Morton County poses a low-price but weakening-demand underwriting tension: Zillow’s median home value was $108,343 in 2026-06, down 2.48% year over year, while 2025 annual covered employment at county workplaces fell 6.16%. This is a workplace-job measure, not resident employment or an unemployment rate. Investors requiring reliable tenant depth, resale liquidity, or income growth should be cautious; buyers focused on basis should investigate property-level rents, condition, and insurance before reading the decline as value.
Market rent is not published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD’s $877 monthly FMR is a payment standard, not a market asking-rent estimate, and cannot fill that gap. The effective property-tax rate is 2.08%, making parcel-level tax verification material to carrying costs. Realtor.com’s 2026-06 MLS evidence is asking-side rather than closed-sale evidence: median listing prices fell 7.51%, active listings reached 14, up 40%, and median marketing time was 95 days. More visible supply and longer marketing time merit attention, but do not prove buyer demand.
Migration and buyer evidence add caution but remain thin. Tax-return movers produced net migration of -9, and the supplied average-AGI gap was -$21,765, meaning arriving movers reported lower average income than departing movers; these data neither identify renters nor forecast demand. No investor purchases were recorded among the supplied mortgage purchases, leaving no measured investor bid base. That result does not establish an absence of cash buyers or unobserved investor activity.
Inland flood is the dominant hazard, with modeled annual building-value loss of 0.10%; this county-level model is neither a parcel loss estimate nor an insurance quote. FHFA annual HPI is not published, so a repeat-transaction appreciation measure cannot confirm or challenge Zillow’s 2026-06 home-value direction. Closed-sale comparables, actual market rents, vacancy, repair scope, parcel flood exposure, and insurance premiums are not published. Their absence prevents a sustainable-yield calculation and a defensible all-in price and risk assessment.