Ohio County presents a yield-versus-demand tension. Zillow’s 2026-06 county measure places median home value at $162,414, median asking rent at $891 per month, and stated gross yield at 6.58% before expenses. Investors underwriting durable occupancy should investigate rather than accept that yield automatically: covered employment and migration are cautionary, while nonoccupant purchases show competition. Inland-flood-exposed buyers warrant particular caution because the evidence is county-level, not property-specific.
These are measured market figures, not substitutes. HUD’s $991 two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not an asking-rent estimate; the market asking rent is 89.9% of that standard. The effective property-tax rate is 0.6%. It and the gross-yield figure cannot establish net return, since insurance, maintenance, financing, vacancy and operating costs are not published.
FHFA’s 2025 annual repeat-transaction HPI rose 2.52%, which supports positive price direction but is neither a dollar home value nor a rate to average with Zillow’s separately dated 2026-06 home-value change. QCEW annual covered employment at county workplaces fell 1.46%; it is not resident employment or unemployment. Education and health services is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. Out-movers exceeded in-movers and had higher average AGI, a cautionary migration mix rather than a demand forecast. On the matching Realtor label, 20.52% of MLS listings had price reductions, a seller-concession measure rather than closed sales or proof of demand. Nonoccupants made 42 of 335 reported purchase mortgages, or 12.54%, so buyer competition may vary by asset.
Inland flood is the dominant hazard. The modeled climate-loss ratio is 0.34% of building value per year; it is modeled exposure, not a property loss bill. Missing parcel flood-zone and elevation data, insurance quotes, condition, operating expenses, vacancy, lease-level rent and closed-sale comparables prevent a property-level net-yield, flood-cost or acquisition-value conclusion. Those are the next underwriting checks.