Yakutat City and Borough presents a sharp underwriting tension: a potential renter base, but almost no transaction depth. Population is 527, only five of eight evidence groups are available, and the record contains 1 purchase with no investor purchase. That warrants local verification by an owner-operator or caution from a passive investor. The record cannot establish liquidity, pricing power, or repeatable demand.
The ACS 2024 5-year survey reports an owner-reported median home value of $219,400 and surveyed gross rent of $1,330 for occupied units. They describe different surveyed populations, are not current asking or closed-sale measures, and cannot be combined into gross yield. Market rent is not published, so gross yield cannot be computed. HUD’s $1,388 two-bedroom FMR is a payment standard, not market rent. Carrying costs include a 0.67% effective property-tax rate and $1,463 median annual tax; insurance, utilities, maintenance, financing, purchase price, and vacancy costs are missing. The 48.24% ACS vacancy rate and 43.69% renter share are descriptive estimates, making unit-level occupancy and lease verification essential.
Demand evidence is equally thin. QCEW 2025 records 313 annual average covered jobs in the county, down 5.15% year over year, while the covered-worker average weekly wage is $1,277, up 6.42%. Trade, transportation, and utilities is the largest disclosed private supersector at 27% of private covered employment; QCEW is not the whole economy, resident employment, or unemployment. Realtor MLS measures, migration, and mover income are not published, so asking-price competition, marketing time, household inflow, and income capacity cannot be tested. With no investor purchase, the 0% investor share does not establish durable demand from the purchase total.
Earthquake is the dominant hazard, and the modeled climate loss ratio is 0.33% of building value per year, not a dollar loss or a property-specific quote. No Zillow or FHFA county observation is supplied, so price direction cannot be cross-checked. Before underwriting, verify parcel-level seismic exposure, condition, insurance, rent, utilities, and recent closed sales. Missing market rent prevents yield and DSCR analysis; missing closed-sale evidence prevents a defensible entry value. This is a locally verified small-market test, not a record-supported scalable acquisition case.