Lee County, AL

Lee County’s decision tension is measurable income against a listing market showing more seller accommodation and an inland-flood cost screen. Investors able to verify property-level insurance and rent durability should investigate; buyers whose thesis depends on easy resale or untested flood costs should be cautious. In Zillow’s county 2026-06 observation, the $354,342 median home value and $1,728 monthly median asking rent produce the reported 5.85% gross yield before operating, financing, vacancy, tax and insurance costs.

Zillow’s price and rent changes were 4.39% and 4.62%, respectively. Separately, FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI rose 4.73% annually and 50.23% cumulatively over five years; it is an index rather than a home value, so it corroborates direction but cannot be averaged with Zillow’s differently timed, methodologically distinct change. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not an asking-rent estimate and cannot replace the supplied market rent. The 0.48% effective property-tax rate is a carrying-cost input, with assessment and insurance still unprovided.

MLS listing-market evidence at 2026-06 points to a more negotiable acquisition setting: 975 active listings were 27.04% higher year over year, median marketing time was 56 days, 23.38% had price reductions, and the pending-to-active ratio was 15.33%. These are visible-supply, marketing-time, seller-concession and pending-listing measures, not closed-sale values or standalone proof of buyer demand. Net inward migration and higher inbound AGI add a limited demand-quality signal, while investor purchases remain a minority of total purchases. QCEW records annual covered jobs at county workplaces—not resident employment or unemployment—and identifies Trade, transportation, and utilities as the largest disclosed private supersector, not the county’s whole economy; its jobs and average covered wage increased.

Risk is property-specific. The modeled annual building-value loss ratio reflects inland flood and is not an insurance quote; flood zone, elevation, history, deductible, coverage and premium require address-level confirmation. The record lacks operating expenses, vacancy, lease-up performance, insurance premiums, debt terms, sale prices and neighborhood rent dispersion. Those gaps prevent net-yield conclusions, realistic flood-cost tests and confirmation that MLS supply converts into transactions; verify taxes and assessments alongside them.