Evansville’s current Zillow ZHVI is $206,632, while ZORI is $1,038 a month. Their implied 6.0% gross yield is annual ZORI divided by ZHVI, before vacancy, repairs, management, insurance, taxes, other operating costs and financing; it is not a cap rate. The ZHVI equals 3.87x ACS median household income, while annual ZORI equals 23.3% of that income. These mixed-source city ratios are affordability screens, not borrower qualification, tenant budgets or projected returns.
The city has 59,180 housing units; the citywide vacancy rate is 10.3%, renters occupy 45.4% of occupied units, and the median year built is 1961. These stock and tenure facts do not predict whether a particular rental will lease quickly. ACS reports a $143,100 median value for surveyed owner-occupied homes and $975 median gross rent, including selected utilities. Those measures differ in concept and period from Zillow’s typical value and observed market rent, so these series should not be averaged or treated as direct appreciation or rent-growth evidence.
City stock is 67.0% single-family and 7.8% large multifamily. Among vacant units, 25.0% are classified for rent, but that vacancy-reason share does not measure available investment inventory or leasing speed. Population declined 2.1% between overlapping ACS vintages; this is not annualized and may reflect boundary changes. Median household income is $53,387; the poverty rate is 18.4%, unemployment is 5.1%, and 47.8% of renters are cost-burdened. The income, poverty and unemployment figures describe city demand constraints, not causes, while these ACS survey facts cannot establish property performance.
Vanderburgh County’s county context shows a 10.6% investor share and a 0.801% property-tax rate; each is a county benchmark, not a city competition measure or an address-level bill. The Evansville metro has 1.9 months of supply and metro employment fell 1.3% year over year; this pairs tight listed supply with softer regional labor conditions but does not resolve city demand. The national 30-year mortgage rate is 6.58%, a financing benchmark rather than Evansville loan pricing.
The central limitation is that city aggregates cannot establish a specific property’s achievable rent, condition, tenant quality, expenses or exit liquidity. Before underwriting, verify the address-level rent roll and comparable leases; inspection findings and capital needs; taxes, insurance and hazard exposure; utility responsibility; management, maintenance and vacancy assumptions; title, zoning and permit status; and loan terms. Recalculate net operating income, debt coverage and cash flow from those inputs, and stress occupancy, repairs and resale timing rather than relying on the citywide gross yield.