Worth County presents a cross-current case: investors pursuing value appreciation should investigate the disconnect between county valuation measures and the current listing market, while income-focused buyers should remain cautious. Zillow’s county observation for 2026-06 places the median home value at $175,752, up 8.55% year over year. Separately, FHFA’s annual 2025 repeat-transaction HPI rose 7.17%. The HPI is not a home value; it confirms a positive direction at its own vintage and method, not Zillow’s time frame.
Cash-flow underwriting cannot be completed: no market asking rent is published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD’s $1,129 two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not an estimate of asking rent, and cannot fill that gap. The 1.13% effective property-tax rate adds a known carrying-cost input. Realtor.com’s 2026-06 MLS listing-market evidence nevertheless shows softer seller positioning: median listing price was down 9.35% year over year, median marketing time was 60 days, and 19.69% of listings carried price reductions. Visible supply also expanded. These are asking-price, active-listing, marketing-time and concession measures, rather than closed-sale prices or proof of buyer demand.
Demand evidence is mixed rather than a simple local-growth signal. QCEW reports rising annual covered employment at workplaces in the county and a higher average weekly wage for covered workers; it does not measure resident employment or unemployment. Trade, transportation, and utilities is the largest disclosed private supersector, not the whole economy. At the same time, tax-return migration was net outward, and inbound movers had lower average income than outbound movers. Investor purchase mortgages were 9.52% of activity—12 of 126 total purchases—indicating participation but not dominant buyer competition.
Inland flood is the dominant hazard, while the modeled climate-loss ratio equals 0.13% of building value expected annually; that county-level model is not a parcel loss estimate. Flood-zone status, elevation, replacement cost and insurance quotations therefore require address-level review. Market rents, vacancy, operating expenses, property condition, closed-sale comparables and insurance costs are not published here: their absence prevents yield, cash-flow and exit-price underwriting. Check lease comps, tax bills, flood disclosures and current MLS concessions before treating county evidence as applicable to a target asset.