Hancock County presents a yield-versus-resilience and employment tension: its 2026-06 median home value is $147,494, while measured median asking rent is $725 monthly and reported gross yield is 5.90% before costs. This warrants property-level investigation by buyers who can verify rents, taxes and flood exposure; buyers dependent on stable local jobs or uncomplicated carrying costs should be cautious. These county-level Zillow-period observations do not establish a specific asset’s price or lease outcome.
Zillow’s county value measure rose 8.96% year over year. Separately, FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction index rose 4.78%. It supports the same positive direction but is neither a dollar home value nor the same vintage or method, so it cannot be averaged with Zillow. The record places measured asking rent below HUD’s two-bedroom FMR, which is a payment standard rather than an asking-rent estimate. The 0.63% effective property-tax rate frames carrying costs, but insurance, repairs and financing costs are not published.
Demand evidence is mixed rather than confirmed. QCEW’s 2025 annual average covered jobs at county workplaces fell 4.59% from the preceding annual average; this is not resident employment, unemployment, or a forecast. Leisure and hospitality is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. Tax-return household movers produced net migration of 55, and incoming movers’ average adjusted gross income exceeded outgoing movers’ by $4,462. This is movement evidence, not housing-demand proof. Investors accounted for 23 of 258 purchase mortgages, or 8.91%, showing measured non-owner participation rather than total cash buying.
Risk limits remain material: inland flood is the named dominant hazard, and modeled annual climate loss equals 0.18% of building value. That county model is not a property flood determination and should not be translated into dollars from this record. No Realtor.com MLS listing-price, active-listing, days-on-market, price-reduction, or pending data are published for the supplied inventory period; visible supply, seller concessions and marketing time cannot be assessed. Closed-sale comparables, property insurance, flood-zone/elevation, condition, lease roll and financing terms are also absent, preventing a net-yield and asset-level downside conclusion.