All homes and bedroom counts
Markets / Washington / Yakima
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
Yakima, WA
Yakima merits investigation by income-focused buyers willing to underwrite limited job growth and negative migration; buyers seeking strong demand momentum or unwilling to investigate flood exposure should avoid it.
Median price$358k
Median rent$1,450
Gross yield4.9%
Job growth▲ 0.2%
Composite Market ScoreRank #299 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in Yakima, WA?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,450 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 3.74% 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 Yakima
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yakima County, WAFIPS 53077 | $1,040 | $1,047 | $1,374 | $1,911 | $2,093 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
Yakima merits investigation by income-focused buyers willing to underwrite limited job growth and negative migration; buyers seeking strong demand momentum or unwilling to investigate flood exposure should avoid it. Median asking rent is $1,450, gross yield is 4.86%, and rent rose 3.74% year over year.
Opportunity: rent growth outpaced home-value growth of 1.64%, while median home value is $357,811. Yet the price-to-income ratio is 5.06 and rent consumes 24.63% of median household income, so renter burden and purchase affordability send mixed signals.
Risk: CES jobs rose only 0.17%, net migration was -793 households, and the inland-flood loss ratio is 0.1681%. With 4.0 months of supply and a 27.54% price-drop share, buyers should stress-test occupancy, resale timing, insurance, and property-level flood exposure.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
What does the current rent-price relationship look like?
The record reports a $1,450 median asking rent, a $357,811 median home value, and a 4.86% gross yield.
What do current sale conditions indicate about negotiating room?
The market has 4.0 months of supply, a median 24 days on market, and a 27.54% price-drop share.
How active are non-occupant buyers?
Non-occupants account for 6.15% of purchase mortgages; total purchases are 2,080.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 4.9%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 3.74%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 6.2%
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 Yakima 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 supply4.0 mo.▲ from 3.0 mo. a year ago
Median days on market24 days▼ from 35 days a year ago
Listings with price drops27.5%▼ from 28.1% a year ago
Sale-to-list ratio99.8%2026-05-01
Home value growth▲ 1.6%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 3.74%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield4.9%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▲ 0.2%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 steady48→48
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.
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
48| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 51 | 30% | 15.30 |
| Rent trend | 58 | 25% | 14.50 |
| Affordability | 49 | 15% | 7.35 |
| Supply pressure | 38 | 15% | 5.70 |
| Climate risk | 35 | 15% | 5.25 |
| Published score | 48 | ||
Yakima, WA scoreRank #299
48Job growth51/100
CES jobs grew 0.17% year over year -> underwrite tenant demand cautiously rather than relying on employment expansion.
Rent trend58/100
Asking rent rose 3.74% to $1,450 and gross yield is 4.86% -> rent growth supports the income case, but operating costs are not published.
Affordability49/100
Rent is 24.63% of median income while price is 5.06 times income -> tenant burden and purchase affordability provide different signals.
Supply pressure38/100
Months of supply is 4.0 and the price-drop share is 27.54% -> buyers have evidence of negotiating room, but exit liquidity needs scrutiny.
Climate risk35/100
Inland flood is the dominant hazard and the climate loss ratio is 0.1681% -> review flood exposure and insurance at the property level.
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
$358k
YoY ▲ 1.6%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,450
YoY ▲ 3.74%
Gross Rental Yield
4.9%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,450 × 12 ÷ $357,811
Job Growth (YoY)
▲ 0.2%
CES payrolls
Job signal 51/100
Median Household Income
$71k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
24.6%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
5.1x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,374
Market rent 105.6% 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$1,450Primary 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 ↗$1,047−$403 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 ↗$1,374−$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 ↗$1,109−$341 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 Yakima as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside Yakima
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
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$43,640 median wage
39.9%
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$49,090 median wage
35.4%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$37,370 median wage
46.6%
Sales and Related Occupations$38,760 median wage
44.9%
Healthcare Support Occupations$44,620 median wage
39.0%
Educational Instruction and Library Occupations$61,000 median wage
28.5%
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
630 units authorised in 2026, 15% 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
−793
3,184 in vs 3,977 out (IRS SOI)
▼ 24.9% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
+$1,483
Arriving $55,687 vs leaving $54,204
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
6.2%
128 of 2,080 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
inland flooding
0.168% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: water
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: Benton County · King County · Grant County · Pierce County · Spokane County
✓ 3,184 in − 3,977 out = -793 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
- Seattle, WA521 arriving
- Kennewick, WA424 arriving
- Moses Lake, WA180 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Kennewick, WA710 leaving
- Seattle, WA632 leaving
- Moses Lake, WA194 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 jobs grew just 0.17% year over year, providing little evidence of employment-led demand growth.
- Tax filings show 3,184 households moved in and 3,977 moved out, leaving net migration of -793.
- Inland flood is the dominant hazard, with a 0.1681% 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
Cities in this market
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like Yakima
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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Yakima, WA (Target) | 48 | $358k | $1,450 | 4.9% | ▲ 0.2% |
| Medford, OR | 40 | $442k | $1,841 | 5.0% | ▲ 0.1% |
| Clarksville, TN | 37 | $294k | $1,336 | 5.5% | ▲ 0.2% |
| Eau Claire, WI | 48 | $326k | $1,215 | 4.5% | ▼ 0.2% |
| St. Cloud, MN | 61 | $321k | $1,270 | 4.7% | ▼ 0.2% |
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 |