All homes and bedroom counts
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Chattanooga, TN
Chattanooga merits selective investigation by income-focused buyers who can tolerate employment softness, pipeline competition and flood exposure; buyers dependent on near-term appreciation or seeking low hazard exposure should avoid it.
Median price$328k
Median rent$1,519
Gross yield5.6%
Job growth▼ 0.5%
Composite Market ScoreRank #529 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Chattanooga, TN?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,519 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 1.53% 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 Chattanooga
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hamilton County, TNFIPS 47065 | $1,211 | $1,263 | $1,390 | $1,734 | $1,853 |
| Walker County, GAFIPS 13295 | $1,211 | $1,263 | $1,390 | $1,734 | $1,853 |
| Catoosa County, GAFIPS 13047 | $1,211 | $1,263 | $1,390 | $1,734 | $1,853 |
| Marion County, TNFIPS 47115 | $1,211 | $1,263 | $1,390 | $1,734 | $1,853 |
| Sequatchie County, TNFIPS 47153 | $1,211 | $1,263 | $1,390 | $1,734 | $1,853 |
| Dade County, GAFIPS 13083 | $1,211 | $1,263 | $1,390 | $1,734 | $1,853 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Chattanooga merits selective investigation by income-focused buyers who can tolerate employment softness, pipeline competition and flood exposure; buyers dependent on near-term appreciation or seeking low hazard exposure should avoid it. The $327,580 median value and $1,519 asking rent imply the published 5.56% gross yield, while values slipped 0.03% and rents rose 1.53%.
Demand evidence is mixed. Positive net migration of 2,573 households points to household demand, but CES employment fell 0.51%. The migration reading is the opportunity; the labor reading is the risk, and the record does not show whether incoming households are renters.
Competition and property-level risk need careful underwriting. The market recorded 3,388 permits, but their submarket distribution is not published, leaving local leasing competition unresolved. The 0.1539% annual climate loss ratio, with inland flood as the dominant hazard, makes insurance, elevation and drainage review central to diligence.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
Are more households moving in than out?
Tax filings report 12,491 households moving in and 9,918 moving out, for net migration of 2,573.
How does median asking rent compare with the published fair-market rent figure?
Median asking rent is $1,519 versus $1,390 for the fair-market rent figure, a calculated difference of $129.
How prevalent are non-occupant purchase mortgages?
Non-occupants accounted for 11.3% of purchase mortgages.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 5.6%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 1.53%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 11.3%
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 Chattanooga 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 supplyn/aRedfin unavailable
Median days on marketn/aRedfin unavailable
Listings with price dropsn/aRedfin unavailable
Sale-to-list ration/aRedfin unavailable
Home value growth▼ 0.0%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 1.53%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield5.6%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▼ 0.5%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 steady28→28
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 62% and rents 46%. 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
28| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 25 | 30% | 7.50 |
| Rent trend | 24 | 25% | 6.00 |
| Affordability | 46 | 15% | 6.90 |
| Supply pressure | 8 | 15% | 1.20 |
| Climate risk | 43 | 15% | 6.45 |
| Published score | 28 | ||
Chattanooga, TN scoreRank #529
28Job growth25/100
Job: CES employment fell 0.51% year over year -> the labor signal does not confirm stronger housing demand.
Rent trend24/100
Rent: Asking rent rose 1.53% year over year to $1,519 -> current rent momentum is positive.
Affordability46/100
Affordability: Rent is 25.26% of median income and price is 4.54 times income -> renter affordability is the clearer opportunity than buyer affordability.
Supply pressure8/100
Supply: The market recorded 3,388 permits -> buyers should map the pipeline against target submarkets.
Climate risk43/100
Climate: The annual loss ratio is 0.1539%, with inland flood dominant -> flood exposure and insurance terms require property-specific review.
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
$328k
YoY ▼ 0.0%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,519
YoY ▲ 1.53%
Gross Rental Yield
5.6%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,519 × 12 ÷ $327,580
Job Growth (YoY)
▼ 0.5%
CES payrolls
Job signal 25/100
Median Household Income
$72k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
25.3%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
4.5x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,390
Market rent 109.3% 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$1,519Primary 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 ↗$1,263−$256 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 ↗$1,390−$129 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 ↗$1,163−$356 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 Chattanooga as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Direct local rental evidence
Recent leases and rental-market liquidity in Chattanooga, TN
These Apartment List observations match the exact metro CBSA code 16860. They are kept separate from Zillow asking rent, Census occupied-home rent and property-level comparables.
Direct recent-lease rent history
Monthly overall-rent index; missing observations are not filled from another geography.
Recent-lease rent$1,1232026-07 · +1.3% year over year
Rental vacancy6.6%2026-07 · -0.4 percentage points year over year
Time on marketn/an/a
Measured rent retention
How much of gross yield survives the first two measured deductions?
This bridge subtracts direct rental vacancy and effective property tax only. It is not net yield, NOI, cap rate or property cash flow.
measured retention property tax vacancy
- Gross yield
- 5.6%
- Vacancy
- 6.6%
- Effective tax
- 0.6%
- Retained yield
- 4.6%
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Chattanooga
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$44,630 median wage
40.8%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$38,920 median wage
46.8%
Production Occupations$45,470 median wage
40.1%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$28,570 median wage
63.8%
Sales and Related Occupations$35,160 median wage
51.8%
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations$79,750 median wage
22.9%
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
3,214 units authorised in 2026, 11% 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
+2,573
12,491 in vs 9,918 out (IRS SOI)
▲ 20.6% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
+$9,089
Arriving $74,437 vs leaving $65,348
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
11.3%
857 of 7,582 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.154% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Bradley County · Whitfield County · Davidson County · Knox County · Rhea County
✓ 12,491 in − 9,918 out = 2,573 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
- Cleveland, TN754 arriving
- Nashville, TN692 arriving
- Atlanta, GA548 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Cleveland, TN799 leaving
- Nashville, TN606 leaving
- Dalton, GA509 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
- CES employment fell 0.51% year over year, leaving the demand picture without labor-market support.
- The 3,388-permit pipeline is not localized in the record, leaving tenant competition unresolved.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.1539% of building value.
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.
County records
Cities in this market
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Chattanooga
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chattanooga, TN (Target) | 28 | $328k | $1,519 | 5.6% | ▼ 0.5% |
| Springfield, MA | 51 | $382k | $1,904 | 6.0% | ▼ 0.3% |
| Albuquerque, NM | 31 | $354k | $1,522 | 5.2% | ▼ 0.8% |
| Akron, OH | 68 | $245k | $1,268 | 6.2% | ▼ 0.5% |
| Duluth, MN | 51 | $269k | $1,342 | 6.0% | ▼ 0.5% |
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 |