Fort Collins, CO
Fort Collins merits investigation by buyers prioritizing entry-price negotiation over immediate yield; investors requiring strong current income 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.
Fort Collins merits investigation by buyers prioritizing entry-price negotiation over immediate yield; investors requiring strong current income should avoid it. Median asking rent is $1,950 against a $557,849 median home value, producing a 4.19% gross yield, while rent grew 1.23% and home values fell 1.25%.
The opportunity is negotiating leverage rather than strong income growth. Homes take 56 days to sell, 27.7% have price drops, and inventory is 3.6 months. The demand side is mixed: net migration is positive and arrivals have higher average income than departures, but job growth is only 0.32%.
The risks are weak rent momentum, active construction, and water exposure. New permitting runs at 6.42 per thousand residents, while inland flood is the dominant hazard. Property-level insurance and flood exposure require review; neighborhood rents, vacancy, taxes, and insurance costs are not published.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What do the published price and rent imply for gross yield?
What evidence suggests buyers may have negotiating room?
Is household migration positive, and how do mover incomes compare?
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 Fort Collins 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.
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.
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 | 59 | 30% | 17.70 |
| Rent trend | 20 | 25% | 5.00 |
| Affordability | 47 | 15% | 7.05 |
| Supply pressure | 24 | 15% | 3.60 |
| Climate risk | 61 | 15% | 9.15 |
| Published score | 42 | ||
Job: CES employment grew 0.32% year over year -> the local labor signal is positive but slight.
Rent: Median asking rent rose 1.23% year over year and gross yield is 4.19% -> current income growth and starting yield are modest.
Affordability: Median home value is 5.95 times median income, while rent is 24.96% of income -> purchase affordability is tighter than renter affordability.
Supply: The market recorded 2,360 permits and 3.6 months of supply -> buyers have some resale choice, while the development pipeline presents competitive risk.
Climate: Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the climate loss ratio is 0.001272 -> property-level water exposure and insurance terms require review.
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
- Weak rent growth and a modest published gross yield leave limited current-income cushion.
- The permitting pipeline could increase competition for tenants.
- Inland flood exposure could add property-level losses or insurance costs, which are not published.
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 Fort Collins
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Fort Collins, CO (Target) | 42 | $558k | $1,950 | 4.2% | ▲ 0.3% |
| Olympia, WA | 39 | $534k | $2,084 | 4.7% | ▲ 0.1% |
| Portland, ME | 49 | $550k | $2,352 | 5.1% | ▲ 0.3% |
| Vallejo, CA | 39 | $580k | $2,438 | 5.0% | ▲ 0.5% |
| Mount Vernon, WA | 53 | $590k | $2,143 | 4.4% | ▲ 0.5% |
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 |