Methodology & sources
The Best Cash-Flow Markets report is built entirely on public-domain Census data. Here is exactly what we used, how yield is defined, and what the data does and does not capture.
Data source
U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 2024 1-year estimates. We use the 1-year estimates — the most current vintage — so rent and home value are drawn from the same survey and period and are directly comparable. Median gross rent and median owner-occupied home value; geographies with population >= 65,000. ACS is a U.S. government work in the public domain.
How each metric is defined
- Gross rental yield
- (Median gross rent × 12) ÷ median home value, expressed as a percentage.
- Median gross rent
- ACS table B25064 — median monthly gross rent (contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities) for renter-occupied units.
- Median home value
- ACS table B25077 — median value of owner-occupied housing units.
Coverage caveats
No single indicator captures a deal. These limits matter when interpreting yield — we state them plainly so the report can be cited with confidence.
- Gross, not net
- Gross yield excludes property taxes, insurance, maintenance, vacancy, management, and financing. It is a market-comparison screen, not a return projection. Run a specific deal through a cap-rate or cash-flow calculator for a net figure.
- Medians, not matched pairs
- Median rent and median home value describe different parts of a market — the typical rental versus the typical owner-occupied home. They are not the rent and price of the same property, so yield is a market indicator, not a single-asset cap rate.
- Gross rent includes utilities
- ACS median gross rent includes the cost of utilities and fuels paid by the renter. That slightly overstates the rent a landlord collects where utilities are tenant-paid.
- Population coverage
- ACS 1-year estimates cover geographies with at least 65,000 people. Smaller rural counties and metros fall below that threshold and are not included; the trade-off is the most current vintage.
- Top-coded values
- ACS top-codes the highest home values, which compresses yields slightly in the most expensive markets.
Using this report
The report and its underlying dataset are free to cite and link with attribution to ProInvestorHub. The data is downloadable as a CSV from the main report.