Which of the 97 largest US metros actually cash-flow in 2026? Every metro ranked by
gross rental yield, built from Zillow’s own ZHVI and ZORI series. Every number reproducible.
97metros covered
8.29%best gross yield (Jackson)
5.81%median metro yield
5.5ptsbest-to-worst spread
Free preview: the 10 highest-yielding metros
Gross yield = annualised June 2026 typical rent (ZORI) divided by the typical home
value (ZHVI) for the same metro and month. No estimates, no scraping — two public
Zillow series, divided.
#
Metro
Rent (Jun 26)
Home value
Gross yield
Rent YoY
Rent 5-yr
1
Jackson, MS
$1,489
$215,622
8.29%
4.20%
28.1%
2
El Paso, TX
$1,528
$233,297
7.86%
2.61%
32.0%
3
Pittsburgh, PA
$1,523
$235,539
7.76%
3.60%
26.1%
4
Chicago, IL
$2,275
$359,888
7.59%
5.24%
36.3%
5
Lakeland, FL
$1,848
$298,822
7.42%
1.23%
24.8%
6
Toledo, OH
$1,276
$206,185
7.42%
4.96%
32.3%
7
New Orleans, LA
$1,617
$264,891
7.33%
0.84%
20.5%
8
Columbia, SC
$1,555
$257,718
7.24%
1.26%
32.0%
9
Syracuse, NY
$1,614
$271,597
7.13%
4.50%
36.8%
10
Augusta, GA
$1,506
$254,362
7.11%
1.33%
27.2%
And the 5 worst — where the math does not work
#
Metro
Rent (Jun 26)
Home value
Gross yield
Rent YoY
Rent 5-yr
93
Seattle, WA
$2,269
$745,263
3.65%
1.36%
22.3%
94
Los Angeles, CA
$2,927
$968,028
3.63%
1.50%
25.0%
95
San Francisco, CA
$3,301
$1,142,320
3.47%
8.24%
24.6%
96
Salt Lake City, UT
$1,638
$567,346
3.46%
0.61%
18.5%
97
San Jose, CA
$3,729
$1,583,961
2.83%
6.24%
26.9%
The gap is the whole point: at the top of the table a property pays back its purchase
price in gross rent in about 12 years; at the bottom it takes more than 35. Same country,
same month, same data source.
Get the full Atlas — $19
The preview shows 15 of 97 metros. The full Atlas is the complete picture:
All 97 metros ranked — full gross-yield table, not just the extremes
Rent momentum — 12-month and 5-year rent growth per metro, so you can tell
a high yield that is rising from one that is a value trap
Yield × growth screen — the 25 best income markets scored on both axes
The full CSV dataset — 97 metros × 11 fields, keyed on Zillow RegionID so
it joins straight onto any other Zillow series you pull
Documented methodology — every figure traceable to a named public file
Sources. Zillow Home Value Index (ZHVI, all homes, smoothed & seasonally adjusted, metro level)
and Zillow Observed Rent Index (ZORI, all homes plus multifamily, smoothed, metro level), both as
published on Zillow’s public research data page, latest observation June 2026.
Calculation. Gross yield = (ZORIJun 2026 × 12) ÷ ZHVIJun 2026.
Rent YoY compares June 2026 with June 2025; 5-year rent growth compares June 2026 with June 2021.
Metros are matched on Zillow RegionID, so ZHVI and ZORI always refer to the same geography.
What this is not. Gross yield is before taxes, insurance, vacancy, management and maintenance.
It is a screening metric for ranking markets against each other, not a net return forecast for a
specific property. Metros where Zillow does not publish both series are excluded rather than estimated.
Who buys this
Out-of-state buy-and-hold investors deciding which metros to shortlist before spending on deal flow
Agents and brokers who need a defensible one-page answer to “does this market cash-flow?”
Analysts and PropTech teams who want the joinable dataset without rebuilding the pipeline