Counties / Nebraska / Hooker County

Hooker County, NE

FIPS 31091 · population 647 · outside every metro area

$147k
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
$147k
▲ 9.8% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$592
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
$961
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.

One annual series is unavailable
FHFA five-year cumulativen/anot annualized · through n/a
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+9.8%FHFA HPIperiod n/an/a
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$94k
Surveyed gross rent$592
Rent burden 30%+4.5%
Median year built1955
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
23.6%vacant
428estimated housing units
Occupied tenure44.6% renter
owner 55.4%renter 44.6%
Structure mix89.5% single-family
Single-family 89.5%20+ units 0.0%Mobile home 6.1%Other 4.4%
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 jobs262▼ 0.8% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments34annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$702▲ 8.3% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities19.7% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS−0.8%WEEKLY WAGE+8.3%Trade, transportation, and utilities19.7%
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

Hooker County is a verification-first, thin-market underwriting case: the Zillow county observation labeled 2026-06 puts median home value at $146,850, up 9.83% year over year, but QCEW’s separate 2025 workplace series shows covered employment down 0.76% to 262. That divergence makes the price move insufficient on its own to support a durable-income thesis. Buyers reliant on documented rent coverage or predictable resale depth warrant caution; local operators able to inspect the asset should investigate further.

02Housing economics

Measured market rent is not published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR is $961 per month, but it is a payment standard rather than an asking-rent estimate and cannot fill that gap. The stated effective property-tax rate is 1.04%, with median annual tax of $979; neither figure establishes tax on a specific purchase. No FHFA annual repeat-transaction HPI observation is supplied, so Zillow’s direction lacks that independent index check.

03Demand & competition

Buyer competition is visible only in a very small mortgage-purchase sample: investors accounted for 33.33% of three purchases. That share signals possible competition, not a reliable measure of broad investor demand or transaction liquidity. Trade, transportation, and utilities is the largest disclosed private supersector, with 29 covered jobs, or 19.73% of private covered employment. QCEW measures annual covered jobs at county workplaces, not residents or unemployment. Migration, mover income, and Realtor.com MLS listing-price, active-supply, marketing-time, and price-reduction measures are not published, preventing a demand or visible-supply read.

04Risk & next checks

Inland flood is the named dominant hazard, and modeled climate loss equals 0.13% of building value per year. This is a modeled loss ratio, not a property-specific insurance premium or realized loss, but it makes flood-zone, elevation, claims, mitigation, and insurance terms core diligence. The record contains no market rent, FHFA HPI, or MLS listings, so it cannot establish yield, independent price confirmation, or exit liquidity. Next checks are lease comps, tax assessment and bill, flood and insurance records, and the individual property’s condition.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Hooker 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
Mullen village478
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

1 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Mullen villageIncorporated place
    478

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 hazardinland flooding

0.128% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax1.04%

$979 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migrationn/a

Household flow not published

Arriving vs leaving incomen/a

Income flow not published

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors33.3%

1 of 3 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 may reveal insufficient income coverage at acquisition pricing.
  2. The three-purchase investor sample may not reflect repeatable buyer competition or resale depth.
  3. Flood insurance, claims, or mitigation requirements may differ materially by parcel.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can gross yield be calculated from this record?

No. Market rent is not published, and HUD FMR is a payment standard rather than a market-rent estimate.

What does the investor-share figure show?

Investors accounted for 33.33% of the three reported purchases, a small sample that does not establish broad buyer competition.

What labor-market series is available?

The record provides 2025 QCEW annual covered employment at county workplaces; it is not resident employment or an unemployment measure.