Burlington, IA

At the decision point for Burlington, IA, the usable evidence is stronger as a cross-sectional market read than as a rent-trend narrative. Zillow reports an asking-rent level of $1,013 and a home-value level of $145,921 at 2026-06-30, while the packet combines affordability, labor, construction, listing, migration, mortgage-occupancy, and hazard evidence from distinct sources. The central limitation is material: 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. A renter, landlord, or small investor can use the observed level relationships to identify unresolved questions, but cannot treat this packet as evidence that rents have risen, fallen, or remained stable during the missing period.

Zillow's paired measures show different sides of the housing equation. Its home-value index was $145,921 and showed a 3.04% year-over-year change, while its asking-rent index was $1,013. The supplied gross yield is 8.33%, a level relationship between those two Zillow measures. That relationship is useful for framing current rent relative to value, but it does not confirm realized collections, transaction pricing, lease renewals, or rent momentum. A rising Zillow home-value measure can coexist with a given asking-rent level without establishing whether rental income has changed. The decision-relevant unknown is therefore not the current rent figure itself, but the absent Zillow historical rent path that would show whether the present level represents recent movement or a longer-standing condition.

Census ACS reports median household income of $62,811, alongside supplied rent-to-income of 0.1934 and price-to-income of 2.32. HUD's FY2026 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is $989.50, compared with Zillow's $1,013 asking-rent level; the numeric difference is $23.50. Census ACS household income, HUD's Fair Market Rent benchmark, and Zillow asking rent are not interchangeable measures, but together they set an affordability boundary for further review. The packet does not identify the incomes of current renters, actual lease payments, household composition, or the share of households facing a particular burden. Accordingly, these figures support comparison of market-level income and housing-cost reference points, not a conclusion that a defined renter group is affordable or unaffordable.

BLS LAUS shows metro employment up 1.41% over the 12 months through 2026-05. Census Building Permits reports 80 permitted homes year to date through M06, including 64 in the five-plus category, or 80% of the total, with 1.79 permits per 1,000 people. Permits are evidence of newly permitted supply, not evidence in this packet of completion, occupancy, or rental availability. Redfin's 2026-05-01 for-sale measures point in more than one direction: months of supply were 2.6, from 2.5; median days on market were 58, from 66; sale-to-list was 0.9399; and price drops were 0.1761, from 0.2653. More listed supply sits beside shorter market time and fewer price reductions, while the sale-to-list relationship remains below the list-price reference. BLS, Census Building Permits, and Redfin describe different stages of labor, construction, and resale-market activity; none establishes a direct rental-supply outcome.

IRS county-to-county tax-return migration, aggregated to the market, records 845 movers in and 864 movers out, for net migration of -19. The associated incoming AGI was $54,243 and outgoing AGI was $54,701, producing an AGI gap of -$458. HMDA provides a separate 2024 mortgage-occupancy view: 344 purchase mortgages, 20 identified as investor purchases, and an investor share of 0.0581. The evidence contains a tension rather than a single demand signal: BLS employment growth appears alongside a small negative IRS net migration balance and a lower AGI figure for incoming than outgoing filers. HMDA's investor share adds evidence about the observed purchase-mortgage population, but it does not convert the IRS flow into a measure of renter demand or establish investor participation beyond the defined mortgage-occupancy evidence.

FEMA's National Risk Index identifies inland flood as the top hazard, within the water hazard type, and supplies a climate loss ratio of 0.001565 with a risk score of 50.5. Those FEMA figures are expected-annual-loss screening evidence at the market level, not an individual-address exposure finding or a statement about any property's cost. The available cost-level evidence in this packet is limited to housing references: Zillow's $1,013 asking-rent index and HUD's $989.50 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent. Neither substitutes for direct information about address-specific flood exposure, building condition, or ownership costs. The useful tension is that market-level rent and income benchmarks can be observed while the FEMA evidence identifies a distinct physical-risk dimension that those affordability measures do not price or explain.

The practical synthesis is an evidence map, not a market call. Zillow supplies present asking-rent and home-value levels but lacks the trailing rent history needed for a score or rank; Census ACS and HUD frame income and rent benchmarks; BLS describes labor change; Census Building Permits shows permitted supply; Redfin captures current for-sale conditions; IRS and HMDA provide separate migration and purchase-mortgage participation signals; and FEMA provides market-level hazard screening. The unresolved record consists of historical Zillow rent movement, actual rental availability and lease terms, the completion and occupancy status of permitted homes, the composition behind IRS flows and HMDA purchases, and property-specific exposure and costs not supplied here. Burlington is therefore unranked, not because direct evidence is absent, but because the missing 12-month Zillow rent change prevents a defensible rent-trend score.