Wapello County presents a conflicted price-and-carrying-cost screen: investors considering a purchase near the published county value should investigate rent and flood costs, while those requiring a confirmed price trend should be cautious. Zillow’s county median home value was $132,702 in 2026-06, up 1.83% year over year. That direction conflicts with FHFA’s 2025 repeat-transaction HPI, down 1.42% annually despite a 41.98% cumulative five-year gain. The HPI is not a home value, and its different vintage and method cannot be combined with Zillow into one appreciation measure.
Housing income is not measurable from this record. No market asking rent is published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD’s $1,068 monthly two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is a payment standard, not an estimate of local asking rent and cannot substitute for it. Carrying costs require parcel review: the effective property-tax rate is 1.58%, while median annual property tax is $1,974. Those county figures provide burden context but do not establish the tax bill on a particular property.
Demand evidence is mixed rather than conclusive. QCEW annual averages show 15,240 covered jobs located at county workplaces, down 0.94%; this is not resident employment or unemployment. The average covered-worker weekly wage was $1,036. Manufacturing, the largest disclosed private supersector, represented 28.89% of private covered jobs, leaving employment exposure concentrated in a named sector rather than describing the whole economy. Tax-return migration was negative by 27 households, and arriving households averaged $7,188 less income than departing households. Investor purchases were 41 of 343 total purchases, or 11.95%, indicating measured non-owner participation but not the terms or motives of those buyers.
Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the modeled annual building-value loss ratio is 0.18%; it is not a property-level loss estimate or an insurance quote. Realtor.com listing price, active-listing, days-on-market, and price-reduction figures are not published, so visible MLS supply and seller concessions cannot be assessed. Next checks are market rent and lease comparables, operating costs, parcel flood exposure and insurance, actual tax assessments, and MLS listing and closed-sale evidence. Without those items, income yield, property-specific carrying cost, and transaction-market conditions remain unresolved.