Nebraska rental market data

Nebraska's Apartment List recent-lease rent increased from $1,180 to $1,193, a 1.1% annual gain. Its separate Vacancy Index moved from 4.8% to 6.2%, an increase of 1.4 percentage points. Positive rent movement therefore does not remove the need to underwrite occupancy and concessions independently.

The current state vacancy rate was still 1.0 percentage point below the 7.2% national measure, and state rent growth was 2.2 percentage points above the national rate. That is a meaningful counter-signal to a uniformly weak reading. The packet supplies only national rental time on market—30 days, up from 28—so it cannot establish Nebraska's leasing speed.

Across the measured distributions, median home-value growth was 3.8% for 11 metros, while median asking-rent growth was 2.7% for seven. The reported difference was negative 1.1 percentage points. Home-value growth ranged from 1.7% at the 10th percentile to 6.8% at the 90th; measured rent growth ranged from 0.6% to 6.5%. Because rent and price coverage differ, these are distribution comparisons rather than a fully paired state sample.

Kearney moved in the opposite direction, with asking rent up 11.0% and home value up 6.8%. Omaha also had rent growth of 3.0% versus value growth of 2.2%, while Norfolk's rent rose 3.5% against 5.0% value growth. These splits support locality-specific rent and acquisition comps; they do not establish collected rent, concessions, expenses or net operating income.

The measured metro median was 2.5 months of resale supply and 28 days on market, but 30.2% of listings had price drops and the median sale-to-list ratio was 98.3%. Months of supply ranged from 1.4 at the 10th percentile to 3.8 at the 90th, showing that the median does not describe every exit market.

Lexington stood well outside that range with 9.5 months of supply, 50 days on market, price drops on 29.8% of listings and a 95.8% sale-to-list ratio. By contrast, Omaha and Lincoln each had 1.4 months of supply, alongside 7,134 and 1,896 permitted units, respectively. Permits are not completed rental units, and Redfin resale time is not Apartment List rental time on market; these figures screen acquisition and exit conditions rather than future rental competition.

Employment growth across 11 measured metros had a 0.5% median, with the distribution running from negative 1.0% at the 10th percentile to positive 1.6% at the 90th. North Platte posted 4.9% growth, while Beatrice and Fremont recorded 1.6% and 1.1%, respectively.

The migration evidence points the other way: across 80 covered counties, net migration totaled negative 1,571, or negative 0.8 per 1,000 residents, and the aggregate mover-income gap was negative $153,085. The combination argues against treating positive metro employment as proof of broad household inflow. The job and IRS migration series cover different periods and do not identify renter households, so property-level demand still requires current local verification.

Across all 93 counties, the median ACS vacancy rate was 14.3%, with a 6.0% to 28.8% 10th-to-90th percentile range. The median renter share was 24.8%, the median single-family share was 86.3%, and the median year built was 1962. These are county housing-stock distributions, not Apartment List rental vacancy or a count of units currently available to a target tenant.

At least 30% of renters were burdened in a median 34.3% of county observations. The measured share was 57.6% in Brown County, 56.3% in Garden County and 52.1% in Red Willow County; their median years built were 1959, 1953 and 1959. Those figures support closer screening of tenant affordability and capital needs, but ACS stock age does not establish a particular property's condition or renovation budget.

Across 93 counties, the effective property-tax-rate median was 1.27%, with a 0.99% to 1.48% 10th-to-90th percentile range; the median tax bill was $1,876. Sarpy County measured 1.74% and $5,473, Douglas County 1.69% and $4,507, and Kimball County 1.67% and $1,828. Rate and bill therefore need separate treatment in property underwriting.

The county climate-loss-ratio median was 0.187%, ranging from 0.121% to 0.246% between the 10th and 90th percentiles. FEMA assigned inland flood as the mutually exclusive leading-hazard label for 92 counties and hail for one. Those labels describe each county's leading hazard only; they do not show parcel-level exposure, insurance availability or an expected loss for a specific building.