Counties / Indiana / Brown County

Brown County, IN

FIPS 18013 · population 15,606 · part of Indianapolis, IN

$373k
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
$373k
▲ 3.2% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$895
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
$1,473
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.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+58.7%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+3.2%FHFA HPI2025+6.7%
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$269k
Surveyed gross rent$895
Rent burden 30%+50.6%
Median year built1982
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
20.9%vacant
8,577estimated housing units
Occupied tenure13.4% renter
owner 86.6%renter 13.4%
Structure mix86.8% single-family
Single-family 86.8%20+ units 2.4%Mobile home 7.0%Other 3.8%
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 jobs3,289▲ 0.9% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments368annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$779▲ 8.2% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorLeisure and hospitality31.6% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+0.9%WEEKLY WAGE+8.2%Leisure and hospitality31.6%
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

Brown County presents a price-appreciation-versus-cash-flow-measurement tension. Zillow’s county median home value was $372,679 in 2026-06, up 3.17%; FHFA’s repeat-transaction HPI increased 6.68% in 2025. Both show positive direction, but they use different vintages and methods and cannot be blended. Buyers investigating an asset-value case have evidence to test, while income-focused buyers should be cautious because recurring revenue is not measured.

02Housing economics

No county median asking rent is published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD’s $1,473 two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not market asking rent, and cannot fill that gap. The supplied effective property-tax rate is 0.44%, which is a carrying-cost input but not the tax bill for a given parcel. Rent, insurance, maintenance, utilities, financing and parcel-assessment evidence are not published in this record; their absence prevents net-cash-flow underwriting.

03Demand & competition

Realtor.com’s MLS listing-market snapshot records 76 active listings, 68 median days on market, 25.18% of listings with price reductions, and a 35.53% pending-to-active ratio. These measure visible asking supply, marketing time, concessions and pipeline activity—not closed-sale prices or buyer demand by themselves. Tax-return migration showed a net gain of 24 households, while inbound moving-household average income exceeded outbound by $3,766. This modest positive flow does not establish tenant demand. The 4.95% investor share is measured against purchase mortgages, not a separate estimate of buyer interest.

04Risk & next checks

Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and modeled climate loss equals 0.17% of building value per year; this requires property-level flood-zone, elevation, loss-history and insurance-quote review, not a countywide dollar-loss assumption. QCEW reports 3,289 annual average covered jobs at county workplaces; Leisure and hospitality is the largest disclosed private supersector. That is neither resident employment nor an unemployment measure, and it does not define the whole economy. Before underwriting, obtain property-specific market rent, executed leases, sale comparables, taxes, flood insurance and condition data.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Brown 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
Nashville town1.4KCordry Sweetwater Lakes CDP1.2KHelmsburg CDP387
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

3 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Nashville townIncorporated place
    1,386
  2. 02
    Cordry Sweetwater Lakes CDPCensus-designated place
    1,190
  3. 03
    Helmsburg CDPCensus-designated place
    387

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

0.171% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.44%

$1,177 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+24

549 in · 525 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$3,766

$80,355 arriving · $76,589 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors5.0%

11 of 222 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings76▼ 0.7% year over year
Median days on market68▼ 0.7% year over year
Listings price-reduced25.2%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▲ 0.6% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

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; for a rent figure, the Indianapolis, IN page covers the wider market.
Same metro

The other counties in Indianapolis, IN

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Brown County15,606$373kn/an/ainland flooding
Marion County975,809$234k$1,4167.3%inland flooding
Hamilton County365,056$471k$1,8374.7%inland flooding
Hendricks County183,344$349k$1,8696.4%inland flooding
Johnson County166,315$318k$1,6416.2%inland flooding
Madison County131,900$194k$1,0876.7%inland flooding
Hancock County84,037$334k$1,6956.1%inland flooding
Boone County74,718$425k$1,9305.5%inland flooding
Morgan County72,659$304k$1,6526.5%inland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Unpublished market rent and operating costs could materially change cash-flow conclusions.
  2. MLS listing evidence may not match closed-sale pricing or property-specific buyer depth.
  3. Property-level flood exposure, insurability and prior losses may differ substantially from the county model.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can the record support a gross-yield calculation?

No. County market rent is not published, and HUD Fair Market Rent cannot be substituted for asking rent.

Does the listing evidence establish closed-sale values?

No. Realtor.com data describe the MLS listing market, including asking prices, active supply, marketing time and price reductions.

What does the employment series measure?

QCEW measures annual covered jobs located at county workplaces; it is not resident employment, unemployment or a forecast.