Joliet’s Zillow ZHVI typical home value is $270,919, and Zillow ZORI typical observed market rent is $1,614 monthly. Their implied gross yield is 7.1% before every operating cost, financing expense and vacancy loss. Against ACS median household income, the Zillow value is 2.9x income and annual ZORI is 21.0% of income. These are broad affordability markers, not a borrower budget, tenant budget or forecast.
The city has 53,814 housing units; renters occupy 26.3% of occupied units, and citywide vacancy is 5.1%. Those figures describe tenure and stock, not whether a specific rental will lease quickly. ACS reports a $265,800 median value for surveyed owner-occupied housing and $1,276 median gross rent for surveyed renter-occupied housing, including contract rent plus selected utilities. These ACS measures differ in concept and period from Zillow’s typical value and observed rent, so they should not be averaged or read as a direct spread.
Direct city depth is mixed: 52.2% of renter households meet the 30%-plus rent-burden threshold; single-family units represent 78.9% of housing, and units in large multifamily structures represent 6.1%. Among vacant units, 21.7% were classified as for rent, but vacancy reasons are survey context, not available investment inventory. Population is 150,445, up 1.8% between overlapping ACS five-year vintages; the change is not annualized and may reflect boundary changes. Median household income is $92,201, poverty is 11.1%, and unemployment is 5.5%. These demand constraints cannot establish tenant quality or achievable property rent.
Because Joliet intersects both records, county context must stay separate: Kendall County’s county property-tax rate is 2.37%, while Will County’s county rate is 2.24%; neither is a city rate or parcel quote. The broader Chicago metro recorded 0.2% year-over-year job growth, a labor-demand indicator that does not isolate Joliet. The national Freddie Mac 30-year mortgage rate was 6.58%, financing context rather than a rate available to every buyer. County, metro and national context should inform, not replace, address-level underwriting.
Key limitations are mismatched survey and market periods, citywide aggregates, county records that vary across Joliet, and metro or national indicators with broader denominators. Gross yield excludes taxes, insurance, repairs, capital work, management, owner-paid utilities, concessions, credit loss and financing. For an address, verify purchase basis, condition, legal use, achievable rent and utility responsibility. Obtain the parcel’s actual county tax bill, insurance and hazard terms, inspection findings, turnover and vacancy assumptions, management costs and loan terms; then test property-level cash flow and downside.