Taylor County’s underwriting tension is a rising Zillow value reading against a falling FHFA transaction index, while unmeasured rent and flood exposure make a headline price gain insufficient. Yield-led buyers should be cautious and obtain local rent and insurance evidence before relying on Zillow’s 2026-06 median home value of $143,978, up 11.47%. FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI instead declined 14.91% year over year. These are different methods and vintages, not a common interval or blended appreciation measure; transaction-level valuation review is warranted.
No county market asking rent is published; therefore gross yield cannot be computed. HUD’s $919 two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, rather than evidence of actual asking rent or a substitute in yield math. The 1.27% effective property-tax rate is a known carrying-cost input, but property-level assessment and tax billing remain necessary. Modeled climate loss equals 0.15% of building value annually and inland flood is the dominant hazard; it is not a parcel flood determination or insurance quote.
The 2025 annual QCEW reports 2,059 covered jobs located at county workplaces, up 1.43%, with Manufacturing representing 39.77% of total private covered jobs. That identifies workplace concentration, not resident employment, unemployment, or a forecast. Tax-return migration shows a net outflow of 25 households, and incoming movers’ average AGI trailed outgoing movers’ by $3,783. Only 1 of 30 purchase-mortgage observations was non-owner-occupant, a calculated 3.33% investor share; thin participation limits conclusions about buyer competition.
Realtor.com MLS listing-market price, active inventory, days on market, price-reduction, and pending figures are not published, preventing a read on visible supply, marketing time, seller concessions, or listing momentum. No market-rent series prevents income underwriting; no parcel-specific flood zone, insurance quote, condition, or closed-sale comparables are provided. Next checks should obtain rent comps, actual tax bills, insurance terms, flood mapping, and recent closed transactions; these distinguish a county screen from asset-level underwriting.