Dearborn’s Zillow measures set a mixed decision frame: ZHVI puts the typical city home value at $255,121, while ZORI puts typical observed monthly market rent at $1,705. Their gross yield is 8.0% before taxes, insurance, maintenance, management, vacancy, financing and capital work. The Zillow value equals 3.9x ACS median household income, while annual ZORI equals 31.3% of that income, indicating affordability pressure without proving achievable property rent.
City housing is 79.5% single-family and 8.9% large multifamily, making asset type, condition and repairs important. Renters occupy 31.6% of occupied units, while citywide housing vacancy is 6.9%; neither predicts lease-up for a specific unit. The median year built is 1952, supporting systems inspection rather than assumptions about condition. ACS reports a $218,800 median value for surveyed owner-occupied homes and $1,327 median gross rent for occupied rentals, including selected utilities. These differ in sample, period and definition from Zillow’s typical city value and observed market rent, so they should not be blended.
Direct city depth shows 64.3% of renter households meet the ACS rent-burden threshold, constraining budget resilience rather than proving rent upside. Of vacant units, 25.4% are classified as for rent, with separate for-sale and seasonal categories; these survey reason shares are not current investment inventory. Population is 107,423, up 13.4% between overlapping ACS five-year vintages; the change is not annualized, and boundary changes may affect it. Median household income is $65,324, with poverty at 24.3% and unemployment at 6.6%. These describe demand capacity and labor constraints, not tenant quality, turnover, achievable rent or local conditions.
The county context for Wayne County shows a 45-day median listing time, which describes county listings rather than city liquidity. The county context for Wayne County reports a 1.63% property-tax rate, but bills need parcel verification. The broader Detroit metro job measure declined 0.7%, while broader metro building permits totaled 7,552 in the supplied period; these are labor and supply-flow context, not Dearborn outcomes. The national 30-year mortgage rate was 6.58%, not a borrower-specific quote.
Treat the headline yield as a screen, not a return estimate. Key gaps are condition, parcel taxes, insurance, owner-paid utilities, downtime, management, compliance and financing. Verify title and legal use; inspect major systems and environmental issues; obtain parcel-specific tax and insurance quotes; and compare similar current leases. Build unit-level cash flow with repairs, reserves and vacancy, confirm utility responsibility, and test tenant affordability against the buyer’s risk limits.