Cullman, AL
Cullman merits investigation by income-focused buyers who can underwrite conservatively; buyers dependent on strong employment growth or a clear appreciation case should avoid it.
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.
Cullman merits investigation by income-focused buyers who can underwrite conservatively; buyers dependent on strong employment growth or a clear appreciation case should avoid it. Median asking rent of $1,389 against a $263,737 home value produces a 6.32% gross yield, giving the case an income base rather than a growth thesis.
The opportunity is positive household movement and buyer leverage. Net migration was 464 households, while listings sat 65 days and 31.99% had price drops. That combination supports selective bidding, but demand evidence is mixed: LAUS employment slipped 0.08%, while rent growth of 2.89% trailed home-value growth of 3.4%.
Risk remains concentrated in affordability, resale liquidity, and water exposure. Purchase affordability is a concern at a 4.21 price-to-income ratio, and inland flood is the dominant hazard. Verify property-level flood exposure, insurance terms, achievable rent, and operating costs before treating the stated gross yield as investable.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What income profile does the median price-and-rent pairing provide?
What does tax-filing migration show?
What do the supply and listing data show?
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 Cullman 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 | 51 | 30% | 15.30 |
| Rent trend | 42 | 25% | 10.50 |
| Affordability | 37 | 15% | 5.55 |
| Supply pressure | 27 | 15% | 4.05 |
| Climate risk | 49 | 15% | 7.35 |
| Published score | 43 | ||
Job: LAUS employment fell 0.08% year over year -> the record offers no current job-growth cushion for housing demand.
Rent: Median asking rent rose 2.89% and gross yield is 6.32% -> the rental case rests more on current yield than on rent growth relative to home values.
Affordability: Rent equals 26.6% of median income while price equals 4.21 times income -> renting appears less strained than purchasing.
Supply: There are 4.7 months of supply, 65 median days on market, and 31.99% price drops -> buyers can test seller pricing, although liquidity is not brisk.
Climate: Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the annual loss ratio is 0.1448% -> property-level flood and insurance checks are necessary.
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
- Employment fell 0.08% year over year, leaving no current job-growth signal to reinforce housing demand.
- Listings took 65 days at the median and 31.99% had price drops, indicating resale and pricing friction.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the 0.1448% annual climate loss ratio leaves property-specific loss and insurance exposure to underwrite.
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 Cullman
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Cullman, AL (Target) | 43 | $264k | $1,389 | 6.3% | ▼ 0.1% |
| Zanesville, OH | 61 | $214k | $1,088 | 6.1% | ▲ 0.0% |
| Florence, AL | 55 | $219k | $1,122 | 6.1% | ▲ 0.0% |
| Bangor, ME | 45 | $290k | $1,563 | 6.5% | ▼ 0.2% |
| Grand Island, NE | 37 | $261k | $1,337 | 6.2% | ▼ 0.3% |
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 |