Sterling, CO

Sterling, CO’s statistical-area record offers a current decision frame built from disparate series rather than a completed rent-growth record. Zillow places the asking-rent index at $1,070 and the home-value index at $259,067 at 2026-06-30, but it does not publish the trailing-12-month rent change needed to establish rent momentum. Therefore Sterling is unranked: this report assigns neither a score nor a rank. The available material can clarify present trade-offs and identify what requires verification, but it cannot establish a direction for rents, values, jobs, migration, or risk. Source periods also differ, with Zillow through June, BLS labor through May, Census Building Permits through June, and Redfin in May, requiring restraint when the figures are read together.

Zillow’s asking-rent index and home-value index describe different sides of current market economics. At the stated June period, its rent index is $1,070 and home-value index is $259,067; the reported year-over-year home-value change is 0.0205 and the reported gross-yield figure is 0.0496. Those data permit a level comparison, not an operating statement: no tax, insurance, maintenance, financing, vacancy, or management cost is supplied, so gross yield cannot be treated as net income. Zillow’s scope is asking rents and home values, not a record of executed rents, lease concessions, or sale closings. Most importantly, the rent series lacks the trailing-12-month change. Positive home-value movement does not fill that gap and cannot be used to infer a current rent trajectory.

Census ACS establishes the household-income boundary: median income is $51,829, the supplied rent-to-income ratio is 0.2477, and price-to-income is 5.0. HUD’s FY2026 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent is $1,101. Zillow’s $1,070 asking-rent index is therefore $31 lower than that HUD benchmark and equals 0.972 of it. This is a useful comparison of published reference levels, but it is not a finding that all households face the same rent, qualify at the same income level, or experience the same burden. Census ACS measures household income, HUD supplies a two-bedroom Fair Market Rent benchmark, and Zillow supplies an asking-rent index. The close numerical relationship between Zillow and HUD should be investigated by bedroom mix and lease terms rather than treated as proof of realized affordability.

Labor, construction, and resale evidence create a more mixed operating context. BLS LAUS reports a job change of -0.0381 over the 12 months through 2026-05. The Census Building Permits Survey reports 4 total permits through 2026 YTD M06, no permits in the 5-or-more category, and 0.19 permits per 1k population. That is permitting evidence, not evidence of completions or available rental units. Redfin, measured at 2026-05-01, reports 7.2 months of supply versus 6.6 previously, a 0.6-month increase; median days on market rose from 54 to 65, an 11-day increase. Its sale-to-list ratio is 0.9021, while the price-drop share declined from 0.3131 to 0.2473, a 0.0658 reduction. More supply and longer market time coexist with fewer listed price reductions. Redfin concerns the for-sale market, so these results cannot be treated as a rental-inventory count or as a causal explanation for Zillow rents.

IRS and HMDA describe separate demand and participation channels. IRS county-to-county tax-return migration aggregated to the market shows 483 moves in and 546 moves out, for net migration of -63. Reported AGI for in-movers is $49,300 and for out-movers is $52,333, producing the supplied AGI gap of -$3,033. Those figures are not a measure of all household income, leases, or housing transactions. HMDA provides purchase-mortgage occupancy evidence: in 2024 it records 234 total purchases, including 37 investor purchases, for an investor share of 0.1581. That share is a mortgage-based investor-participation measure, not a complete inventory of every transaction or every owner. The IRS outflow and HMDA investor evidence can coexist without proving either the direction of rental demand or the motivation of buyers.

FEMA’s National Risk Index is the packet’s expected-annual-loss evidence, not a direct housing-cost quotation. It identifies inland flood as the top hazard, classifies the hazard type as water, assigns an NRI risk score of 58.7, and reports a climate loss ratio of 0.001515. The packet contains no numerical insurance premium, property-tax, utility, maintenance, repair, or mitigation cost. For recurring housing-cost context, the supplied levels remain Zillow’s $1,070 asking-rent index and HUD’s $1,101 two-bedroom Fair Market Rent; neither is a flood, insurance, or repair estimate. FEMA’s market-level evidence cannot calculate exposure, coverage, claims, or costs for an individual address. The missing cost-level information is material because the stated gross-yield figure is not a net-income measure.

The practical synthesis is not a directional verdict but a set of evidence tensions to resolve. Zillow shows a current rent and home-value level, while its missing trailing-12-month rent change prevents a rent-momentum conclusion. Census ACS and HUD put rent, income, and a two-bedroom benchmark in view, yet do not show lease-level affordability. BLS LAUS and IRS show negative job change and net migration, while Census Building Permits shows limited recorded permitting and HMDA shows measurable investor participation. Redfin adds softer-looking for-sale timing and inventory measures, but not rental supply. A decision-ready next file would reconcile current advertised and contracted rents with Zillow and HUD, separate rental availability from Redfin’s resale inventory, identify the components behind the BLS labor change and IRS flows, verify address-specific flood information and insurance terms against FEMA’s market evidence, and distinguish HMDA investor mortgages from broader ownership activity. Until those questions are answered, no score or rank is assigned.