At the city level, Baltimore’s Zillow ZHVI is $192,669 and ZORI is $1,799 a month, producing an 11.2% gross yield before every operating cost. ZHVI is down 2.3% year over year while ZORI is up 2.6%, a divergence that improves the mechanical rent-to-value ratio but does not establish net return. The ZHVI equals 3.1x ACS median household income, and annual ZORI equals 34.7% of that income; these are broad affordability screens, not a borrower or tenant budget.
The city has 295,032 housing units, with a 13.3% citywide vacancy rate and renters occupying 52.5% of occupied units. ACS reports a $229,600 median value for surveyed owner-occupied housing and $1,331 median gross rent, which includes selected utilities. Those ACS measures cover occupied housing and differ in concept and period from Zillow’s typical home value and observed market rent, so they should not be averaged.
Direct city depth is mixed: 53.7% of renter households are rent-burdened, while single-family structures represent 65.1% of all units and large multifamily structures 15.0%. Of vacant units, 17.4% are listed for rent, but vacancy reasons do not measure investable or immediately leasable inventory. The city population estimate is 573,243, down 5.9% between overlapping ACS vintages; this is not an annualized change and may reflect boundary changes. Median household income is $62,177, poverty is 19.7%, and unemployment is 6.5%. These citywide constraints and stock shares cannot show a specific property’s tenant pool, condition, achievable rent or leasing speed.
Baltimore City county’s property-tax rate is 1.46%, useful carrying-cost context rather than a bill for a specific city property. In the broader Baltimore metro, jobs fell 1.2% year over year and months of supply was 2.6, providing labor and resale-liquidity context but not city-level employment or inventory. Nationally, Freddie Mac’s 30-year mortgage rate is 6.58%, a financing benchmark rather than a Baltimore quote.
The central underwriting gap is the difference between a citywide gross screen and property-level net cash flow. Verify the purchase price, achievable rent and concessions, utility responsibility, occupancy, lease quality, taxes, insurance, flood and climate exposure, maintenance, management, financing terms and near-term capital work. Inspect title, code and permit history, and obtain comparable leases and sales before relying on any aggregate.