Fort Smith’s current Zillow ZHVI is $197,471, while ZORI is $1,071 per month. That implies a 6.5% gross yield before every operating cost, financing charge and vacancy loss. The Zillow typical value equals 3.6x ACS median household income, and annualized Zillow rent equals 23.4% of ACS median household income. These city measures provide an initial affordability and revenue frame, not a property-level return or budget.
The city has 40,475 housing units; 46.6% of occupied units are renter-occupied, while 9.1% of all units are vacant. Single-family structures account for 69.6% of housing units, indicating that the stock is not dominated by large apartment buildings. ACS reports a $178,100 median home value and $884 median gross rent, but those are surveyed occupied-housing measures, and gross rent includes selected utilities. They must not be merged with Zillow’s typical city value and observed market rent, which use different measures and periods.
Citywide, 42.1% of renters meet the ACS threshold of gross rent at 30% or more of income, while large multifamily structures are 6.6% of all units. Of vacant units, 33.8% are classified for rent; this vacancy-reason share is survey context, not an availability count for investable properties. Population is 89,805, up 2.4% between overlapping ACS vintages; that change is not annualized and may reflect boundary changes. Median household income is $54,816, with poverty at 18.3% and unemployment at 6.5%. Together these describe citywide depth and affordability constraints, but cannot identify tenant quality, leasing speed or property-specific demand.
Sebastian County context shows an 18.4% price-reduced share, useful for negotiating and exit context but not city inventory. The broader Fort Smith metro had a 0.8% job decline, 3.8 months of supply and a 96.8% sale-to-list ratio; each metro measure frames regional labor or resale conditions, not Fort Smith alone. The national 30-year mortgage rate was 6.66%, a financing benchmark rather than a local borrowing quote.
Underwriting should therefore separate the headline gross yield from taxes, insurance, maintenance, management, utilities, turnover, financing and realistic vacancy. Citywide tenure, burden and vacancy figures cannot establish that a specific unit will lease, while ACS structure and vacancy-reason shares do not measure available investment inventory. Before acting, verify the property’s achievable rent with comparable leases, physical condition and capital needs, title and zoning, tax assessment, insurance and hazard terms, utility responsibility, financing quote, tenant history, and likely resale competition.