Little Rock’s Zillow ZHVI is $222,779, while ZORI is $1,220 a month. Their direct relationship implies a 6.57% gross yield, before every operating cost, vacancy, financing and capital work. ZHVI equals 3.54x city median household income, and annual ZORI equals 23.24% of that income. These citywide benchmarks frame entry price, top-line rent and affordability, but they do not establish property cash flow or a tenant’s ability to pay.
City housing stock totals 99,643 units; 46.45% of occupied units are renter-occupied, while 11.83% of all units are vacant. The ACS median home value is $236,400 and median gross rent is $1,106 monthly; gross rent includes contract rent plus selected utilities. Those ACS measures describe surveyed occupied housing and differ in concept and period from Zillow’s typical home value and observed market rent, so they should not be averaged or substituted.
ACS classifies 48.94% of city renter households as rent-burdened. Single-family homes are 61.62% of city units and large multifamily buildings are 13.20%. Among vacant city units, ACS records 4,481 for rent, 765 for sale and 835 seasonal; these reasons are not available investment inventory. Population was 2.77% higher across the overlapping ACS vintages, not an annual rate or period event count, and boundary changes may matter. Median household income is $63,003; poverty is 17.49% and unemployment 4.05%. These facts describe demand constraints and citywide housing context; they do not establish causation, lease-up speed or an asset’s performance.
Pulaski County listing context reports a county median of 52 days on market and a county price-reduced share of 20.49%; that can inform bargaining assumptions but does not measure city liquidity. The Little Rock metro has 3.6 months of supply and a metro sale-to-list ratio of 98.16%, while metro jobs changed 0.18% over the supplied interval; these metro facts use different denominators from city housing data. The national Freddie Mac mortgage rate is 6.58%, a financing input rather than a city outcome.
Main limitations are citywide aggregation, different ACS and Zillow concepts and periods, survey error, and the gap between gross yield and net returns. Before underwriting, verify the subject’s achievable rent and concessions; purchase price and closing costs; taxes, insurance and flood or climate exposure; utilities; maintenance, management and capital needs; financing terms; title, zoning, permits and rental rules; physical condition; comparable leases and sales; and realistic downtime and collections. Recalculate net operating income and debt coverage from property documents rather than applying city, county, metro or national figures to the asset.