Tippecanoe County, IN

Tippecanoe County presents an income-screening case with softer demand and resale diligence requirements. Investors able to verify unit-level rent, flood exposure, and operating costs should investigate; buyers relying on rapid resale or broad employment expansion should be cautious. Zillow’s county home-value measure rose 1.92%, while FHFA’s separately labeled annual repeat-transaction HPI increased 2.64%. Those measures support a positive price direction, but FHFA is not a home value and its change should not be combined with Zillow’s differently timed, differently constructed measure.

The published median home value is $304,284 and median asking market rent is $1,419 per month, producing a published gross yield of 5.6% before operating costs. This is a usable county-level income screen, not a property-level return. HUD’s two-bedroom FMR is below the measured market rent, but FMR is a payment standard rather than an asking-rent estimate and cannot substitute for lease evidence. The effective property-tax rate is 0.62%; assessment treatment, insurance, maintenance, and vacancy remain necessary before judging net income.

Realtor.com’s MLS listing-market evidence shows 320 active listings, increased visible supply, a median 40 days on market, and 20.38% of listings with price reductions. These are asking-price, marketing-time, and seller-concession indicators rather than closed-sale evidence or proof of buyer demand. Tax-return migration shows a net outflow of 1,188 households, while average AGI for movers leaving exceeded that of movers arriving by $3,083. Investor participation was a calculation of 204 investor purchases divided by 1,938 total purchases, or 10.53%, indicating buyer competition without establishing tenant demand.

Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the modeled annual building-value loss ratio is 0.07%; it is a county model, not a site-specific insurance quote or flood determination. QCEW annual covered employment at county workplaces fell 0.95%, with Manufacturing the largest disclosed private supersector; this is neither resident employment nor an unemployment measure. Missing unit-level achieved rents, vacancy, operating expenses, flood maps, insurance quotes, debt terms, and recent comparable sales prevent a defensible property-level NOI, debt-service coverage, and exit-value conclusion.