphis TN, Kansas City MO, Charlotte NC, Austin TX, Scottsdale AZ, Cape Coral FL, Columbus OH, Greensboro NC, Sacramento CA, Atlanta GA, Nashville TN, Denver CO, Detroit MI.