Counties / Alabama / Houston County

Houston County, AL

FIPS 01069 · population 108,140 · part of Dothan, AL

$204k
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
$204k
▲ 2.7% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$1,229
▲ 0.9% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
7.2%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$950
market rent is 1.29x the 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+43.1%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+2.7%FHFA HPI2025+2.8%
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$183k
Surveyed gross rent$945
Rent burden 30%+46.0%
Median year built1985
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
13.7%vacant
50,158estimated housing units
Occupied tenure36.2% renter
owner 63.8%renter 36.2%
Structure mix71.3% single-family
Single-family 71.3%20+ units 2.0%Mobile home 12.7%Other 14.0%
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 jobs51,279▲ 0.8% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments3,884annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,085▲ 5.4% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities32.1% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS+0.8%WEEKLY WAGE+5.4%Trade, transportation, and utilities32.1%
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

Houston County’s decision tension is a published 7.23% gross yield against listing-market signs of seller accommodation, while property costs are unmeasured. At the supplied $204,084 median home value and $1,229 monthly median asking rent, the yield uses market rent before costs. Underwriters seeking income evidence should test lease durability and operating costs; those relying on rapid resale or thin expense margins warrant caution.

02Housing economics

In Zillow’s county 2026-06 observation, median home value rose 2.70% year over year. Its published asking rent, not HUD FMR, supports the stated gross-yield calculation. The supplied two-bedroom HUD FMR is a payment standard, not asking-rent evidence, and cannot replace market rent or create another yield. The effective property-tax rate is 0.31%; with price and gross yield, it is a carrying-cost input, not net income.

03Demand & competition

Realtor.com’s MLS listing-market evidence shows 368 active listings, a 59-day median marketing time, and 24.53% of listings with reductions. These measure visible supply, marketing time, and seller concessions—not closed-sale pricing or buyer demand alone. Investor purchase mortgages were 156 of 1,280 total purchases, a calculated 12.19%; non-owner competition is present, but investor ownership and cash purchases are unknown. Tax-return migration was net positive, while incoming households had lower average AGI than outgoing households. That combination calls for applicant-income and rent-collection testing, not migration-based demand assumptions.

04Risk & next checks

FHFA’s 2025 annual repeat-transaction HPI rose 2.82%, confirming an upward direction in an earlier, methodologically different series from Zillow’s 2026-06 value observation; do not average the rates. QCEW reports 0.79% annual growth in covered jobs at county workplaces, not resident employment or a forecast; Trade, transportation, and utilities is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. Inland flood is dominant, and modeled annual building-value loss is 0.17%. Missing insurance quotes, flood-zone and claims data, unit condition, vacancy, operating expenses, financing terms, and closed-sale comparables prevent a net-yield, flood-adjusted carrying-cost, or resale-liquidity conclusion.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Houston 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
Dothan city*71.5KTaylor city*3.1KAshford city2.4KCowarts town2.2KKinsey city2.2KRehobeth town1.9KWebb town1.5KCottonwood town971
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

12 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Dothan cityIncorporated place · spans 3 counties
    71,514
  2. 02
    Taylor cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    3,063
  3. 03
    Ashford cityIncorporated place
    2,447
  4. 04
    Cowarts townIncorporated place
    2,204
  5. 05
    Kinsey cityIncorporated place
    2,195
  6. 06
    Rehobeth townIncorporated place
    1,887
  7. 07
    Webb townIncorporated place
    1,475
  8. 08
    Cottonwood townIncorporated place
    971
  9. 09
    Columbia townIncorporated place
    785
  10. 10
    Avon townIncorporated place
    378
  11. 11
    Gordon townIncorporated place
    323
  12. 12
    Madrid townIncorporated place
    220

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

0.168% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.31%

$562 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration+150

2,834 in · 2,684 out

Arriving vs leaving income−$4,231

$50,882 arriving · $55,113 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors12.2%

156 of 1,280 mortgages

investorother financed
Current listing pressure

What sellers and visible supply are doing

Realtor.com® Economic Research · county inventory 2026-06 · pulled 2026-07-28
Active listings368▲ 13.4% year over year
Median days on market59▲ 13.0% year over year
Listings price-reduced24.5%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▲ 2.0% year over year

Listing price is an asking price, not a closed sale. Quality-flagged county rows are withheld instead of displayed.

Same metro

The other counties in Dothan, AL

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Houston County108,140$204k$1,2297.2%inland flooding
Geneva County26,887$170kn/an/ainland flooding
Henry County17,647$198kn/an/ainland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Flood-related insurance, mitigation, or claims costs could absorb the reported pre-expense yield.
  2. Listing concessions and marketing exposure could make a resale-dependent underwriting fail.
  3. Lower-income in-movers and unknown cash or investor ownership could make county migration and mortgage-purchase evidence a weak proxy for durable tenant demand.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Does the reported gross yield show net cash flow?

No. It uses published market asking rent before operating expenses, insurance, maintenance, vacancy, financing, and other property costs.

Can HUD Fair Market Rent be substituted for the county market rent?

No. HUD FMR is a payment standard, while the published county rent is a market asking-rent measure.

Do the Realtor.com metrics establish closed-sale demand?

No. They describe the MLS listing market, including visible supply, marketing time, and price reductions, rather than closed transactions.