Counties / Nebraska / Boyd County

Boyd County, NE

FIPS 31015 · population 1,688 · outside every metro area

$141k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$141k
▼ 11.8% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$713
occupied-unit survey; not current asking rent
Census ACS · surveyed
Gross yield
n/a
gross yield cannot be computed without measured market rent
requires both measured price and measured rent
HUD 2-bed standard
$961
the Section 8 payment standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

One annual series is unavailable
FHFA five-year cumulativen/anot annualized · through n/a
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06−11.8%FHFA HPIperiod n/an/a
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$104k
Surveyed gross rent$713
Rent burden 30%+30.5%
Median year built1953
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
38.1%vacant
1,203estimated housing units
Occupied tenure14.4% renter
owner 85.6%renter 14.4%
Structure mix83.5% single-family
Single-family 83.5%20+ units 0.3%Mobile home 15.3%Other 0.9%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs537▼ 4.1% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments90annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$719▲ 1.1% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities34.2% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS−4.1%WEEKLY WAGE+1.1%Trade, transportation, and utilities34.2%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Boyd County’s decision tension is a declining observed value measure alongside a shrinking workplace base, with thin transaction evidence limiting confidence. Income-focused or leveraged underwriting should be cautious until parcel-level rent, flood, and financing evidence is obtained. Zillow’s county observation is a $140,580 median home value in 2026-06, down 11.78% year over year; it is a value estimate, not a closed-sale price. No FHFA annual repeat-transaction HPI observation is supplied, so Zillow’s direction lacks an independent appreciation-index check.

02Housing economics

No county market asking rent is published. HUD’s $961 two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard rather than observed asking rent, so gross yield cannot be computed and no rent-to-price conclusion follows. Carrying costs still require testing: the effective property-tax rate is 1.1%, with a median annual tax of $1,142. The 0.18% modeled annual building-value loss ratio aligns with inland flood as the dominant hazard, but it is not an insurance quote or a property-level loss estimate.

03Demand & competition

County workplace evidence is soft but narrow. QCEW records 537 annual-average covered jobs in 2025, down 4.11%; these are jobs at county workplaces, not resident employment or an unemployment measure. Trade, transportation, and utilities accounts for 34.25% of private covered jobs and is only the largest disclosed supersector, not the whole economy. Net tax-return migration was negative 2, while incoming movers had average income $4,087 higher than outgoing movers. Investor mortgages were 1 of 4 purchase mortgages, indicating non-owner activity but too little volume to generalize.

04Risk & next checks

Realtor.com MLS median listing price, active listings, days on market, price-reduced share, and pending ratio are not published. Without those listing-market measures, visible supply, seller concessions, and marketing time cannot be assessed; they would not establish closed-sale pricing or buyer demand by themselves. Next checks are lease comparables and operating costs, recent closed sales, parcel flood elevation and insurance terms, and employer-level demand. These omissions prevent supported conclusions on yield, liquidity, and property-specific resilience.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Boyd County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Spencer village312Butte village273Lynch village137Naper village117Bristow village55Anoka village11Gross village10Monowi village2
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

8 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Spencer villageIncorporated place
    312
  2. 02
    Butte villageIncorporated place
    273
  3. 03
    Lynch villageIncorporated place
    137
  4. 04
    Naper villageIncorporated place
    117
  5. 05
    Bristow villageIncorporated place
    55
  6. 06
    Anoka villageIncorporated place
    11
  7. 07
    Gross villageIncorporated place
    10
  8. 08
    Monowi villageIncorporated place
    2

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.176% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax1.10%

$1,142 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-2

22 in · 24 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$4,087

$46,545 arriving · $42,458 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors25.0%

1 of 4 mortgages

investorother financed
No rent index is published for this county.Zillow’s county rent series does not cover every county, and estimating one from a neighbouring county would be a guess wearing a number’s clothes. Everything above is measured here; no wider market is mapped for it either.
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Zillow’s modeled value change could diverge from actual closed-sale pricing; neither sale comparables nor FHFA HPI is supplied.
  2. No observed market rent exists, so purchase economics can fail an untested income assumption.
  3. Dominant inland flood risk may produce parcel-specific costs not captured by the county modeled-loss ratio.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Is a market-rent gross yield available?

No. County market rent is not published, and HUD two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard rather than market asking rent.

What does QCEW measure and show?

It measures annual covered jobs at county workplaces: 537 in 2025, down 4.11% from the prior annual average.

How much non-owner mortgage activity appears?

Investor mortgages accounted for 1 of 4 purchase mortgages, a 25% investor share.