James City County, VA

James City County presents a carry-versus-entry-price tension: in Zillow county data labeled 2026-06, median home value was $488,897, up 0.64% year over year, while median asking rent was $2,148 per month, up 4.00%, and supplied gross yield was 5.27% before costs. This warrants investigation by buyers who can verify property-level rents and carrying costs; it warrants caution where underwriting treats gross yield as net return.

Measured market rent is not HUD Fair Market Rent: the two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not an asking-rent estimate, although it is below published market rent. The 0.65% effective property-tax rate is a carrying cost excluded from gross yield. FHFA annual data labeled 2025 show the repeat-transaction HPI up 3.73% over the year and 53.73% cumulatively over five years. It is not a dollar home value and cannot be averaged with Zillow’s reading because the methods and vintages differ.

Realtor.com MLS data labeled 2026-06 show median listing price down 3.60% year over year, active listings up 11.85%, median marketing time of 45 days, and 14.26% of listings reduced. These are asking-price, visible-supply, marketing-time, and seller-concession evidence, not closed sales or proof of demand. Tax-return migration was net positive and incoming movers’ average adjusted gross income exceeded outgoing movers’. QCEW reports expanding annual covered workplace jobs and wages; it is neither resident employment nor unemployment, and leisure and hospitality is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. The supplied investor measure is 67 of 1,174 purchases, or 5.71%.

The 0.10% modeled annual building-value loss must be read alongside inland flood, the named dominant hazard; it is county-level modeling rather than a parcel loss estimate. Missing achieved lease comps by unit type, vacancy, operating expenses, insurance quotes, and parcel flood and elevation detail prevents a property-level net-income and hazard-cost conclusion. Closed-sale pricing and buyer-financing evidence are also not published here, so listing conditions cannot establish transaction pricing or liquidity.