Burke County presents a thin-evidence underwriting case: the $140,761 Zillow median home value has edged lower, while visible MLS listings carry higher asking prices. The divergence makes this a property-by-property diligence market; county medians do not settle value or exit liquidity. It suits investigators who can verify unit economics and resale; buyers needing observed rent, deep sales comps or easy resale should be cautious. Zillow measures home value; Realtor.com reports listings, and neither is a closing price.
No county market asking rent is published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD's $873 FMR is a payment standard, not market rent and cannot be substituted. Carrying-cost context is the 0.54% effective property-tax rate and $846 median annual tax; assess billing and assessment at parcel level, since these county metrics do not set a specific home's tax. No FHFA annual HPI observation is published, so a repeat-transaction index direction cannot corroborate or challenge Zillow's direction.
For the Realtor.com inventory observation, active MLS listings numbered eight; median marketing time was 81 days, and the pending-to-active ratio was 12.5%. Asking prices increased, marketing time shortened, and no listing price reductions were reported year over year. These are asking-price, visible-supply, marketing-time and seller-concession signals—not closed sales or proof of buyer demand. With so few listings, each listing can affect the medians; verify sale comps, contract fallout and days-on-market distribution.
County QCEW reports 653 annual covered jobs at workplaces, down 1.36%; this is neither resident employment nor an unemployment measure. Average weekly wage was $1,384, a covered-worker average rather than household income. Trade, transportation, and utilities is the largest disclosed private supersector, at 46.77% of total private covered employment. Net tax-return migration was negative 13, yet incoming movers' average AGI was $15,886 above outgoing, so count loss and higher-income arrivals point in different directions. Investor participation was zero among 10 purchases. Expected annual building-value loss is 0.08%, with inland flood the dominant hazard; this modeled ratio cannot replace parcel flood-zone, insurance and condition checks.