Montgomery County’s decision tension is a supplied 7.53% gross-yield screen versus carrying-cost, demand-depth and flood questions that county aggregates cannot resolve. Zillow’s 2026-06 county median home value of $207,254 and median asking rent of $1,300 per month underpin that pre-cost measure. Income-focused owners should investigate parcel taxes, insurance and rent durability; buyers relying on appreciation or easy resale should be cautious until listing-market evidence is available.
Those Zillow observations show median value up 3.77% year over year and asking rent up 2.58%. Separately, FHFA’s 2025 annual repeat-transaction HPI rose 5.66% year over year and 55.75% over five years. It points in the same positive direction but is not a dollar home value, and its different vintage and method cannot be blended with Zillow’s change. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not an asking-rent estimate. The reported 1.73% effective property-tax rate and $3,127 median annual tax frame carrying costs, but unreported insurance and operating costs prevent a net-return calculation.
QCEW’s 2025 annual average covered employment at county workplaces grew 0.74%; it is neither resident employment nor a forecast. Education and health services is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole county economy. Tax-return migration is less supportive: net migration was -393, while inbound movers’ average AGI was $8,942 below outbound movers’; neither statistic identifies renters or neighborhood demand. Investors accounted for 10.95% of 6,593 purchases, a defined non-owner buyer presence rather than proof of price support.
Inland flood is the dominant hazard; modeled expected loss equals 0.09% of building value per year, a modeling input rather than a parcel loss estimate. No Realtor.com MLS figures for median listing price (an asking price), active listings (visible supply), days on market (marketing time), or price reductions (seller concessions) are published. That blocks a read on resale liquidity, supply and concession pressure. Next checks are flood-zone and claims records, insurance quotes, lease-level rents, and property-specific taxes; absent financing terms, debt coverage cannot be assessed.