Skamania County presents a decision tension for an income-focused buyer: its supplied Zillow county median home value is $567,919 in 2026-06, down 1.84% year over year, while FHFA’s 2025 annual repeat-transaction HPI rose 0.65% and shows a 46.49% cumulative five-year increase. These observations use different methods and periods, so they cannot be blended into one appreciation rate. This county merits price verification rather than an uncomplicated appreciation thesis; Zillow is a home-value measure, while FHFA is an index rather than a dollar value.
A measured county market asking rent is not published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD FMR is $1,922 per month, but it is a payment standard rather than an asking-rent estimate and cannot fill that gap. Carrying-cost review matters: the effective property-tax rate is 0.67% and median annual tax is $3,532. Those county measures do not establish the tax bill for a home at the county median value; parcel assessment and exemptions are not published.
Demand evidence warrants qualification rather than a simple occupancy conclusion. The supplied annual QCEW workplace record reports 2,240 covered jobs, not resident employment or an unemployment measure. Leisure and hospitality is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. Tax-return migration was net positive by 75 households, while average adjusted gross income of movers entering exceeded that of movers leaving by a calculated $30,090. Investors represented 5.22% of 134 purchase mortgages, measuring financed non-owner purchases rather than cash-buyer competition or rental absorption.
Inland flood is the dominant stated hazard; modeled climate loss equals 0.28% of building value per year, a county-level modeled ratio rather than a property-loss estimate. Supplied Realtor.com listing-market fields for 2026-06 are not published, preventing a read on visible supply, marketing time, or seller price reductions. Underwriting still needs property-level flood zone, insurance quotes, elevation and condition, recent closed sales, and market-rent, vacancy, operating-cost, and lease evidence. Without them, yield, flood-adjusted carrying costs, and exit-liquidity conclusions remain untested.