Caribou County’s tension is Zillow’s faster value move against a subdued FHFA appreciation signal, without published market rent to test income support. The Zillow county median home value in 2026-06 is $341,144, up 5.39% year over year; FHFA’s 2025 annual repeat-transaction HPI rose 1.74%. These are differently dated and methodologically distinct measures, not rates to average, and FHFA is not a home value. Income-focused buyers should be cautious until parcel rents and operating costs are documented; value-basis buyers should validate the Zillow estimate against local transactions.
Gross yield cannot be computed because median asking market rent is not published. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR of $973 per month is a payment standard, not an asking-rent estimate, so it cannot fill that gap. The effective property-tax rate is 0.56%, and median annual tax is $1,341; these establish a county-level carrying-cost input but not a bill for a specific property. Underwriting needs observed rents, lease terms, vacancy, repairs, insurance and parcel tax assessments.
Annual QCEW shows 3,544 covered jobs located at county workplaces, down 0.62% from the prior annual average, while covered-worker average weekly wage was $1,351. Manufacturing, the largest disclosed private supersector, accounts for 26.06% of private covered employment; this is an employment concentration, not a description of the whole economy. Tax-return migration shows 139 mover households in and 185 out, a net loss of 46, although incoming movers’ average AGI exceeded outgoing movers’ by $19,254. Non-occupant purchase mortgages were 10.09% of purchase mortgages, indicating participation but not control of buyer competition.
Modeled climate loss equals 0.17% of building value per year and the named dominant hazard is inland flood; it is a modeled county-level loss ratio, not a parcel flood determination or an insurance quote. Realtor.com MLS listing price, active listings, days on market, price reductions and pending data are not published here, preventing an assessment of asking-price competition, visible supply, marketing time or seller concessions. Closed-sale comparables, property-level flood zone and insurance terms, and rental operating history are not published in the record; those gaps prevent a defensible property cash-flow and resale-liquidity conclusion.