Lexington’s current Zillow ZHVI is $277,716 and Zillow ZORI is $1,637.50 per month. The implied gross yield is 7.08% before taxes, insurance, repairs, management, financing, vacancy, or capital spending. ZHVI is 6.44x city median household income, while annual ZORI equals 45.56% of that income. Those affordability ratios frame a high-income-share housing-cost screen, not an estimate of any household’s payment capacity or a conclusion about future rent collection.
Citywide, ACS counts 8,905 housing units and renters occupy 58.36% of occupied units. ACS reports an owner-reported $179,900 median home value and $893 median gross rent, with gross rent including selected utilities in surveyed occupied units. These ACS measures differ in survey population and period from Zillow’s typical city home value and typical observed market rent, so they should be compared for context rather than combined.
Among city renters, 46.38% are rent-burdened. Of all city units, the stock is 72.80% single-family and 3.10% large multifamily. Citywide vacancy is 15.45%; of vacant units, 23.84% are classified for rent, with the balance in other ACS vacancy reasons. Population increased 4.40% between overlapping ACS five-year vintages, not as an annual rate, and may also reflect boundary changes; median household income is $43,128, poverty is 27.76%, and unemployment is 6.03%. These survey conditions do not identify investable inventory, prove a particular rental will lease quickly, or establish cause for household outcomes.
In Davidson County, the county property-tax rate is 0.602%; county Realtor listings had a median 54 days on market and 24.07% had price reductions. These are county conditions, not Lexington city transactions. In the Winston, NC metro, employment grew 0.81% year over year and the metro had 3 months of supply. The national thirty-year mortgage rate was 6.69%, a national financing benchmark rather than a property’s loan quote.
Underwriting remains limited by citywide averages and survey measures: neither Zillow nor ACS identifies a subject property’s condition, bedroom count, lease terms, utility responsibility, or achievable rent. Verify the address’s legal use, zoning, permits, ownership and tax bill; inspect deferred maintenance and major systems; obtain insurance and hazard quotes; and test current comparable leases, concessions, vacancy, turnover, management fees, reserves, and financing terms. Reconcile those property-level inputs with operating expenses and the actual purchase price before relying on the gross-yield screen.