Morgan City, LA

Morgan City, LA, is a metropolitan or micropolitan statistical area with a population of 47,828, but it is deliberately unranked in this report. Zillow does not publish a trailing-12-month rent change for the market, so the report assigns neither a score nor a rank. That missing series matters because the packet gives an asking-rent level, a home-value level and complementary signals, not a verified rental-growth trend. The decision frame is therefore a cross-source consistency test: distinguish a current cost and value snapshot from labor, construction, resale, migration, mortgage-occupancy and hazard evidence. None of those series is a substitute for Zillow’s absent rent-history measure.

Zillow’s 2026-06-30 asking-rent index is $950, and its home-value index is $116,266. The stated gross yield is 9.81%, while the home-value index is down 7.79% year over year. Read together, those figures document a current rent-to-value relationship alongside a recent value change; they do not document rent momentum. Zillow’s scope here is asking-rent and home-value indexes, so the $950 should not be treated as a recorded lease payment, an effective rent after concessions, or a net operating result. Most importantly, a home-value decline cannot fill the missing trailing-12-month Zillow rent change. The available Zillow evidence supports a level comparison at the stated date, not a claim about rent direction.

Census ACS puts median household income at $52,576, providing an area-wide income reference rather than the income of any particular renter. Against that reference, the supplied rent-to-income measure is 21.68%, and the price-to-income measure is 2.21. HUD’s FY2026 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is $947. Zillow’s $950 asking-rent index sits $3 above that HUD benchmark, matching the supplied 1.003 rent-versus-FMR ratio. The numerical proximity is useful as a program-benchmark boundary, but it does not establish that households pay that rent, qualify at that income, or face the same bedroom mix. Census ACS, HUD and Zillow are measuring different constructs; neither the rent-to-income figure nor FMR supplies a complete household affordability finding.

Labor, permits and resale readings add tension rather than a single supply conclusion. BLS’s LAUS metro labor measure shows employment down 2.07% over the 12 months through 2026-05. Separately, the Census Building Permits Survey reports 44 permitted homes in 2026 year to date through M06, or 0.92 per 1,000 residents, with zero in the 5-plus-unit category. Permits describe authorizations, not completions, occupied units or rental vacancies. Redfin’s 2026-05-01 for-sale data show 8.5 months of supply, versus 7.1 previously, and median days on market of 169, versus 143 previously. Its sale-to-list ratio is 85.93%; price reductions are 21.57%, down from 33.96%. Thus the for-sale channel shows longer market time and more listed supply while the reported reduction share is lower; that pattern cannot be collapsed into a rental-supply verdict. BLS tracks labor change, Census Building Permits tracks permitted construction, and Redfin tracks the resale market.

Demand-side administrative records likewise need separation. IRS county-to-county tax-return migration, aggregated to this market, records 739 movers in and 1,042 movers out, for net migration of -303. The associated incoming AGI is $38,877 and outgoing AGI is $41,570, a supplied gap of -$2,693. These IRS figures describe tax-return migration, not every household move or a count of renters seeking leases. HMDA provides a different lens: in 2024, it records 220 purchase mortgages, of which 16 are identified as investor purchases, a 7.27% investor share. That HMDA occupancy evidence concerns financed purchase activity; it is not a measure of all transactions, all investor ownership, or rental demand. The migration and mortgage data are therefore relevant context but not interchangeable demand measures.

FEMA places a distinct risk and cost question beside the market indicators. Its National Risk Index lists hurricane as the top hazard, wind as the hazard type, a risk score of 88.9, and an expected annual loss ratio of 0.004216. These are FEMA risk-model evidence, not observed repair bills, insurance premiums, taxes, lease expenses or an appraisal adjustment. The packet’s available level evidence is limited to Zillow’s $950 asking-rent index, Zillow’s $116,266 home-value index, and HUD’s $947 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent; it contains no recurring ownership- or occupancy-cost amounts. Consequently, the FEMA figures remain a separate exposure measure when interpreting the stated 9.81% gross yield, which by its label is gross rather than a cost-adjusted return.

Taken as a decision record, the packet supports questions, not a directional market call. A renter can distinguish the Zillow asking-rent level from HUD’s two-bedroom benchmark and then test actual available lease terms, bedroom type, utility treatment and move-in charges. A landlord or small investor can distinguish the quoted gross yield from net economics and test documented rent collections, vacancy, operating costs, financing terms, and the FEMA-relevant insurance and hazard terms. For either party, the unresolved market-level checks are whether observed lease offers align with Zillow’s $950 index, whether permitted units translate into available housing, and whether Redfin’s for-sale measures match the intended transaction context. IRS migration, HMDA purchase-mortgage occupancy, BLS labor change and Census ACS income provide context, but no source in this packet resolves those questions. Until a Zillow trailing-12-month rent change is published, Morgan City remains unscored and unranked.