Albemarle, NC
Investigate Albemarle only if you can buy selectively and verify rent durability; avoid it if your plan depends on strong job growth or easy affordability.
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.
Investigate Albemarle only if you can buy selectively and verify rent durability; avoid it if your plan depends on strong job growth or easy affordability. The record pairs a $309,864 median home value with $1,775 median asking rent and a 6.88% gross yield, but that yield is before operating costs.
Opportunity comes from positive household movement and pricing momentum: net migration was 547, while asking rent rose 2.43% and home value rose 2.28%. Yet LAUS employment fell 0.92%, so migration and rent gains should not be treated as proof of broad tenant-income strength.
Buyer leverage may be present: listings took 57 days and 28.9% had price drops. Risks remain in affordability, permitted supply and inland flood exposure; underwrite the specific property rather than relying on metro averages.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What do the current acquisition and rent metrics show?
What does the listing data show about negotiating conditions?
What does migration show about household flow and mover incomes?
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 Albemarle 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.
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 | 26 | 30% | 7.80 |
| Rent trend | 35 | 25% | 8.75 |
| Affordability | 5 | 15% | 0.75 |
| Supply pressure | 17 | 15% | 2.55 |
| Climate risk | 51 | 15% | 7.65 |
| Published score | 28 | ||
Job: LAUS employment fell 0.92% year over year -> labor-market momentum is a caution for tenant demand and income support.
Rent: Median asking rent rose 2.43% to $1,775, versus a $925 2-bedroom fair-market rent -> underwriting should distinguish achievable unit rent from the headline median.
Afford: Asking rent equals 35.09% of median household income and home value equals 5.1 times income -> local household affordability is tight.
Supply: Permitting totaled 340 and inventory stood at 4.5 months -> acquisition conditions show both a supply pipeline and some buyer choice.
Climate: Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the building-value loss ratio is 0.1413% per year -> property-level exposure and insurance terms need verification.
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
- LAUS employment declined 0.92% year over year, leaving weak labor-market support for rents.
- Median asking rent consumes 35.09% of median household income, while home value is 5.1 times income, limiting affordability.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.1413%, making property-level losses and insurance terms underwriting risks.
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.
No city in this metro has passed the current city evidence gate.
Metros that behave like Albemarle
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Albemarle, NC (Target) | 28 | $310k | $1,775 | 6.9% | ▼ 0.9% |
| Lake City, FL | 23 | $275k | $1,546 | 6.8% | ▼ 1.1% |
| Sanford, NC | 41 | $295k | $1,765 | 7.2% | ▼ 0.6% |
| New Bern, NC | 30 | $266k | $1,582 | 7.1% | ▼ 1.0% |
| Shelby, NC | 46 | $219k | $1,180 | 6.5% | ▼ 0.8% |
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 |