Decatur, IL
Decatur merits investigation by yield-focused buyers comfortable with weak demand signals; investors relying on rent growth or near-term appreciation 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.
Decatur merits investigation by yield-focused buyers comfortable with weak demand signals; investors relying on rent growth or near-term appreciation should avoid it. The median home value of $127,756 supports a 9.68% gross yield, while rent equals 19.73% of median household income and price equals 2.04 times income.
Opportunity lies in the low purchase basis and current income relationship, not recent momentum. Home values rose 7.25% while asking rent slipped 0.16% and CES employment fell 0.54%. Net migration was -272, and outbound movers had a calculated $18,738 higher average income than inbound movers, adding to demand risk.
Supply is tight but pricing is not frictionless: months of supply was 1.7, and 35.27% of listings had price drops. New permitting was limited. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the published climate loss ratio is 0.1397% of building value per year. Buyers should verify property-level flood and insurance exposure before treating the headline yield as durable.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What income profile does the median property offer?
What do the current demand indicators show?
How tight is inventory, and how much negotiating room is visible?
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 Decatur 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 | 25 | 30% | 7.50 |
| Rent trend | 6 | 25% | 1.50 |
| Affordability | 83 | 15% | 12.45 |
| Supply pressure | 99 | 15% | 14.85 |
| Climate risk | 52 | 15% | 7.80 |
| Published score | 44 | ||
CES employment declined 0.54% year over year -> the labor-market signal adds risk to renter demand.
Median asking rent declined 0.16% year over year -> the income case rests on existing yield rather than recent rent gains.
Price was 2.04 times median income and rent absorbed 19.73% of income -> acquisition cost and tenant rent burden appear manageable against local income.
Only 32 permits were issued and months of supply was 1.7 -> limited new construction coincides with tight resale inventory, though frequent price drops indicate buyer resistance.
Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.1397% -> property-level water exposure and insurance terms require scrutiny.
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
- CES employment declined 0.54% year over year, leaving a weak labor-market signal for renter demand.
- Median asking rent declined 0.16% while median home value rose 7.25%, weakening the fit between acquisition cost and recent rent momentum.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, with a published annual climate loss ratio of 0.1397% of building value.
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.
Metros that behave like Decatur
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Decatur, IL (Target) | 44 | $128k | $1,030 | 9.7% | ▼ 0.5% |
| Ogdensburg, NY | 72 | $151k | $1,173 | 9.3% | ▲ 0.1% |
| Enid, OK | 40 | $144k | $1,266 | 10.5% | ▼ 0.6% |
| Goldsboro, NC | 30 | $190k | $1,437 | 9.1% | ▼ 1.2% |
| Charleston, WV | 46 | $154k | $1,300 | 10.1% | ▼ 0.7% |
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 |