Tacoma’s supplied Zillow ZHVI indicates a typical city home value of $498,063, while ZORI indicates typical observed market rent of $1,749 per month. That produces a 4.2% gross yield before every operating cost. The city ZHVI is down 0.4% year over year, while ZORI is up 2.0%, a divergence to verify against a property’s lease evidence. At 5.8x median household income and 24.4% of income for annual ZORI, city affordability warrants caution before financing.
Tacoma has 97,298 housing units; 44.2% of occupied units are renter-occupied, and the citywide housing-stock vacancy rate is 4.4%. These citywide shares show tenure and stock context, not whether a particular rental will lease quickly. ACS reports a $479,600 median home value and $1,676 median gross rent for surveyed occupied housing; gross rent includes selected utilities. Zillow instead measures a typical city home value and typical observed market rent for a different period and universe, so the ACS and Zillow measures should not be averaged.
Among city renter households, 54.9% are rent-burdened. Single-family units make up 63.5% of city housing and large multifamily units 16.6%, describing structure rather than investable supply. Among vacant city units, 39.9% are categorized as for rent; vacancy-reason shares are survey context, not available investment inventory. Population is 222,758, up 4.6% between overlapping ACS survey vintages; that change is not annualized and may reflect boundary changes. Median household income is $85,884, with poverty at 12.4% and unemployment at 5.6%. Those labor and income facts are descriptive demand constraints, not proof of tenant demand or property cash flow.
Pierce County Realtor context shows a 40-day median time on market and 23.1% of active listings price-reduced, useful county evidence for testing seller flexibility rather than a Tacoma pricing claim. The Seattle metro had jobs down 0.05% and 21,722 building permits in its supplied period; these metro indicators frame employment and pipeline conditions but do not measure city demand. The national Freddie Mac mortgage rate is 6.58%, a national financing input that can materially change debt service without changing the unlevered gross yield.
City aggregates, overlapping ACS vintages and wider geographies cannot resolve an asset’s condition, lease terms or micro-location. Before acting, obtain the rent roll, trailing expenses, tax and insurance bills, financing terms, inspection and repair scope. Verify unit-level rent, downtime, utilities, management, title, permits and site hazards; then recalculate net operating income and debt-service coverage under conservative vacancy and cost cases.