Counties / Idaho / Owyhee County

Owyhee County, ID

FIPS 16073 · population 12,503 · part of Boise City, ID

$447k
Zillow home value · 2026-06
The numbers

What this county costs and earns

Everything here joins on the county FIPS code, so each figure comes from the agency that publishes it with no name matching in between.

Zillow home value
$447k
▲ 2.2% year over year
Zillow ZHVI · direct
ACS median gross rent
$821
occupied-unit survey; not current asking rent
Census ACS · surveyed
Gross yield
n/a
gross yield cannot be computed without measured market rent
requires both measured price and measured rent
HUD 2-bed standard
$1,655
the Section 8 payment standard
HUD Fair Market Rent · direct
Independent price check

Do two methods point the same way?

Zillow estimates a current home value. FHFA tracks repeat mortgage transactions. Their growth rates should be read side by side, not averaged.

Both annual signals move in the same direction
FHFA five-year cumulative+60.1%not annualized · through 2025
0%ZILLOW ZHVI2026-06+2.2%FHFA HPI2025+7.2%
Annual changes use different methods and may use different periods. The comparison checks direction and magnitude; it does not create a blended estimate. Zillow county ZHVI pulled 2026-07-26; FHFA annual county HPI pulled 2026-07-28.
Owner-reported value$360k
Surveyed gross rent$821
Rent burden 30%+36.8%
Median year built1984
Housing composition

Who occupies the stock—and what it is

ACS 2024 5-year
10.9%vacant
4,869estimated housing units
Occupied tenure27.4% renter
owner 72.6%renter 27.4%
Structure mix72.4% single-family
Single-family 72.4%20+ units 0.7%Mobile home 21.7%Other 5.1%
ACS estimates describe the standing housing stock and occupied tenure. They do not measure current listings, transaction prices or asking rents.

Survey source: Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30. These values describe different housing universes and are not combined into gross yield.

Annual average covered jobs3,425▼ 3.4% from the prior annual release
Covered establishments404annual average reporting locations
Average weekly wage$955▲ 5.1% from the prior annual release
Largest private supersectorNatural resources and mining41.1% of disclosed private covered jobs
Local labor base

Jobs, pay and private-sector concentration

2025
0%COVERED JOBS−3.4%WEEKLY WAGE+5.1%Natural resources and mining41.1%
Annual QCEW counts cover jobs located at reporting establishments. The industry share uses disclosed private covered employment; it is not a resident-employment measure or a forecast.

Workplace source: BLS QCEW — county employment and wages · annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 · pulled 2026-07-31. QCEW counts covered jobs located in the county, not employed residents or the metro score’s CES/LAUS series.

County brief

What the local evidence says

01Decision frame

Owyhee County presents a valuation-versus-income tension: the Zillow county median home value was $447,120 in 2026-06, up 2.23% year over year, while published market rent is absent. Gross yield therefore cannot be computed. HUD’s $1,655 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is a payment standard, not asking rent, and cannot fill that gap. This merits lease-comp investigation before an income-led purchase; buyers relying on a yield screen should remain cautious.

02Housing economics

The price evidence is not one appreciation series. FHFA’s 2025 annual repeat-transaction HPI rose 7.16% over that annual period and 60.05% cumulatively over five years; it is an index of repeat transactions, not a dollar home value, and its period and method differ from Zillow’s observation. The supplied effective property-tax rate is 0.40%; it is a carrying-cost input rather than a tax bill for the Zillow median. Modeled annual building-value loss is 0.32%, consistent with inland flood as the dominant hazard, but it is not an insurance quote.

03Demand & competition

Demand evidence is mixed rather than a clean expansion case. The annual QCEW record shows 3,425 covered jobs at county workplaces, down 3.36% year over year; this is neither resident employment nor an unemployment measure. Natural resources and mining is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. In-migration was below out-migration, producing a net migration calculation of -10 tax-return households, while inbound average income exceeded outbound average income by $12,046. Investor purchase mortgages were 3 of 115 reported purchases, or 2.61%, limiting evidence of investor competition rather than proving owner-occupant demand.

04Risk & next checks

Underwriting remains bounded by missing evidence. No market-rent, vacancy, lease-concession, operating-expense, insurance, or sale-comparable data is published, preventing a gross-yield, net-income, or exit-price conclusion. Realtor.com median MLS listing price, active listings, days on market, price-reduced share, and pending ratio are also not published; without them, visible supply, seller concessions, and marketing time cannot be assessed. Next checks are address-level flood exposure and insurance terms, current lease comps, tax assessments, and transaction comps.

Cities & communities

Where people live within Owyhee County

Census-recognized incorporated places and CDPs that intersect this county. The list does not pretend to include every neighborhood or informal community.

Population scale

Largest Census places

ACS 2024 5-year
Homedale city3.1KMarsing city1.3KGrand View city472Murphy CDP170Bruneau CDP82
Bars use total place population, not a county-share estimate. An asterisk marks a place that crosses a county line.
Official directory

5 Census places

Population
  1. 01
    Homedale cityIncorporated place
    3,069
  2. 02
    Marsing cityIncorporated place
    1,306
  3. 03
    Grand View cityIncorporated place
    472
  4. 04
    Murphy CDPCensus-designated place
    170
  5. 05
    Bruneau CDPCensus-designated place
    82

Population is the total place-wide ACS estimate, not an allocated county share. A place crossing a county line is labelled explicitly. Source: Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities · ACS 2024 5-year · pulled 2026-07-30.

Risk, demand and competition

The three things a price does not tell you

01
Risk & carrying costFEMA NRI + Census ACS
Dominant hazardinland flooding

0.320% of building value expected lost per year

Effective property tax0.40%

$1,432 median annual bill

02
DemandIRS SOI household flows
Net migration-10

441 in · 451 out

Arriving vs leaving income+$12,046

$60,463 arriving · $48,417 leaving

03
CompetitionHMDA financed purchases
Purchases by investors2.6%

3 of 115 mortgages

investorother financed
No rent index is published for this county.Zillow’s county rent series does not cover every county, and estimating one from a neighbouring county would be a guess wearing a number’s clothes. Everything above is measured here; for a rent figure, the Boise City, ID page covers the wider market.
Same metro

The other counties in Boise City, ID

A metro is an average of these. Which side of a county line a property sits on can change the tax bill, the hazard profile and the tenant pool.

CountyPopulationPriceRentYieldHazard
Owyhee County12,503$447kn/an/ainland flooding
Ada County518,935$531k$1,9264.3%inland flooding
Canyon County250,790$421k$1,6734.8%inland flooding
Gem County20,614$488k$1,4903.7%wildfire
Boise County8,273$490kn/an/awildfire
Bear case

What can break the county thesis

  1. Lease comps could show insufficient income relative to acquisition and carrying costs.
  2. Flood exposure or insurance terms could be materially worse at a specific property than county-level modeling indicates.
  3. The reported mortgage-investor share may not capture cash buyers or localized competition.
Underwriting questions

Before pricing a property

Is a county market-rent figure published?

No. Market rent is not published, so gross yield cannot be computed.

What dominant hazard is identified?

Inland flood.

What does the QCEW employment measure represent?

Annual average covered jobs located at workplaces in the county, not resident employment or unemployment.