Cortland County presents a rent-supported, carrying-cost-sensitive underwriting tension: supplied gross yield is before operating costs, while taxes and inland-flood exposure can alter it. Buyers relying on HUD payment standards or appreciation should be cautious; property-level verification of rent, tax, and insurance inputs is essential. FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI rose 9.95%, supporting a positive price direction but not supplying a home value or forecast.
In Zillow’s 2026-06 county observation, median home value was $208,576, up 7.59% year over year, and median asking rent was $1,364 per month. Their relationship produces the supplied 7.85% gross yield, before costs, vacancy, repairs, insurance, financing, or taxes. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR was $1,198 per month; it is a payment standard, not asking rent, and cannot replace Zillow rent. Effective property tax was 2.56%, with $4,149 median annual tax, requiring parcel-level assessment review. Zillow and FHFA point upward but use distinct methods and labeled periods; their rates should not be combined.
Demand evidence is mixed, not a sale-market verdict. QCEW’s 2025 county-labor file shows annual covered-job growth at workplaces—not resident employment—and names leisure and hospitality the largest disclosed private supersector; its wage is a covered-worker average, not household income. Tax-return migration had a net outflow of 111 households, with in-movers’ average income slightly below out-movers’. Investor mortgages were 31 of 346 purchases, or 8.96%; assess that participation against submarket supply, not as proof of broad demand.
The stated dominant hazard is inland flood, and modeled expected annual climate loss equals 0.16% of building value; this is a modeled ratio, not an insurance quote or property-specific loss. Realtor.com MLS listing price, active inventory, days on market, and price-reduction data are not published here, preventing a visible-supply or seller-concession assessment. Vacancy, lease collections, operating expenses, flood-zone status, insurance terms, and closed-sale comparables are also absent; without them, net yield, debt-service coverage, rent durability, and exit-price underwriting cannot be determined.