Deuel County presents a decision tension: value signals are rising, but rental cash flow is untested and local demand indicators are modest. Zillow’s 2026-06 median home value is $311,404, up 10.01% year over year, while FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI rose 25.74% over its reported annual change. These are different methods and vintages: the HPI supports the direction of appreciation but is not a home value and cannot be blended with Zillow. Income-focused buyers should be cautious until property-specific rent, condition, and financing are tested; appreciation-led files need recent closed-sale comparables.
No median asking market rent is published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD’s $929 FMR is a payment standard, not asking rent, and cannot fill that gap. The effective property-tax rate is 0.82%; insurance, utilities, maintenance, vacancy, and property-level assessments are not published in this record. Price can therefore be compared with disclosed taxes, not with rental economics.
The QCEW annual-average count is 1,530 covered jobs at county workplaces, down 0.39% from the prior annual average; it is neither resident employment nor unemployment. Trade, transportation, and utilities is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. Tax-return migration was -5 net, and inbound movers’ average AGI was $4,725 lower than outbound movers’. The 2.86% investor share across 35 purchases indicates limited non-owner participation in this measure. Together, those data do not establish tenant demand or buyer depth.
Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and modeled expected annual building-value loss is 0.12%; this is not an actual claim, flood-zone determination, or insurance premium. Realtor.com’s 2026-06 listing-price, active-listing, days-on-market, and price-reduction fields are not published, preventing assessment of visible MLS supply, marketing time, and seller concessions; even available listings would not prove closed-sale pricing. Next checks are market-rent and lease comparables, parcel tax details, flood and insurance quotes, and recent closed-sale comps.