Columbus’s current Zillow ZHVI typical home value is $251,291, while its ZORI typical observed monthly market rent is $1,456. Pairing those citywide measures gives a 7.0% gross yield before vacancy, management, maintenance, taxes, insurance, utilities, financing and capital work. The ZHVI is 3.8x ACS median household income, and annual ZORI equals 26.4% of that income. With ZHVI down 0.9% year over year and ZORI up 1.2%, the headline spread warrants property-level validation rather than a return conclusion.
ACS reports 425,182 city housing units, an 8.2% citywide vacancy rate and a 55.9% renter share of occupied units. Its surveyed occupied-housing measures put median owner-reported home value at $252,900 and median gross rent, including selected utilities, at $1,295. Those ACS medians differ in concept and period from Zillow’s typical value and observed market rent; they should not be averaged or treated as matching comps. Vacancy and tenure describe the citywide stock, not lease-up for a particular property.
Direct city depth is mixed: 46.6% of renters meet the ACS rent-burden measure, while single-family homes are 54.6% of units and large multifamily buildings are 12.3%. Among vacant units, 24.2% are classified as for rent, a vacancy reason rather than available investment inventory. Population increased 4.1% between overlapping ACS five-year vintages; this is not annualized and may reflect boundary changes. Median household income is $66,082, with poverty at 18.1% and unemployment at 5.1%. These survey facts describe broad demand constraints but cannot establish tenant quality, achievable rent or absorption.
County carrying-cost context varies: Delaware County’s property-tax rate is 1.60%, Fairfield County’s is 1.10%, and Franklin County’s is 1.47%; each is county context, not a Columbus rate. The broader Columbus metro had 2.5 months of for-sale supply, which informs regional resale competition but not city inventory or a specific asset’s liquidity. Nationally, the Freddie Mac 30-year mortgage rate was 6.58%, a financing benchmark rather than a local borrowing quote.
The central limitation is that citywide yields ignore operating expenses and acquisition-specific condition, while ACS, county and metro datasets use different populations and periods. Before underwriting, verify the property’s asking price, unit mix, legal use, current leases, concessions, utility responsibility, tax assessment, insurance and hazard terms, deferred maintenance, capital plan and realistic vacancy. Then obtain rent comps, inspection findings, title and zoning review, lender pricing and a line-item cash-flow stress test; none of the supplied context substitutes for those checks.