Counties / Nebraska / Madison County

Madison County, NE

FIPS 31119 · population 35,532 · part of Norfolk, NE

$260k
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
$260k
▲ 5.0% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
Median asking rent
$1,278
▲ 4.0% year over year
Zillow ZORI · direct
Gross yield
5.9%
annual rent ÷ price, before costs
derived: rent × 12 ÷ price ✓
HUD 2-bed standard
$992
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+46.9%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+5.0%FHFA HPI2025+3.4%
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$209k
Surveyed gross rent$881
Rent burden 30%+37.6%
Median year built1974
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
6.8%vacant
15,510estimated housing units
Occupied tenure34.5% renter
owner 65.5%renter 34.5%
Structure mix71.1% single-family
Single-family 71.1%20+ units 9.2%Mobile home 3.4%Other 16.3%
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 jobs21,945▼ 0.3% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments1,326annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$1,089▲ 2.4% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorTrade, transportation, and utilities26.2% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS−0.3%WEEKLY WAGE+2.4%Trade, transportation, and utilities26.2%
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

At Zillow’s 2026-06 county observation, the supplied $260,068 median home value pairs with $1,278 monthly median asking rent and a 5.90% gross yield before operating costs. That is worth investigating for investors able to validate unit-level expenses, but caution is warranted because the price signal is not a transaction result. FHFA’s 2025 annual repeat-transaction HPI rose 3.44%; it supports positive direction but is neither a home value nor interchangeable with Zillow’s differently dated and methodologically distinct measure.

02Housing economics

Carrying costs constrain what that headline yield means. Effective property tax is 1.37%, with median annual tax of $2,854; neither insurance, repairs, financing, vacancy nor operating expenses is published, so net yield and cash flow cannot be underwritten. The $992 HUD two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not asking rent. Published market rent is 28.80% above it, a calculation that does not substitute FMR for rent. County figures cannot establish a particular property’s assessment, rent mix or expense load.

03Demand & competition

MLS listing-market evidence creates a buyer-competition question: Realtor.com reported 85 active listings, a 68-day median marketing time, and a 15.37% price-reduced share. Finite visible supply coexists with marketing time and price adjustments, so the figures do not prove buyer demand or closed-sale liquidity. They are active-supply, marketing-time and seller-price-adjustment evidence, not closed sales. The investor share was 16.99% of reported purchase mortgages—a calculation using non-occupant mortgages divided by reported total purchase mortgages—so it excludes cash buyers and does not represent all sales.

04Risk & next checks

Risk limits require property-level checking. QCEW annual covered employment at county workplaces declined while average weekly covered-worker wages rose; Trade, transportation, and utilities is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. More tax-return households moved out than in, and outbound movers reported higher average income, weakening the migration/income evidence. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and modeled annual building-value loss is 0.21%; parcel flood zone, insurance terms and mitigation need review. Missing vacancy, property expenses, financing, insurance/claims and closed-sale evidence prevents a complete net-return, tenant-depth or resilience conclusion.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Madison 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
Norfolk city26.1KMadison city2.1KBattle Creek city1.5KTilden city*936Newman Grove city*885Meadow Grove village174
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

6 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Norfolk cityIncorporated place
    26,054
  2. 02
    Madison cityIncorporated place
    2,079
  3. 03
    Battle Creek cityIncorporated place
    1,456
  4. 04
    Tilden cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    936
  5. 05
    Newman Grove cityIncorporated place · spans 2 counties
    885
  6. 06
    Meadow Grove villageIncorporated place
    174

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

0.212% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax1.37%

$2,854 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-72

921 in · 993 out

Arriving vs leaving income−$2,081

$51,701 arriving · $53,782 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors17.0%

53 of 312 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 listings85▼ 17.9% year over year
Median days on market68▲ 35.3% year over year
Listings price-reduced15.4%seller-concession signal
Median listing pricen/a▲ 1.9% 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 Norfolk, NE

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
Madison County35,532$260k$1,2785.9%inland flooding
Pierce County7,325$252kn/an/ainland flooding
Stanton County5,796$277kn/an/ainland flooding
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Unpublished vacancy, operating costs, financing and insurance could materially reduce the reported gross yield.
  2. MLS listing conditions may not translate into achievable rents, resale execution or buyer depth.
  3. Flood exposure and adverse migration/labor evidence may constrain tenant and buyer demand.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Can the reported gross yield be treated as net cash flow?

No. It is based on annual market rent before costs, while vacancy, operating expenses, financing and insurance are not published.

Does HUD Fair Market Rent establish local asking rent?

No. The supplied HUD two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard; separate median asking market rent is published.

What does the investor participation measure cover?

It measures non-occupant purchase mortgages as a share of reported purchase mortgages, not cash buyers or all home sales.