All homes and bedroom counts
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Omaha, NE
Omaha merits investigation by long-hold buyers who prioritize an affordable entry basis and current income; buyers dependent on rapid growth or minimal water risk should avoid it.
Median price$312k
Median rent$1,444
Gross yield5.5%
Job growth▲ 0.5%
Composite Market ScoreRank #175 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Omaha, NE?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,444 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 2.98% 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 Omaha
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Douglas County, NEFIPS 31055 | $1,090 | $1,148 | $1,368 | $1,813 | $2,046 |
| Sarpy County, NEFIPS 31153 | $1,090 | $1,148 | $1,368 | $1,813 | $2,046 |
| Pottawattamie County, IAFIPS 19155 | $1,090 | $1,148 | $1,368 | $1,813 | $2,046 |
| Cass County, NEFIPS 31025 | $1,090 | $1,148 | $1,368 | $1,813 | $2,046 |
| Saunders County, NEFIPS 31155 | $870 | $956 | $1,089 | $1,432 | $1,619 |
| Washington County, NEFIPS 31177 | $1,090 | $1,148 | $1,368 | $1,813 | $2,046 |
| Harrison County, IAFIPS 19085 | $1,090 | $1,148 | $1,368 | $1,813 | $2,046 |
| Mills County, IAFIPS 19129 | $1,090 | $1,148 | $1,368 | $1,813 | $2,046 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Omaha merits investigation by long-hold buyers who prioritize an affordable entry basis and current income; buyers dependent on rapid growth or minimal water risk should avoid it. The median home value is $311,981, equal to 3.68 times median income, while median asking rent is $1,444 and gross yield is 5.55%.
The opportunity is a workable cost-to-income profile with positive, but restrained, momentum. CES employment rose 0.47% year over year, asking rent rose 2.98%, and home values rose 2.23%. Net migration was positive by 387 households, but inbound movers had lower average income than outbound movers, tempering the demand signal.
Risk is concentrated in mixed market leverage and water exposure. Listed supply is only 1.4 months, yet 32.63% of listings had price drops, so scarcity does not eliminate deal-level negotiation. Inland flood is the dominant hazard, and the 0.1505% annual climate loss ratio warrants property-specific review before treating the headline yield as durable.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What are the headline acquisition and rent metrics?
The median home value is $311,981, median asking rent is $1,444 per month, and gross yield is 5.55%.
Are migration flows supportive?
Tax filings show 15,596 households moved in and 15,209 moved out, producing net migration of 387; average income was $63,945 for inbound movers and $71,955 for outbound movers.
What do the supply and listing indicators show?
The metro has 1.4 months of listed supply, 7,134 permits, 7.26 permits per thousand residents, a median market time of 26 days, and price drops on 32.63% of listings.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 5.5%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 2.98%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 9.8%
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 Omaha as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
Run cash flowStarts with this market's measured price and rentSave to shortlistCompare this metro with up to four other placesCheck rent by ZIPMove from metro context to a local rent benchmarkFind a comparison marketRead a curated two-market decision analysisShare this analysisEmail the canonical link without adding page scriptsReport a data issueSend the figure, source and release period to review
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 supply1.4 mo.▼ from 1.9 mo. a year ago
Median days on market26 days▲ from 20 days a year ago
Listings with price drops32.6%▲ from 25.2% a year ago
Sale-to-list ratio100.1%2026-05-01
Home value growth▲ 2.2%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 2.98%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield5.5%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▲ 0.5%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 steady58→58
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.
The one chart
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.
Reindexed Price vs. Rent Growth
2019 = 100 · annual · 2019–2026
Since 2019, prices are up 54% and rents 44%. Prices running ahead of rents is what compresses yield. ✓ recomputed from series
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
58| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 65 | 30% | 19.50 |
| Rent trend | 44 | 25% | 11.00 |
| Affordability | 79 | 15% | 11.85 |
| Supply pressure | 61 | 15% | 9.15 |
| Climate risk | 45 | 15% | 6.75 |
| Published score | 58 | ||
Omaha, NE scoreRank #175
58Job growth65/100
CES employment grew 0.47% year over year -> the job backdrop is positive but modest.
Rent trend44/100
Median asking rent rose 2.98% to $1,444 and gross yield is 5.55% -> the income case combines moderate rent growth with a measurable current yield.
Affordability79/100
Rent is 20.42% of median household income and price is 3.68 times income -> housing costs are contained relative to the metro’s median income.
Supply pressure61/100
Permitting runs at 7.26 per thousand residents while listed supply is 1.4 months and 32.63% had price drops -> new-supply activity and listing-level softness complicate the tight-inventory signal.
Climate risk45/100
Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.1505% -> property-level water exposure is a required diligence item.
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
$312k
YoY ▲ 2.2%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,444
YoY ▲ 2.98%
Gross Rental Yield
5.5%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,444 × 12 ÷ $311,981
Job Growth (YoY)
▲ 0.5%
CES payrolls
Job signal 65/100
Median Household Income
$85k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
20.4%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
3.7x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,368
Market rent 105.5% 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$1,444Primary 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 ↗$1,148−$296 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 ↗$1,368−$76 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 ↗$1,192−$252 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 Omaha as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Direct local rental evidence
Recent leases and rental-market liquidity in Omaha, NE
These Apartment List observations match the exact metro CBSA code 36540. They are kept separate from Zillow asking rent, Census occupied-home rent and property-level comparables.
Direct recent-lease rent history
Monthly overall-rent index; missing observations are not filled from another geography.
Recent-lease rent$1,2772026-07 · +0.3% year over year
Rental vacancy6.2%2026-07 · +1.3 percentage points year over year
Time on marketn/an/a
Measured rent retention
How much of gross yield survives the first two measured deductions?
This bridge subtracts direct rental vacancy and effective property tax only. It is not net yield, NOI, cap rate or property cash flow.
measured retention property tax vacancy
- Gross yield
- 5.6%
- Vacancy
- 6.2%
- Effective tax
- 1.7%
- Retained yield
- 3.5%
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Omaha
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
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$47,100 median wage
36.8%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$34,270 median wage
50.6%
Sales and Related Occupations$37,540 median wage
46.2%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$42,480 median wage
40.8%
Management Occupations$108,120 median wage
16.0%
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations$82,920 median wage
20.9%
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
7,084 units authorised in 2026, 49% of them in 5+ unit buildings. A meaningful share is apartments, which discount first when they lease up. ✓ 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
+387
15,596 in vs 15,209 out (IRS SOI)
▲ 2.5% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
−$8,010
Arriving $63,945 vs leaving $71,955
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
9.8%
1,298 of 13,303 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.150% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Lancaster County · Dodge County · Maricopa County · Polk County · Hall County
✓ 15,596 in − 15,209 out = 387 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
- Lincoln, NE1,715 arriving
- Fremont, NE416 arriving
- Phoenix, AZ299 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Lincoln, NE1,263 leaving
- Fremont, NE407 leaving
- Phoenix, AZ381 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
- CES employment growth is 0.47% year over year, a modest job signal.
- Net migration is only 387 households, and inbound movers’ average income is $8,010 below outbound movers’ average.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, with a 0.1505% annual climate loss ratio.
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
County · NEDouglas County$300k home · 5.8% yieldCounty · NESarpy County$361k home · 4.9% yieldCounty · IAPottawattamie County$245k home · 6.7% yieldCounty · NECass County$316k home · 4.8% yieldCounty · NESaunders County$364k home · n/a yieldCounty · NEWashington County$406k home · n/a yieldCounty · IAHarrison County$232k home · n/a yieldCounty · IAMills County$288k home · n/a yield
Cities in this market
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Omaha
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Omaha, NE (Target) | 58 | $312k | $1,444 | 5.5% | ▲ 0.5% |
| Albany, NY | 75 | $378k | $1,679 | 5.3% | ▲ 0.8% |
| Richmond, VA | 59 | $400k | $1,772 | 5.3% | ▲ 0.2% |
| Kansas City, MO | 64 | $332k | $1,545 | 5.6% | ▲ 0.5% |
| Columbus, OH | 57 | $335k | $1,528 | 5.5% | ▲ 0.6% |
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 |