All homes and bedroom counts
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
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.
Median price$171k
Median rent$1,061
Gross yield7.5%
Job growth▼ 2.8%
Composite Market ScoreRank #556 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Albany, GA?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,061 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 0.54% from a year earlier.
Occupied rental units paying rent
Two-bedroom standard
These figures are not averaged together. Zillow and Realtor describe asking-rent markets, ACS measures rent paid by surveyed households, and HUD publishes administrative bedroom standards.
Exact county schedules
HUD rent benchmarks inside Albany
Every row keeps its own county FIPS schedule. No county is selected as a metro proxy and no synthetic metro FMR is calculated.
| County | Studio | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Dougherty County, GAFIPS 13095 | $966 | $1,006 | $1,129 | $1,534 | $1,858 |
| Lee County, GAFIPS 13177 | $966 | $1,006 | $1,129 | $1,534 | $1,858 |
| Worth County, GAFIPS 13321 | $966 | $1,006 | $1,129 | $1,534 | $1,858 |
| Terrell County, GAFIPS 13273 | $966 | $1,006 | $1,129 | $1,534 | $1,858 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
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?
The record reports a 7.46% gross yield from a $1,061 monthly median asking rent and a $170,557 median home value. This is a market-level, pre-expense measure; taxes, insurance, maintenance, management, vacancy, financing, and property-specific rent are not published.
What evidence indicates negotiating leverage for a buyer?
Inventory stands at 7.6 months of supply, median market time is 41 days, and 28.96% of listings show price drops. Together, these figures support careful comparison and negotiation, but the record does not publish sale-to-list discounts, concessions, or property-condition data.
What does migration reveal about the local demand base?
Tax filings show 2,759 households moving in and 3,052 moving out, for net migration of negative 293. Incoming movers averaged $40,454 in income versus $48,336 for outgoing movers, a published gap of negative $7,882. The record does not identify renter formation or neighborhood-level destinations.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 7.5%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 0.54%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 17.9%
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Climate Exposure: FEMA NRI
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Put the evidence to work
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep Albany as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
Run cash flowStarts with this market's measured price and rentSave to shortlistCompare this metro with up to four other placesCheck rent by ZIPMove from metro context to a local rent benchmarkFind a comparison marketRead a curated two-market decision analysisShare this analysisEmail the canonical link without adding page scriptsReport a data issueSend the figure, source and release period to review
Market pulse
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.
Months of supply7.6 mo.▲ from 5.0 mo. a year ago
Median days on market41 days▼ from 54 days a year ago
Listings with price drops29.0%▲ from 10.9% a year ago
Sale-to-list ratio96.7%2026-05-01
Home value growth▲ 1.9%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 0.54%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield7.5%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▼ 2.8%CES · 12m to 2026-06
Release-to-release evidence
What actually changed
This comparison exists because at least one underlying source period advanced. Rebuilding the same data never creates a new observation.
Published score held steady21→21
0 ptsThe published component scores did not move in this release.
Weights were unchanged at metro-2026-07-v2-omb2023, so the movement comes from refreshed evidence and percentile ranks.
The named source periods advanced, but the measured values on this page held steady.
The one chart
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.
Reindexed Price vs. Rent Growth
2019 = 100 · annual · 2019–2026
Since 2019, prices are up 60% and rents 57%. Prices running ahead of rents is what compresses yield. ✓ recomputed from series
Composite breakdown
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.
Published arithmeticComponent × weight = points
21| 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 | ||
Albany, GA scoreRank #556
21Job growth1/100
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 trend11/100
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.
Affordability66/100
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 pressure7/100
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 risk46/100
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.
The numbers
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
ZHVI Median Price
$171k
YoY ▲ 1.9%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,061
YoY ▲ 0.54%
Gross Rental Yield
7.5%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,061 × 12 ÷ $170,557
Job Growth (YoY)
▼ 2.8%
CES payrolls
Job signal 1/100
Median Household Income
$57k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
22.4%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
3.0x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,129
Market rent 94.0% of FMR
Historical affordability context
Compare aligned 2019 and 2024 asking-rent and nominal household-income endpoints across the direct-overlap metro set.
Independent rent evidence
One market, several legitimate rent benchmarks
These releases observe different homes and different moments. RentMarker keeps them separate: ZORI remains the scoring baseline, while the other sources test how sensitive the market story is to bedroom mix and measurement method.
Monthly benchmark4 of 4 reported values
Zero-based scale$1,061Primary RentMarker baseline
2026-06-30
All homes and bedroom counts
A smoothed metro rent index for observed rentals; it is the primary rent used by RentMarker scores and career ratios.
View source release ↗$1,006−$55 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
One-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,129+$68 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
Two-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$950−$111 vs ZORI
ACS 2024 5-year
Occupied rental units paying rent
A five-year survey estimate of contract rent plus applicable tenant-paid utilities; it is not a current asking-rent index.
View source release ↗Take the next step
Keep Albany as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Albany
BEA compares each category with the United States, which equals 100. This is a 2024 price-level comparison—not annual inflation.
BEA Regional Price Parities · 2024US = 100
Occupation wage lens
How asking rent sits against major local occupations
Annualized Zillow asking rent is divided by each BLS annual median wage. This is a screening ratio for one wage, not a household budget or affordability verdict.
Six largest published major groupsannual rent ÷ median wage
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$38,370 median wage
33.2%
Sales and Related Occupations$32,080 median wage
39.7%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$37,260 median wage
34.2%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$26,540 median wage
48.0%
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations$77,110 median wage
16.5%
Educational Instruction and Library Occupations$60,000 median wage
21.2%
Supply pipeline
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.
National supply context
Compare this authorization pipeline with asking-rent growth, jobs and for-sale liquidity across the evidence-complete metro set.
Building permits by structure type
units per year · latest year annualised
688 units authorised in 2026, 9% of them in 5+ unit buildings. This is a single-family building cycle, so the competition is other houses, not new apartments. ✓ recomputed from series
Who is arriving, and who is buying
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.
Net Household Move
−293
2,759 in vs 3,052 out (IRS SOI)
▼ 10.6% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
−$7,882
Arriving $40,454 vs leaving $48,336
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
17.9%
211 of 1,180 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.149% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Mitchell County · Sumter County · Tift County · Colquitt County · Fulton County
✓ 2,759 in − 3,052 out = -293 netDirect market links
Where tax-return households moved from and to
These are the largest flows where both counties map to a RentMarker market area. They are a documented subset of the all-US IRS totals above.
Leading inbound markets
- Atlanta, GA213 arriving
- Tifton, GA78 arriving
- Miami, FL54 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Atlanta, GA311 leaving
- Tifton, GA100 leaving
- Columbus, GA73 leaving
The other side
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.
Inside this metro area
Move from the market-area average to local evidence
Use the available county and city pages to add local price, rent, housing, migration and hazard context to the market-area view.
Statistical peers
Market areas 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.
| Market area | 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% |
Provenance
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 and gross rent | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — historical household income | direct | ACS 2019 and 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Apartment List Rent Estimates — recent-lease rent index | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquidity | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancy | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| BEA County Personal Income — income and population | direct | 2024 County Personal Income (released 2026-02-05); history 1969-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BEA Regional Price Parities — metropolitan price levels | direct | 2024 Regional Price Parities (released 2026-02-19); history 2008-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS OEWS — occupation employment and wages | direct | May 2025 OEWS estimates (released 2026-05-15) | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-08-02 |
| 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 |
| Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA | 2026-08-08 |
| 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 history 1975-2025; latest 2025 | 2026-08-02 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD CHAS — renter burden by HAMFI income band | direct | HUD CHAS 2018-2022 ACS 5-year (released 2025-12-23) | 2026-08-03 |
| 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 |
| HUD-USPS ZIP-to-county residential-address crosswalk | direct | HUD-USPS 2026Q1 | 2026-08-09 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-30 | 2026-08-06 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-06 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Realtor.com Rental Report — top-50 asking rents | direct | top-50 rental asking rents 2026-05 | 2026-08-05 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supply | direct | ZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-03 | 2026-08-12 |
| USDA ERS — Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | direct | USDA ERS 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | 2026-08-02 |
| 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 - metro market rents, not seasonally adjusted | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv | 2026-08-15 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-08-08 |