All homes and bedroom counts
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Gadsden, AL
Gadsden merits selective investigation by yield-focused buyers willing to verify flood exposure and achievable rents; investors dependent on strong job growth should avoid it.
Median price$189k
Median rent$1,137
Gross yield7.2%
Job growth▼ 0.1%
Composite Market ScoreRank #327 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Gadsden, AL?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,137 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 3.71% 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 Gadsden
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Etowah County, ALFIPS 01055 | $639 | $792 | $927 | $1,124 | $1,304 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Gadsden merits selective investigation by yield-focused buyers willing to verify flood exposure and achievable rents; investors dependent on strong job growth should avoid it. A $188,831 median home value and $1,137 median asking rent correspond to a 7.23% gross yield, presenting an income opportunity before expenses.
The tension is that asking rent rose 3.71% year over year while CES jobs slipped 0.12%. Rent equals 25.01% of median household income, but the $927 fair-market rent for a two-bedroom unit is below the asking-rent measure. Buyers should verify achievable unit-level rent rather than assume the headline figure.
Supply also cuts both ways: 130 permits indicate limited new construction in the record, while 5 months of inventory and price drops on 28.76% of listings show a resale market that is not tight. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, with a 0.1776% annual climate loss ratio, making property-specific exposure and insurance central to diligence.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What does the headline acquisition math look like?
The record pairs a $188,831 median home value with $1,137 monthly asking rent and a 7.23% gross yield.
Is household migration positive?
Tax filings show 2,106 households moved in and 1,941 moved out, producing net migration of 165; incoming movers had average income of $55,959 versus $51,126 for outgoing movers, a $4,833 gap.
How active are investors in purchases?
Non-occupants represented 7.19% of purchase mortgages, and the record lists 1,016 total purchases.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 7.2%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 3.71%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 7.2%
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 Gadsden as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
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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 supply5.0 mo.▲ from 3.3 mo. a year ago
Median days on market60 days▼ from 62 days a year ago
Listings with price drops28.8%▼ from 28.8% a year ago
Sale-to-list ratio96.0%2026-05-01
Home value growth▲ 5.3%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 3.71%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield7.2%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▼ 0.1%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 steady46→46
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.
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
46| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 40 | 30% | 12.00 |
| Rent trend | 57 | 25% | 14.25 |
| Affordability | 47 | 15% | 7.05 |
| Supply pressure | 52 | 15% | 7.80 |
| Climate risk | 30 | 15% | 4.50 |
| Published score | 46 | ||
Gadsden, AL scoreRank #327
46Job growth40/100
Job: CES employment declined 0.12% year over year -> the labor-demand signal is weak for rental underwriting.
Rent trend57/100
Rent: Median asking rent is $1,137, up 3.71%, with a 7.23% gross yield -> the income metrics are favorable, but gross yield excludes expenses.
Affordability47/100
Afford: Rent equals 25.01% of median income and price equals 3.46 times income -> the supplied medians support tenant affordability but do not establish property-level rent capacity.
Supply pressure52/100
Supply: 130 permits coexist with 5 months of inventory, 60 median days on market, and 28.76% price drops -> limited construction is offset by meaningful resale friction.
Climate risk30/100
Climate: Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.1776% -> flood exposure and insurance terms require property-level 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
$189k
YoY ▲ 5.3%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,137
YoY ▲ 3.71%
Gross Rental Yield
7.2%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,137 × 12 ÷ $188,831
Job Growth (YoY)
▼ 0.1%
CES payrolls
Job signal 40/100
Median Household Income
$55k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
25.0%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
3.5x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$927
Market rent 122.7% 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$1,137Primary 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 ↗$792−$345 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 ↗$927−$210 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 ↗$847−$290 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 Gadsden as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Gadsden
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
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$25,720 median wage
53.0%
Production Occupations$36,520 median wage
37.4%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$34,850 median wage
39.2%
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$36,760 median wage
37.1%
Sales and Related Occupations$29,740 median wage
45.9%
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations$71,890 median wage
19.0%
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
130 units authorised in 2026, 0% 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
+165
2,106 in vs 1,941 out (IRS SOI)
▲ 7.8% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
+$4,833
Arriving $55,959 vs leaving $51,126
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
7.2%
73 of 1,016 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.178% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Marshall County · Calhoun County · St. Clair County · Jefferson County · DeKalb County
✓ 2,106 in − 1,941 out = 165 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
- Birmingham, AL358 arriving
- Albertville, AL268 arriving
- Anniston, AL251 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Birmingham, AL376 leaving
- Anniston, AL260 leaving
- Albertville, AL227 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
- The 0.12% year-over-year CES job decline is a weak rental-demand signal.
- Resale liquidity could disappoint because median days on market is 60 and 28.76% of listings had price drops.
- The dominant inland-flood hazard and 0.1776% annual climate loss ratio add property and insurance risk.
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
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Gadsden
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Gadsden, AL (Target) | 46 | $189k | $1,137 | 7.2% | ▼ 0.1% |
| Anniston, AL | 52 | $173k | $1,022 | 7.1% | ▼ 0.5% |
| Muncie, IN | 67 | $174k | $979 | 6.8% | ▼ 0.3% |
| Alexandria, LA | 47 | $174k | $1,128 | 7.8% | ▼ 0.1% |
| Sebring, FL | 26 | $236k | $1,490 | 7.6% | ▲ 0.3% |
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 |