All homes and bedroom counts
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Waterloo, IA
Waterloo merits investigation by yield-focused buyers who can tolerate weak labor and migration signals; buyers relying on employment-led demand should avoid it.
Median price$202k
Median rent$996
Gross yield5.9%
Job growth▼ 2.2%
Composite Market ScoreRank #267 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Waterloo, IA?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $996 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 3.15% 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 Waterloo
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Black Hawk County, IAFIPS 19013 | $725 | $801 | $1,051 | $1,357 | $1,763 |
| Bremer County, IAFIPS 19017 | $674 | $745 | $978 | $1,290 | $1,295 |
| Grundy County, IAFIPS 19075 | $725 | $801 | $1,051 | $1,357 | $1,763 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Waterloo merits investigation by yield-focused buyers who can tolerate weak labor and migration signals; buyers relying on employment-led demand should avoid it. A $202,034 median value and $996 asking rent translate to a 5.92% gross yield, while rent uses 16.88% of median household income.
The opportunity is the affordability profile and limited resale inventory: price-to-income is 2.85, months' supply is 1.8, and median market time is 15 days. Yet 31.79% of listings had price drops, so tight inventory does not remove property-level pricing risk.
The demand warnings are a 2.23% year-over-year job decline and net migration of -56 households. Recorded permits total 458, but an inland-flood hazard and a 0.1115% annual climate loss ratio require asset-specific review.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What do the current price and rent imply for gross income?
The median home value is $202,034, median asking rent is $996 a month, and published gross yield is 5.92%.
How tight is the resale market?
Months' supply is 1.8 and median days on market is 15, but 31.79% of listings had price drops.
Are households and income moving into the metro?
Tax filings show 3,207 households moved in and 3,263 moved out, for net migration of -56; average mover AGI was $50,114 inbound and $55,450 outbound.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 5.9%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 3.15%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 14.0%
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 Waterloo 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 supply1.8 mo.unchanged from a year ago
Median days on market15 days▲ from 9 days a year ago
Listings with price drops31.8%▲ from 29.5% a year ago
Sale-to-list ratio98.4%2026-05-01
Home value growth▲ 1.8%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 3.15%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield5.9%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▼ 2.2%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 steady50→50
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 41% and rents 33%. 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
50| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 3 | 30% | 0.90 |
| Rent trend | 47 | 25% | 11.75 |
| Affordability | 95 | 15% | 14.25 |
| Supply pressure | 81 | 15% | 12.15 |
| Climate risk | 76 | 15% | 11.40 |
| Published score | 50 | ||
Waterloo, IA scoreRank #267
50Job growth3/100
CES employment fell 2.23% year over year -> buyers should not assume expanding employment will support tenant demand.
Rent trend47/100
Asking rent rose 3.15% year over year and gross yield is 5.92% -> the record supports top-line income analysis, not a net-return conclusion.
Affordability95/100
Rent is 16.88% of median household income and price-to-income is 2.85 -> affordability is the clearest support for the market.
Supply pressure81/100
Supply is 1.8 months, median market time is 15 days, and permits per thousand residents are 2.72 -> resale availability is tight while permitting is limited.
Climate risk76/100
Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the annual climate loss ratio is 0.1115% -> flood exposure needs 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
$202k
YoY ▲ 1.8%
ZORI Median Rent
$996
YoY ▲ 3.15%
Gross Rental Yield
5.9%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$996 × 12 ÷ $202,034
Job Growth (YoY)
▼ 2.2%
CES payrolls
Job signal 3/100
Median Household Income
$71k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
16.9%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
2.9x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,051
Market rent 94.8% 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$996Primary 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 ↗$801−$195 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 ↗$1,051+$55 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 ↗$977−$19 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 Waterloo as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Waterloo
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
Production Occupations$50,030 median wage
23.9%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$44,790 median wage
26.7%
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$45,370 median wage
26.3%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$28,700 median wage
41.6%
Sales and Related Occupations$35,240 median wage
33.9%
Educational Instruction and Library Occupations$48,560 median wage
24.6%
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
404 units authorised in 2026, 48% 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
−56
3,207 in vs 3,263 out (IRS SOI)
▼ 1.7% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
−$5,336
Arriving $50,114 vs leaving $55,450
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
14.0%
334 of 2,386 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.112% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Butler County · Buchanan County · Linn County · Polk County · Tama County
✓ 3,207 in − 3,263 out = -56 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
- Cedar Rapids, IA189 arriving
- Des Moines, IA160 arriving
- Iowa City, IA63 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Des Moines, IA346 leaving
- Cedar Rapids, IA209 leaving
- Iowa City, IA80 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 fell 2.23% year over year and net migration was -56 households, both weak demand signals.
- Price cuts affected 31.79% of listings despite only 1.8 months of supply.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, with a 0.1115% 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.
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Waterloo
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Waterloo, IA (Target) | 50 | $202k | $996 | 5.9% | ▼ 2.2% |
| Wisconsin Rapids, WI | 49 | $231k | $1,104 | 5.7% | ▼ 2.4% |
| Cedar Rapids, IA | 59 | $248k | $1,274 | 6.2% | ▼ 2.1% |
| Kokomo, IN | 49 | $196k | $1,013 | 6.2% | ▼ 2.0% |
| Bloomington, IN | 34 | $306k | $1,442 | 5.7% | ▼ 2.6% |
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 |