Nebraska rental market data

Median annual home-value growth is 3.8% across 11 measured metros, while median annual asking-rent growth is 2.7% across the seven with rent-growth observations. The supplied rent-minus-price comparison is negative 1.1 percentage points. That separation weakens the case for assuming that rising acquisition values are being matched by current rent growth.

Kearney moves in the opposite direction: asking rent rose 11.0% versus 6.8% home-value growth. Its measured value is $300,994, asking rent is $1,417 and gross yield is 5.7%. Omaha also has rent growth above price growth, at 3.0% versus 2.2%, although its gross yield is 5.6%. These figures support locality-specific rent screening; they do not represent signed leases or net returns.

Across 11 measured metros, the medians are 2.5 months of supply, 28 days on market, a 30.2% price-drop share and a 98.3% sale-to-list ratio. Those figures describe a relatively short resale window at the median, but price reductions are common enough that tight inventory should not be treated as uniform seller control.

Omaha and Lincoln each report 1.4 months of supply. Omaha has 7,134 permitted units, or 7.26 per 1,000 residents, while Lincoln has 1,896, or 5.51 per 1,000. Lexington is the counterpoint: 9.5 months of supply, 50 days on market, a 29.8% price-drop share and a 95.8% sale-to-list ratio. That creates more observable buy-side leverage but also a weaker resale-liquidity profile. Permits are not completed units, and these for-sale measures do not establish rental vacancy.

Employment growth across 11 measured metros has a 0.5% median, with the 10th-to-90th percentile running from negative 1.0% to positive 1.6%. North Platte is well above that distribution at 4.9%; Beatrice and Fremont register 1.6% and 1.1%, respectively. These readings provide a positive demand signal in selected labor markets.

IRS migration data point the other way. Across 80 counties, net migration is negative 1,571, or negative 0.8 per 1,000 residents, and incoming mover adjusted gross income trails outgoing income by $153,085. Employment and migration therefore do not confirm one another. They also cover different geographies and periods, so neither establishes current renter-household formation by itself.

Across 11 measured metros, gross yield has a 6.0% median and a 10th-to-90th percentile span of 5.6% to 6.7%. Home values over the same percentile span run from $217,957 to $306,541, while asking rents run from $1,136 to $1,444. Lexington sits above the measured yield distribution at 7.2%, based on a $217,957 value and $1,308 monthly asking rent; its rent-to-income measure is 22.2%.

The median market-rent-to-HUD two-bedroom Fair Market Rent ratio is 1.257. Subtracting one from the supplied ratios, measured asking rents sit 25.7% above the HUD benchmark at the median and 8.9% to 34.3% above it from the 10th to 90th percentile. That spread matters when screening rent assumptions tied to HUD standards, but Fair Market Rent is neither a guaranteed payment standard nor proof of an achievable contract rent. Gross yield also excludes vacancy, maintenance, management, taxes, insurance and financing.

Across all 93 counties, the median ACS housing vacancy rate is 14.3%, reaching 28.8% at the 90th percentile. The median renter share is 24.8%, while single-family housing accounts for a median 86.3% of stock and large multifamily for only 1.1%. The median county’s typical year built is 1962. This combination points to screening needs centered on dispersed, older housing rather than a deep multifamily inventory.

The highest named vacancy readings occur in very small counties: 43.9% in Loup County with 578 residents, 39.0% in Wheeler County with 847 and 38.2% in Keya Paha County with 822. ACS vacancy covers all housing and should not be read as available rental inventory. Tenant affordability is also uneven: the share of renters spending at least 30% of income on rent is 57.6% in Brown County, 56.3% in Garden County and 52.1% in Red Willow County.

FEMA assigns inland flood as the mutually exclusive leading-hazard label in 92 counties and hail in one. That near-uniform county-level classification makes flood a relevant screening category, but it does not show that every parcel in those counties is exposed.

Effective property-tax rates across 93 counties have a 1.27% median and a 10th-to-90th percentile span of 0.99% to 1.48%. Sarpy County reports a 1.74% rate and $5,473 median tax, Douglas County 1.69% and $4,507, and Kimball County 1.67% and $1,828. Similar high rates can therefore produce very different dollar burdens. Parcel assessments, actual tax bills and insurance terms remain necessary for property-level underwriting.