Albuquerque’s supplied Zillow ZHVI is $350,091, while ZORI is $1,486 a month. That produces a 5.1% gross yield before every operating cost; it is not a net return. ZHVI is up 1.1% year over year and ZORI 0.7%, so recent price and rent movement is modest in this record. The typical value is 5.12x city median household income, and annual ZORI equals 26.1% of that income, indicating a meaningful affordability constraint before tenant-specific finances or ownership costs.
City housing stock totals 258,178 units, with 243,733 occupied and a 5.6% citywide vacancy rate. Renters occupy 38.2% of occupied units. ACS reports a $291,500 median value among surveyed owner-occupied housing and $1,145 median gross rent among surveyed renter-occupied housing; gross rent includes contract rent plus selected utilities. Those ACS measures cover occupied housing and differ in concept and period from Zillow’s typical market value and observed rent, so they should not be blended into a return estimate.
Among city renters, 52.4% are rent-burdened at the supplied threshold. Single-family units account for 67.7% of city housing, and units in large multifamily structures account for 11.9%. Of vacant units, 40.5% are recorded as for rent; this reason share is survey context, not available investment inventory. Population was 562,218, up 0.5% between overlapping ACS five-year vintages; this is not annualized and may reflect boundary changes. Median household income is $68,317, while poverty is 15.5% and unemployment 5.4%. These citywide figures describe demand constraints and stock composition, but cannot establish a specific property’s achievable rent, tenant quality, condition, expenses or lease-up speed.
In Bernalillo County, 20.4% of active Realtor listings had price reductions, signaling seller negotiation context without measuring Albuquerque transaction outcomes. In the broader Albuquerque metro, jobs fell 0.8% year over year, a demand headwind, while permit issuance provides supply-pipeline context but does not identify city inventory. Nationally, the Freddie Mac 30-year mortgage rate was 6.58%, raising financed carrying-cost pressure without determining any local borrower’s quote.
Underwriting should therefore treat the gross yield as a screening ratio only. Verify the target’s purchase price, unit count, legal use, current leases, rent roll, concessions, utility responsibility, taxes, insurance, flood and other hazard exposure, maintenance history, deferred capital work, management, turnover and realistic vacancy. Obtain property-specific financing and closing terms, inspect the asset, test rents against true comparables, and model operating and capital costs before judging cash flow.