For Laredo, Zillow’s current ZHVI is $222,147, up 2.7% from a year earlier, while ZORI is $1,331 per month, down 0.7%. Annualized ZORI divided by ZHVI gives a 7.2% gross yield before every operating cost, vacancy loss and financing. The typical value equals 3.48x median household income, and annual typical market rent equals 25.0% of that income. This is a first-pass affordability and revenue frame, not a property cash-flow result.
Laredo has 84,111 housing units; 35.9% of occupied units are renter-occupied, and the citywide housing-stock vacancy rate is 7.2%. ACS reports median gross rent of $1,030 and median home value of $193,500 for surveyed occupied housing. Gross rent includes contract rent plus selected utilities, and the home-value measure is owner-reported. These ACS measures differ in concept and period from Zillow’s typical market series and should not be averaged with it.
For deeper city context, single-family units are 70.4% of all stock and large multifamily units are 7.6%, while 54.9% of measured renter households meet the ACS rent-burden measure. Among listed reasons, for-rent vacancies outnumbered both for-sale and seasonal vacancies, but those survey categories do not measure available investment inventory or prove a specific unit will lease quickly. Population was 257,619 and fell 0.6% between overlapping ACS five-year vintages; that comparison is not annualized and may reflect boundary changes. Median household income is $63,915, while poverty is 20.9% and unemployment is 5.4%. These are descriptive demand constraints, not causes or forecasts.
In Webb County, Realtor context shows a 64-day median marketing time, which can frame negotiations but does not establish city liquidity. In the broader Laredo metro, months of supply are 9.9, the sale-to-list ratio is 97.4%, and jobs grew 1.1% over the reported interval; these metro measures provide market and labor context, not city outcomes. Nationally, the Freddie Mac 30-year mortgage rate is 6.6%, a financing benchmark rather than a local property rate.
Underwriting still needs property-level evidence because typical values and rents can miss an asset’s condition, unit mix and achievable lease terms. Verify recent like-for-like sale and rent comparables, whether quoted rent includes utilities, current taxes, insurance and any association charges. Inspect the structure and systems, identify deferred work, confirm legal use and permits, and budget maintenance, management, turnover and vacancy. Then apply actual financing terms and stress-test occupancy and repair costs; neither city averages nor wider geographic context substitutes for that work.