Marshall County presents a price-appreciation-versus-depth tension: Zillow reports a $164,309 county median home value, up 6.2% year over year, while labor and listing evidence requires testing of tenant and buyer depth. Rental operators should investigate unit-specific achievable rents; purchasers reliant on quick exits or limited reserves should be cautious. Zillow’s measure is a home-value series, not a closed-sale comparable, and no FHFA repeat-transaction HPI observation is supplied to corroborate or challenge its direction.
Housing economics cannot yet be underwritten as a yield case. Market asking rent is not published, so gross yield cannot be computed. The HUD two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is a payment standard, not measured market rent, and cannot replace it in that calculation. The effective property-tax rate is 1.23%, with a $1,574 median annual tax, creating a carrying-cost item that must be matched to the specific parcel’s assessment, insurance, repairs and utilities. Realtor.com listing figures are MLS asking-market evidence, not closed-sale prices.
Realtor.com’s supplied listing-market evidence shows more visible and slower-moving stock: 24 active listings, up 50%, with 101 median days on market. These active-listing and marketing-time measures do not alone prove buyer demand or closed-sale velocity. Tax-return migration was net negative by 16 households, although incoming movers’ average income exceeded departing movers’ by $1,256. Seven of 61 purchase mortgages were non-occupant investor loans, or 11.48%; this establishes investor participation but not cash-buyer activity, rental demand or investor control of the purchase market.
QCEW reports 4,324 annual covered jobs located at county workplaces, down 2.22% from the prior annual average; this is neither resident employment nor unemployment. Manufacturing is the largest disclosed private supersector, but does not describe the whole county economy. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and modeled expected annual climate loss equals 0.14% of building value. Obtain lease comparables, closed-sale records, flood and insurance quotes, assessment history and property-condition evidence; without them, cash flow, exit pricing and parcel-level loss exposure cannot be concluded.