Marshall County presents a price-direction-versus-income-certainty tension: the Zillow county median home value was $143,081 in 2026-06, up 4.85% year over year, while FHFA’s repeat-transaction HPI for 2025 rose 12.27%. Both measures point upward, but they use different methods and labeled periods; neither is a closed-sale price for a specific asset, and their rates should not be averaged. This warrants investigation by operators able to verify property-level rent and carrying costs, while income-dependent buyers should be cautious.
No county market asking rent is published, so gross yield cannot be computed. The $1,039 two-bedroom HUD FMR is a payment standard, not an estimate of market rent, and cannot fill that gap. Carrying costs are material to price underwriting: the effective property-tax rate is 1.94%, with a $2,766 median annual tax. Those county figures do not establish a subject property’s assessment, insurance, repairs, utilities, vacancy, or operating expenses; without those inputs, the relationship between acquisition price and net cash flow remains untested.
County workplace evidence is constructive but concentrated. QCEW reports 2,862 annual average covered jobs, rising 3.51%. Manufacturing, the largest disclosed private supersector, accounts for 33.61% of private covered employment; this is not a measure of all county employment or resident labor conditions. Migration shows a net loss of 49 tax-return households, although inbound movers’ average income exceeded outbound movers’ by $7,068. That mix calls for tenant and buyer segmentation rather than assuming the income gap offsets household loss. Investor participation was 8.61% of purchase mortgages to non-occupants, a limited county-level marker of buyer competition rather than evidence of rental demand.
Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and modeled annual climate loss equals 0.13% of building value. This is a modeled ratio, not a dollar loss or a property-specific flood determination; underwriters need parcel flood status, insurance quotes, deductible terms and loss history. Realtor.com MLS listing price, active-listing, days-on-market, reductions and pending metrics are not published in this record, preventing a read on visible supply, seller concessions and marketing time. Also absent are market rent, vacancy, lease-up, closed-sale comparables and financing terms, so neither yield nor exit liquidity can be underwritten from county evidence alone.