Albany, GA
Albany merits investigation by yield-focused buyers prepared to underwrite weak demand and negotiate carefully; investors dependent on near-term appreciation or strong employment momentum should avoid it.
Why this market scores where it does
Written from the figures on this page and then checked against them: every number below had to appear in the source record or recompute from two that did, or the text was rewritten.
Albany merits investigation by yield-focused buyers prepared to underwrite weak demand and negotiate carefully; investors dependent on near-term appreciation or strong employment momentum should avoid it. The median home value is $170,557, median asking rent is $1,061, and gross yield is 7.46% before expenses.
The opportunity is affordability and buyer leverage. Price-to-income is 3.0, while 28.96% of listings have price cuts. With 7.6 months of supply, buyers may have room to reject weak properties, demand inspections, and negotiate terms rather than accept asking prices.
The risk is that low entry cost does not ensure durable occupancy or resale demand. Jobs fell 2.76%, rent rose only 0.54%, and net migration was negative. Investigate property-level rents, expenses, flood exposure, and tenant demand before treating the headline yield as achievable.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
Does the headline rent produce an attractive return before property expenses?
What evidence indicates negotiating leverage for a buyer?
What does migration reveal about the local demand base?
Investor Quick Takeaways
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Albany as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
Rents versus prices, indexed to 2019
Both series start at 100. The gap between the lines is the investment case, and which line is closing it tells you what kind of market this is.
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 1 | 30% | 0.30 |
| Rent trend | 11 | 25% | 2.75 |
| Affordability | 66 | 15% | 9.90 |
| Supply pressure | 7 | 15% | 1.05 |
| Climate risk | 46 | 15% | 6.90 |
| Published score | 21 | ||
Job: CES employment declined 2.76% year over year -> underwrite vacancy and renewal assumptions conservatively because the record shows weak labor demand rather than employment support for rents.
Rent: Median asking rent increased 0.54% year over year, and the two-bedroom fair market rent is $1,129 -> current income may be more important than rent-growth assumptions, while unit-specific achievable rent still needs verification.
Afford: Rent equals 22.37% of median household income, and home value equals 3.0 times median income -> housing appears accessible relative to local income, but this does not establish property condition, operating costs, or tenant depth.
Supply: The market has 7.6 months of supply, 41 median days on market, and price cuts on 28.96% of listings -> buyers can screen patiently and negotiate, while sellers may face slower or discounted exits.
Climate: The annual climate loss ratio is 0.1486%, with inland flood identified as the dominant hazard -> property-level flood exposure, insurance availability, premiums, and mitigation costs require separate diligence before calculating net returns.
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- Employment contracted year over year, so tenant demand and household purchasing power may not support optimistic occupancy, renewal, or resale assumptions.
- More households moved out than moved in, and outgoing movers had higher average income than incoming movers, creating a demand-quality concern beyond the negative migration count alone.
- Abundant for-sale inventory and frequent price reductions could pressure resale timing and proceeds, while inland-flood exposure may add property-specific insurance or repair costs that the gross yield excludes.
Move from the metro average to local evidence
County pages carry tax, migration, listing and hazard records. City pages appear only where direct city price, rent and Census evidence pass the publication gate.
Metros that behave like Albany
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Metro | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albany, GA (Target) | 21 | $171k | $1,061 | 7.5% | ▼ 2.8% |
| Lufkin, TX | 46 | $206k | $1,337 | 7.8% | ▼ 3.0% |
| Cumberland, MD | 44 | $173k | $1,011 | 7.0% | ▼ 2.3% |
| Carbondale, IL | 45 | $157k | $884 | 6.8% | ▼ 2.6% |
| Hammond, LA | 24 | $226k | $1,402 | 7.4% | ▼ 1.8% |
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-07-31 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI 2025 | 2026-07-28 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-23 | 2026-07-27 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-27 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |