Rental yields are getting harder to find — but not impossible, and not everywhere. ATTOM's 2026 Single-Family Rental Market Report found potential rental yields declining in 54.8% of U.S. counties, as record-high home prices outpace rent growth in much of the country. Here's what's actually happening, and what it means if you're underwriting a rental purchase with a DSCR loan.
What the Data Shows
ATTOM, 2026 Single-Family Rental Market Report: Rental yields declining in 54.8% of counties analyzed | Rents rising faster than home prices in about 55% of counties
Those two figures aren't contradictory — they describe two different comparisons. Yields are falling in most counties because home prices have climbed faster than rents on average nationally. But in roughly 55% of counties, rents are actually outpacing home price growth, which means the yield picture varies enormously by market. The national headline number obscures a lot of local variation that matters more to your underwriting than the national average does.
Where Yields Are Still Strong
ATTOM's data pointed to several counties with notably higher projected yields for three-bedroom rentals: St. Clair County, Illinois (14.5%), Mobile County, Alabama (13.6%), and Peoria County, Illinois (12.5%) led the report's rankings. These tend to be more affordable secondary markets where home prices haven't run up as aggressively as rents, rather than the highest-profile metros investors gravitate toward by default.
How This Affects DSCR Qualification
Since DSCR loans qualify the property on rental income relative to debt service, a compressed yield environment means the math gets tighter in markets where acquisition costs have outrun rents. That makes a few things more important than they used to be:
- Use a documented, realistic rent estimate — a lease or comparable rent data, not an optimistic Zillow figure — since a thinner yield leaves less room for an inflated estimate to be wrong
- Factor in current property tax and insurance costs precisely, since both have risen in many markets and directly reduce net yield
- Consider secondary and tertiary markets where the yield math is more favorable, rather than defaulting to whichever metro is getting the most attention
- Run your numbers through a DSCR calculator before making an offer, so you know your actual ratio before you're under contract, not after
The Bottom Line
A tighter national yield picture doesn't mean DSCR investing stopped working — it means market selection matters more than it did when yields were easier to find almost anywhere. The data suggests the strongest opportunities right now sit in markets where rent growth has kept pace with, or outrun, home price appreciation, not necessarily the markets getting the most headlines.