Elkhart, IN
Elkhart merits investigation by yield-focused buyers comfortable with a modest-growth demand profile.
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.
Elkhart merits investigation by yield-focused buyers comfortable with a modest-growth demand profile. At a $268,592 median value and $1,146 median asking rent, the reported gross yield is 5.12%. Buyers requiring strong population inflows or rapid employment expansion should avoid making those assumptions here.
Asking-rent growth of 7.07% outpaced home-value growth of 5.64%, supporting the current income case. Yet CES employment rose only 0.88% and net migration was an outflow of 685 households. The opportunity is improving rent economics; the risk is that its demand base is not uniformly strong.
For-sale conditions are tight at 1.9 months of supply and a 16-day median market time, but 28.48% of listings had price drops, so seller pricing is not uniformly firm. The modeled annual climate loss ratio is 0.0688%, while inland flood is the dominant hazard. Underwrite insurance and parcel-level flood exposure rather than relying on the metro average.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What are the current purchase and rent benchmarks?
Are employment and migration both supportive?
How tight is the for-sale market?
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 Elkhart 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 | 80 | 30% | 24.00 |
| Rent trend | 88 | 25% | 22.00 |
| Affordability | 81 | 15% | 12.15 |
| Supply pressure | 88 | 15% | 13.20 |
| Climate risk | 99 | 15% | 14.85 |
| Published score | 86 | ||
CES employment grew 0.88% year over year -> Labor demand is positive but offers limited support for aggressive rent assumptions.
Median asking rent rose 7.07% with a reported 5.12% gross yield -> Current rent performance supports an income-focused review.
Rent equals 20.06% of median household income and price equals 3.92 times income -> Metro-level housing costs appear manageable relative to local income.
Supply is 1.9 months with 1.82 permits per 1,000 residents -> Resale availability and measured new construction are both limited.
The annual modeled loss ratio is 0.0688%, with inland flood the dominant hazard -> Aggregate loss exposure is low, but property-level flood diligence remains 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
- Net migration was negative by 685 households, with more households moving out than moving in.
- CES employment grew 0.88%, providing limited confirmation for the 7.07% increase in asking rents.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the metro loss ratio may not reflect a specific property's exposure or insurance burden.
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 Elkhart
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Elkhart, IN (Target) | 86 | $269k | $1,146 | 5.1% | ▲ 0.9% |
| Muskegon, MI | 85 | $259k | $1,212 | 5.6% | ▲ 1.0% |
| Lynchburg, VA | 62 | $294k | $1,345 | 5.5% | ▲ 0.5% |
| Columbia, MO | 69 | $327k | $1,415 | 5.2% | ▲ 1.2% |
| Bowling Green, KY | 46 | $266k | $1,278 | 5.8% | ▲ 0.8% |
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 |