Muscatine County presents a decision tension: Zillow’s $206,377 county median home value in 2026-06 rose 7.04% year over year, while FHFA’s 2025 annual repeat-transaction HPI rose 2.74%, with a cumulative five-year change of 38.41%, not an annualized rate. These are different methods and observation periods, so they cannot be averaged or treated as one growth rate. Both are positive directional evidence, but investigate acquisitions only after current-rent verification; be cautious if Zillow’s gain is the entire case.
Housing economics are unproven because county market asking rent is not published, so gross yield cannot be calculated. HUD’s $1,071 two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not market asking rent, and cannot fill that gap. The 1.50% effective property-tax rate is a recurring carrying-cost input relative to the reported home value, but it does not establish a parcel’s assessment, exemptions, or escrow.
The QCEW annual average of covered jobs at county workplaces fell 1.17%; it is neither resident employment nor an unemployment measure or forecast. Manufacturing is the largest disclosed private supersector, accounting for 37.13% of private covered employment, a concentration that warrants local tenant and buyer diligence without describing the whole economy. Net tax-return migration was -111 households, and incoming movers reported lower average AGI than outgoing movers. Non-owner purchase mortgages numbered 69 of 455, or 15.16%, showing investor participation in observed financed purchases rather than all buyer demand.
Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the modeled climate loss ratio is 0.12% of building value per year; it is a county-level modeled ratio, not a property loss estimate. MLS listing-market evidence is not published in this record—asking price, active listings, days on market, and reductions—so visible supply and seller concessions cannot be assessed. Flood-zone status, insurance terms, property condition, closed-sale comparables, and neighborhood rent evidence are also absent; those gaps prevent parcel-level price, income, and hazard underwriting.