Batavia, NY

Batavia, NY has a population of 57,787, but the decision frame is defined more by uneven evidence than by a single market signal. Zillow supplies a current asking-rent index and home-value index, while other sources cover income, labor, construction, listings, migration, mortgages, and hazard exposure on their own terms. Crucially, the trailing-12-month Zillow rent change is unavailable because Zillow does not publish enough history. This report therefore does not assign a score or rank. The evidence is best read as a dated cross-section: Zillow levels are as of June 30, 2026, labor is measured over the 12 months to May 2026, permits are 2026 year to date through June, and Redfin is dated May 1, 2026. Those differing windows define the limits of any rental-market decision.

Zillow places the June 30, 2026 asking-rent index at $1,459 and the home-value index at $230,222. The supplied gross yield is 7.61%, which links those level measures arithmetically but does not incorporate operating costs, financing, vacancies, or the distinction between an asking index and a signed lease. Zillow also shows the home-value index 5.76% higher year over year. That observed value movement sits beside, rather than substitutes for, rental momentum: the rent level is known, but its 12-month change is not. The useful tension is a measurable current rent-to-value relationship alongside an unmeasurable recent rent trajectory; neither the price change nor the gross-yield figure resolves it.

Census ACS reports median household income of $73,314, and the supplied Zillow-rent-to-income ratio is 23.88%; the price-to-income ratio is 3.14. HUD's FY2026 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is $1,168. The Zillow asking-rent index is 1.249 times that HUD benchmark, a computed difference of 24.9%. These are not interchangeable affordability measures. Census ACS is an income measure, HUD Fair Market Rent is a two-bedroom program benchmark, and Zillow is an asking-rent index. The figures establish a boundary for comparison, not the share of households paying a given rent, the bedroom mix represented by Zillow, or an actual lease burden. The gap deserves interpretation only after those definitions are aligned.

On activity and supply, BLS LAUS reports metro employment 0.88% higher over the 12 months to May 2026. Census Building Permits Survey records 68 total permits in 2026 through June, or 1.18 per 1,000 residents; the five-plus category accounts for 10 permits, or 14.7%. Permits describe authorized new supply, not completions or occupancy. Redfin's May 1, 2026 for-sale measures show 1.2 months of supply, unchanged from the prior reading, a 12-day median time on market versus 10 days previously, a 1.0665 sale-to-list ratio, and price drops at 16.67% versus 22.22%. Thus, the reported resale-supply reading did not change, while market time lengthened and reductions became less frequent, alongside a measurable permitted pipeline. BLS, Census Building Permits, and Redfin measure different stages of the market, so they cannot settle rental availability by themselves.

IRS county-to-county tax-return migration, aggregated to the market, shows 1,201 moved in and 1,171 moved out, for net migration of 30. The provided inbound AGI is $51,317 and outbound AGI is $56,161, leaving the stated AGI gap at negative $4,844. Those figures show a small positive count balance alongside a negative AGI comparison; they do not identify household tenure, rental intent, or the timing of a housing transaction. HMDA's 2024 purchase-mortgage occupancy evidence records 435 purchases, of which 18 are investor purchases, producing a 4.14% investor share. HMDA therefore describes the investor share within its reported purchase-mortgage evidence, while IRS describes tax-return migration; neither source on its own measures every buyer or every renter.

FEMA's National Risk Index identifies inland flood as the top hazard and classifies it as water risk. Its supplied risk score is 56.1 and its climate loss ratio is 0.001152. FEMA provides expected-annual-loss evidence at the market scale; these metrics are not observed insurance premiums, repair bills, or a determination of cost for a particular address. The available cost-level context elsewhere is Zillow's $1,459 asking-rent index, $230,222 home-value index, and HUD's $1,168 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent, none of which prices flood exposure. The packet contains no insurance-cost, mitigation-cost, or damage-cost observation. Risk therefore belongs in the evidence record, but the supplied FEMA measures cannot be translated here into a dollar operating expense or insurance-availability conclusion.

Taken together, the record is decision-useful but incomplete in specific ways. Zillow supplies current rent and value levels, Census ACS and HUD supply an income-and-benchmark comparison, BLS shows measured employment change, Census Building Permits and Redfin separate authorized construction from resale conditions, IRS and HMDA separate migration from mortgage occupancy, and FEMA flags an exposure metric without cost data. The central investigation gaps are signed-rent evidence corresponding to Zillow's asking index; definitional and bedroom alignment with HUD; permit completion, unit-type, and occupancy evidence; listing composition behind Redfin's aggregates; the migration period and coverage behind IRS figures; the scope of investor financing in HMDA; and observed insurance or mitigation costs alongside FEMA risk. Without those items, the packet supports comparison of market-level indicators but not an individual renter, landlord, or small investor economics conclusion, and it remains intentionally unranked.