For Lafayette, Zillow’s current ZHVI typical home value is $271,083 and its ZORI typical observed market rent is $1,234 a month. Those measures imply a 5.5% gross yield before vacancy, maintenance, management, insurance, taxes, financing and capital work. The ZHVI is 5.05x ACS median household income, while annual ZORI equals 27.6% of that income. This is a screening frame, not a property return: purchase price, achievable rent and costs can diverge materially from citywide typicals.
The city has 34,079 housing units; 5.4% are vacant, and renters occupy 53.3% of occupied units. The ACS median year built is 1971, making age-related systems a property-level inspection priority rather than establishing condition. ACS reports a $172,800 median value for surveyed owner-occupied homes and $1,079 median gross rent for occupied rentals, including selected utilities. Those ACS measures cover different housing and periods than Zillow’s ZHVI and ZORI, so they should not be averaged.
Direct city evidence shows 52.7% of renter households are rent-burdened. Single-family structures make up 60.2% of housing units and large multifamily structures 6.5%; these ACS shares describe the stock, not purchasable inventory. Among vacant units, 41.8% are categorized as for rent, but that reason share and the overall vacancy rate do not predict whether a specific unit will lease quickly. Population was 2.0% lower across the overlapping ACS vintages, a comparison that is not annualized and may reflect boundary changes. Median household income is $53,716, while poverty is 17.8% and unemployment 3.6%; these are descriptive demand constraints, not causes of rent performance.
Tippecanoe County context shows a 40-day median listing time and a 20.4% price-reduced share, useful for county-level resale negotiation but not city liquidity. The Lafayette, IN metro had 2 months of supply, price drops on 37.5% of listings and job change of -0.06%; these metro measures suggest thin supply alongside seller concessions and nearly flat employment, without measuring Lafayette alone. The national Freddie Mac 30-year mortgage rate was 6.58%, a national financing benchmark rather than a quote for any borrower.
Underwrite from the actual address: verify contract rent and utility responsibility, lease terms, occupancy, comparable rents and sales, taxes, insurance, flood and other hazard exposure, title, zoning and permitted use. Inspect roof, foundation, drainage, electrical, plumbing, HVAC and deferred maintenance, then build vacancy, turnover, management, repair and capital reserves. Obtain lender terms and model cash flow under rent and expense stress; citywide averages cannot establish a property’s condition, tenant quality, legal status or net return.