Syracuse, NY
Syracuse merits investigation by income-oriented buyers comfortable with migration and flood diligence.
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.
Syracuse merits investigation by income-oriented buyers comfortable with migration and flood diligence. A $271,597 median home value, $1,614 median asking rent and 7.13% gross yield offer a gross-income starting point, not a net return. Buyers who require positive household inflows or stronger affordability should avoid it.
The operating signals are constructive but not uniform. CES jobs rose 1.18% and asking rents rose 4.94%, while home values increased 6.64%. Those are concurrent labor, rent and price gains, but net migration of -1,539 households leaves the demand picture unsupported by household flows.
Inventory was 2.9 months and homes had a 22-day median market time, while the record shows 846 permits. That is a constrained resale backdrop with some new-supply activity. Inland flood is the dominant hazard; the reported annual climate loss ratio is 0.001014, keeping property-level water exposure on the diligence list.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What is the gross income return screen?
How competitive is the resale market for a buyer?
Are household migration and mover income positive?
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 Syracuse 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 | 87 | 30% | 26.10 |
| Rent trend | 72 | 25% | 18.00 |
| Affordability | 43 | 15% | 6.45 |
| Supply pressure | 83 | 15% | 12.45 |
| Climate risk | 84 | 15% | 12.60 |
| Published score | 76 | ||
job: CES employment grew 1.18% year over year -> the job signal is positive, though it does not offset net household outflow.
rent: Median asking rent was $1,614 and rose 4.94% year over year -> rent performance is positive, but occupancy and expenses are not published.
afford: Rent-to-income was 25.65% and price-to-income was 3.6 -> tenant burden and buyer entry cost require separate underwriting, with affordability the weakest component.
supply: Supply was 2.9 months with a 22-day median market time and a 20.15% price-drop rate -> resale conditions are tight, but some sellers adjust.
climate: Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.001014 -> water exposure remains a property-level underwriting issue.
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
- Household flows are negative: 9,025 moved in and 10,564 moved out, producing net migration of -1,539.
- Entry pricing is a weak point: affordability scored 43 while the median home value rose 6.64% year over year.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, while property-level loss exposure and insurance costs 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 Syracuse
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Syracuse, NY (Target) | 76 | $272k | $1,614 | 7.1% | ▲ 1.2% |
| Pensacola, FL | 41 | $312k | $1,745 | 6.7% | ▲ 0.7% |
| Augusta, GA | 51 | $254k | $1,506 | 7.1% | ▲ 0.5% |
| Lakeland, FL | 38 | $299k | $1,848 | 7.4% | ▲ 1.3% |
| Winston, NC | 50 | $285k | $1,564 | 6.6% | ▲ 0.8% |
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 |