Best Places to Buy Rental Property in Nebraska (2026)

Start with Hastings. It is the lowest entry price on this list, $225,000 at the median, and its $1,395 median asking rent turns that into 7.4 percent gross, the best return the state's measurable cities offer. Second is Papillion: 7.4 percent gross, $348,273 to buy, $2,150 a month to rent. Omaha, the busiest market on the list with about 470 closings a month, sits fifth of 9 at 6.3 percent.

The ranking

Gross yield here is an asking rental yield screen: twelve times the median asking rent over the median closed price, before taxes, insurance, vacancy, management or repairs. Sales use municipal boundaries. Rental listings use the associated city name and may cover a wider postal area. The ratio therefore compares related, but not perfectly matched, market samples, and a home bought at the median price does not necessarily earn the median rent. Confirmed-close medians appear where at least 30 confirmed lease closes were recorded in the window.

City by city

1. Hastings, 7.4 percent gross

Hastings's rental sample is 67 percent apartments and condos while its sales are mostly houses, so the $1,395 asking median understates what a house rents for there: houses asked $1,400. The numbers: $225,000 median closed price across 209 closings, $1,395 median asking rent across 202 listings, 7.4 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $116 per square foot. See the Hastings page for the property mix and the price band.

2. Papillion, 7.4 percent gross

Rent is what puts Papillion second here; on price alone it would sit seventh of 9. The numbers: $348,273 median closed price across 264 closings, $2,150 median asking rent across 227 listings, 7.4 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $152 per square foot. Full detail is on the Papillion market page.

3. Bellevue, 6.6 percent gross

Bellevue moves fast, 6 days from listing to contract at the median, which matters more than its 6.6 percent yield if you cannot close quickly. The numbers: $290,000 median closed price across 374 closings, $1,600 median asking rent across 527 listings, 6.6 percent gross. Full detail is on the Bellevue market page.

4. Grand Island, 6.5 percent gross

Grand Island's rental sample is 67 percent apartments and condos while its sales are mostly houses, so the $1,500 asking median understates what a house rents for there: houses asked $1,600. The numbers: $275,000 median closed price across 313 closings, $1,500 median asking rent across 420 listings, 6.5 percent gross. Houses there closed at about $190 per square foot. The Grand Island market page carries the monthly figures.

5. Omaha, 6.3 percent gross

Omaha moves fast, 7 days from listing to contract at the median, which matters more than its 6.3 percent yield if you cannot close quickly. At $284,000 to buy and $1,500 a month to rent, Omaha yields 6.3 percent gross on 2,819 tracked closings. See the Omaha page for the property mix and the price band.

6. Gretna, 6.2 percent gross

Gretna clears the rental bar narrowly, with 71 listings behind its $2,000 median, so its 6.2 percent yield deserves a wider margin of error than the bigger samples here. At $385,000 to buy and $2,000 a month to rent, Gretna yields 6.2 percent gross on 116 tracked closings. Full detail is on the Gretna market page.

7. Kearney, 6.2 percent gross

Read Kearney's $1,650 rent as an apartment figure: 63 percent of its listings are apartments or condos. Homes in Kearney closed at a median of $319,000 over the last six months and the median asking rent in the last twelve months was $1,650, a gross yield of 6.2 percent. Houses there closed at about $150 per square foot. Full detail is on the Kearney market page.

8. Elkhorn, 4.9 percent gross

At $576,095 to buy and $2,350 a month to rent, Elkhorn yields 4.9 percent gross on 171 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $190 per square foot. The Elkhorn market page carries the monthly figures.

9. Lincoln, 4.7 percent gross

A low entry price does not carry Lincoln far: it is fifth cheapest on this list and ninth on yield, with rent of $1,225 against a $314,900 median price. At $314,900 to buy and $1,225 a month to rent, Lincoln yields 4.7 percent gross on 2,212 tracked closings. Houses there closed at about $167 per square foot. See the Lincoln page for the property mix and the price band.

How this ranking is built

• •Cities: every Nebraska city where Resideline tracked at least 100 closings inside the municipal boundary in its reporting window (six or twelve months) and at least 50 rental listings under the city's name since October 3, 2025: 9 cities qualify.
• •Prices: the median price homes closed at inside the city limits, from Resideline's tracked closings; the state comparison uses the statewide median of $318,000 across 11,403 closings.
• •Rents: the median advertised rent on rental listings Resideline tracked in the last twelve months, all property types, measured on the listings that carry the city's name (a postal footprint, wider than the city line in some places).
• •Confirmed-close medians: Observed rent blends two kinds of record: confirmed lease closes extracted from property records, and the final asking rent on listings that left Resideline tracking without a recorded close. Where a city has at least 30 confirmed closes in the window, their median is printed beside the asking figure; in the last twelve months about a quarter of Resideline's close episodes are confirmed closes. The asking and confirmed-close samples are separate, not paired, so a difference between their medians is not a measured gap on the same listings.
• •What is missing: taxes, insurance, vacancy, management and repairs, which turn a gross yield into a net one, and the unit mix, which differs between what sells and what rents.

Sources and related pages

• •Resideline tracked closings inside city limits (window per city, updated October 4, 2026) and rental listings since October 3, 2025; confirmed lease closes extracted from property records.
• •More Nebraska rankings: Cheapest cities to buy a house in Nebraska ranks the same kind of list with each city's price per square foot for houses, realized appreciation and days to contract beside the median, and Cap Rate by City ranks the Nebraska cities Resideline tracks by gross rental yield. The Nebraska housing market hub carries the statewide figures and the largest Nebraska markets by closings.
• •Asking rent vs observed rent compares live asking rents with final asking rents under that study's own definition; it says nothing about confirmed lease closes.

Prepared with Resideline's research pipeline and reviewed by Jeffrey Batista, Resideline's founder.