Counties / Alabama / Escambia County

Escambia County, AL

FIPS 01053 · population 36,629 · outside every metro area

$152k
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
$152k
▲ 4.2% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$766
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
$776
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+52.9%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+4.2%FHFA HPI2025+8.4%
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$137k
Surveyed gross rent$766
Rent burden 30%+43.5%
Median year built1983
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
23.8%vacant
16,816estimated housing units
Occupied tenure29.0% renter
owner 71.0%renter 29.0%
Structure mix69.0% single-family
Single-family 69.0%20+ units 0.8%Mobile home 21.0%Other 9.2%
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 jobs12,943▲ 0.1% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments951annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,020▲ 3.2% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities26.4% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+0.1%WEEKLY WAGE+3.2%Trade, transportation, and utilities26.4%
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

Escambia County presents a tension between measured price momentum and unmeasured rental economics under hurricane exposure. Investors able to verify property-level rent, insurance and condition should investigate; yield-led buyers should be cautious. Zillow’s 2026-06 median home value was $151,644, up 4.19% year over year. FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI rose 8.41% annually. It is an index, not a home value, and cannot be blended with Zillow’s differently timed measure.

02Housing economics

Gross yield cannot be computed because county market rent is not published. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR of $776 is a payment standard, not asking rent, and cannot substitute for rent. The 0.39% effective property-tax rate and $530 median annual tax identify a carrying-cost input, but assessed value, insurance and operating expenses are not published. Realtor.com MLS listing price, active listings, days on market and price-reduced share are also not published, preventing a read on asking-price positioning, visible supply, marketing time or seller concessions.

03Demand & competition

QCEW’s 2025 workplace series reports 12,943 annual average covered jobs, 0.15% above the prior annual average. Trade, transportation, and utilities is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the entire economy or resident employment. Tax-return migration posted a net gain of 16 households, with incoming movers’ average income $4,992 above outgoing movers’. The non-occupant purchase-mortgage measure was 5.68% across 264 purchases; it identifies recorded investor participation but not all-cash competition.

04Risk & next checks

Hurricane is the dominant hazard; modeled expected climate loss is 0.42% of building value annually, not an insurance quote or property-specific loss estimate. Missing insurance premiums, flood or wind zone, elevation, construction quality, transaction-sale prices, vacancy and repair data prevent conclusions on net income, closed-sale liquidity and property-level resilience. Next checks are lease comps and collected rent, tax assessment, insurance availability and deductibles, hazard exposure, and recent comparable sales.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Escambia 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
Atmore city8.3KBrewton city5.2KEast Brewton city3.2KFlomaton town1.5KRiverview town260Pollard town147
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

6 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Atmore cityIncorporated place
    8,334
  2. 02
    Brewton cityIncorporated place
    5,186
  3. 03
    East Brewton cityIncorporated place
    3,168
  4. 04
    Flomaton townIncorporated place
    1,535
  5. 05
    Riverview townIncorporated place
    260
  6. 06
    Pollard townIncorporated place
    147

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 hazardhurricane

0.417% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.39%

$530 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+16

687 in · 671 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$4,992

$46,052 arriving · $41,060 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors5.7%

15 of 264 mortgages

investorother financed
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; no wider market is mapped for it either.
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Unpublished market rent and operating expenses could make the apparent price basis incompatible with required cash flow.
  2. Hurricane exposure could create insurance, deductible, repair or availability burdens not captured by the modeled loss ratio.
  3. Absent MLS and transaction-sale evidence could leave liquidity, buyer competition and achievable purchase pricing materially different from county signals.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can gross yield be calculated from the reported FMR?

No. County market rent is not published, and HUD FMR is a payment standard rather than market asking rent.

Does the investor figure capture all buyer competition?

No. It measures non-occupant purchase-mortgage participation and does not establish all-cash investor activity.

What does the QCEW employment figure represent?

It is annual average covered employment at workplaces in the county, not resident employment or an unemployment measure.