Faro Labs / Markets / Memphis, TN
Memphis real estate investment market
What a typical rental in Memphis, Tennessee costs, rents for, and returns: underwritten by Faro's own engine, not a scraped summary.
Returns assume 20% down at 6.75% over 30 years, 7% vacancy, and standard operating costs: Faro's default assumptions, the same ones every report starts from. Home value and rent trends as of 2026-05-31.
Cash-flow market
A typical Memphis rental covers itself: $147,579 at $1,296 a month leaves $70 after the mortgage and operating costs. The return here is money arriving monthly, which you can verify, rather than a bet on prices.
The price a deal actually works at
Faro models five price points for Memphis, from a weak buy to a strong one. The market-rate deal is $147,579; a good buy is $132,821 and a great one $118,063 roughly 20% below market value. Those are the bars a specific listing gets measured against when you run it.
How Memphis compares
Of the 210 markets Faro publishes, Memphis is the 203rd most expensive to buy into: 63% below the median covered market, and the 6th strongest on rent-to-price. Within Tennessee it's the 6th priciest of 6 markets we cover. On the last year of home-value change it ranks 180th.
A typical property here clears $70 a month at market rent, so it could absorb a rent drop to about $1,210 before it stopped covering itself.
What each tier costs in Memphis
Faro models five price points per market. A listing gets measured against these bars, not against a national average.
| Tier | Purchase price | Market rent | vs. market rate |
|---|---|---|---|
| Weak buy | $162,337 | $1,231/mo | +10% |
| Fair buy | $154,958 | $1,270/mo | +5% |
| Market rate | $147,579 | $1,296/mo | — |
| Good buy | $132,821 | $1,361/mo | -10% |
| Great buy | $118,063 | $1,426/mo | -20% |
A typical Memphis deal, underwritten
The market-rate property above, run through the same engine every Faro report uses.
| Purchase price | $147,579 |
|---|---|
| Monthly rent | $1,296 |
| Cash required (20% down + 3% closing) | $33,943 |
| Net operating income | $10,026/yr |
| Monthly cash flow | $70 |
| Cap rate | 6.8% |
| Cash-on-cash return | 2.5% |
| DSCR | 1.09 |
Values are falling here
Home values in Memphis moved 3.2% DOWN over the last year, measured as the median across 23 ZIP codes. That reverses the usual argument for a low-cash-flow buy: there's no appreciation currently carrying the deal, so a property here has to earn its keep on rent, and a typical one produces $70 a month. Falling values also mean today's comp-supported price is a moving target. The discount you negotiate matters more than usual.
Rents are climbing faster than prices
Rents rose 1.3% over the last year while home values moved down 3.2%: a 4.5-point gap. When rent growth outruns price growth, yields improve without you doing anything: the same $147,579 property collects more each year against a price that hasn't moved to match. It's the rarer of the two directions and it's what turns a marginal market into a workable one over a hold.
One of the cheapest ways in
At $147,579, a typical Memphis property costs 62.8% less than the median market Faro covers: 203th most expensive of 210. Cash required at 20% down plus closing is about $33,943, which is what makes markets like this the usual starting point for a first rental. The trade is management: a cheap property is not a cheap property to run, and the fixed costs, a roof, a furnace, a turnover, are the same dollars against a much smaller rent.
Memphis investor questions
Is Memphis a good place to buy rental property?
A typical Memphis rental at $147,579 renting for $1,296 a month returns 6.8% on a cap-rate basis and clears $70 a month at 20% down. Individual deals vary far more than markets do, which is the whole reason to underwrite a specific address.
Are Memphis home prices dropping?
Yes: values moved down 3.2% over the last year, taken as the median across 23 ZIP codes in the city. That makes the price you negotiate matter more than usual, since the comp-supported value you're measuring against is itself moving.
How much do you need to buy a rental in Memphis?
About $33,943 at 20% down plus 3% closing on a typical $147,579 property: one of the lower entry points among the 210 markets covered here.
Are rents going up in Memphis?
Rents moved up 1.3% over the last year, measured across 21 ZIP codes. The typical market-rate rental sits at $1,296 a month.
Other Tennessee markets
Run the numbers yourself
A market average is not a deal.
Paste a real Memphis listing and Faro underwrites that specific property from its own comps, with a target price you can actually offer.
Estimates for analysis and educational use only: not financial, investment, tax, or legal advice. Verify every number independently before making a purchase decision.