Garfield County is a verification case rather than a clean yield screen: Zillow’s county home-value measure rose 19.11% year over year, yet the county has only 1,094 residents and the record offers no market-rent series or listing-market measures. An investor considering a purchase should investigate property-level rents, comparable sales and flood exposure; anyone requiring stable, broad-market evidence should be cautious. The observed price move is not proof that a specific asset can achieve that outcome.
The $324,055 Zillow median home value is a county value measure, not a closed-sale price. Market asking rent is not published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR of $1,099 per month is a payment standard and cannot substitute for rent. The effective property-tax rate is 0.62%, with a $1,052 median annual tax; the median tax need not apply to a home at the Zillow median value, so parcel assessments and bills remain necessary carrying-cost checks.
Workplace demand indicators are narrow. QCEW reports 322 annual average covered jobs; it is workplace employment rather than resident employment or unemployment. Trade, transportation, and utilities, the largest disclosed private supersector, has 64 covered jobs, or 37.65% of private covered jobs, concentrating the disclosed base. Twenty-one tax-return households moved out with average AGI of $55,381, but inbound movers are not published, preventing a net-migration read. Investor purchases were 0 of 2 total purchases, a 0% share too small to establish absence of investor competition. Realtor.com listing price, active listings, days on market and price-reduction data are not published, so visible supply, marketing time and seller concessions cannot be assessed.
Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and modeled climate loss equals 0.15% of building value per year; it is a county-level modeled expectation, not a parcel insurance quote or a dollar loss. FHFA annual repeat-transaction HPI is not supplied, so the Zillow direction cannot be independently checked with a separate appreciation method. Next checks are parcel flood-zone and claims history, insurance availability and premiums, lease-ready rent comparables, closed-sale comparables, and MLS listing history. Those gaps prevent a supported income, exit-liquidity or hazard-cost conclusion.