Knoxville’s Zillow ZHVI is $376,648 and ZORI is $1,735 a month, implying a 5.5% gross yield before every operating cost. ZHVI rose 1.0% year over year while ZORI rose 0.2%, a modest divergence that does not establish future direction. The typical value equals 7.0x ACS median household income, and annual ZORI equals 38.5% of that income, indicating high headline affordability pressure; this pairing mixes Zillow market measures with an ACS income benchmark and is not a borrower-specific qualification test.
Citywide, renters occupy 53.4% of occupied housing, while 10.6% of all units are vacant, giving tenure and stock context rather than lease-up evidence. ACS reports a $239,700 median owner-reported home value and $1,191 median gross rent for surveyed occupied housing; gross rent includes selected utilities. These ACS measures differ in concept and period from Zillow’s typical city value and observed market rent, so they should not be averaged or treated as direct comps.
Within city stock, single-family structures are 57.2% and large multifamily buildings 14.8%; these survey shares do not identify purchasable inventory. Among renters, 53.8% meet the ACS rent-burden measure. Of vacant units, 30.6% are classified for rent; this is survey context, not live availability. Population increased 4.8% between overlapping ACS five-year vintages; the comparison is not annualized and may reflect boundary changes. Median household income is $54,039, alongside a 20.2% poverty rate and 4.5% unemployment rate. These citywide facts describe demand constraints but cannot prove lease-up speed, tenant quality or property-level condition.
In Knox County, Realtor context shows a 52-day median market time and 22.8% of active listings with price reductions, relevant to negotiation posture but not a measure of city liquidity. In the broader Knoxville metro, supply was 3.6 months, the sale-to-list ratio was 98.3%, and jobs grew 0.9% year over year; those metro denominators do not measure Knoxville alone. For the United States nationally, Freddie Mac’s 30-year mortgage rate was 6.58%, a financing benchmark rather than a Knoxville borrowing quote.
The main underwriting gap is between citywide rent and a specific asset’s achievable rent and costs. The headline yield excludes vacancy, concessions, taxes, insurance, utilities, maintenance, capital work, management, transaction costs and financing. Verify purchase price, rent roll, leases, payment history and competing rents; obtain inspections, title and zoning review, tax and utility records, hazard-specific insurance, repair budgets, management terms and lender quotes. Stress-test occupancy and major repairs rather than treating citywide or wider-context measures as property performance.