Really high rental yields for cheaper housing - what's the catch?

[Rahul Bhandari]

I'm looking at some data to identify the best areas to buy and hold. I'm less familiar with buying in some of these areas - so I thought I'd reach out. These zipcodes offer really high rental yields even accounting for the vacancy stats. I'm wondering what's the catch?

Zip	City	State	Median Home Price ($)	Average Rent ($)	Gross rental yied	2013 Rental vacancy rate by Zip (%)
13165	Town of Waterloo	NY	79,100	1,365	20.7%	6.7
13411	Pittsfield	NY	76,400	1,424	22.4%	7.4
14125	Town of Oakfield	NY	87,500	1,400	19.2%	4
14437	Dansville	NY	81,300	1,416	20.9%	3.7
14445	East Rochester	NY	95,800	1,289	16.1%	1.4
14510	Mount Morris	NY	72,600	1,399	23.1%	4.1
14517	Town of Nunda	NY	78,100	1,441	22.1%	7.5
14605	Rochester	NY	40,900	828	24.3%	3.6
14608	Rochester	NY	51,100	866	20.3%	6.3
14611	Rochester	NY	47,400	855	21.6%	4
14621	Rochester	NY	44,700	848	22.8%	5.4
14715	Town of Bolivar	NY	47,400	1,401	35.5%	4.6
14727	Town of Cuba	NY	69,800	1,456	25.0%	4.7
14735	Granger	NY	57,800	1,402	29.1%	5.9
14739	Town of Friendship	NY	46,300	1,395	36.2%	6.5
14806	Town of Andover	NY	49,000	1,402	34.3%	5.1
14813	Amity	NY	55,100	1,433	31.2%	4.2
14891	Watkins Glen	NY	106,800	1,449	16.3%	1
14895	Wellsville	NY	50,300	1,392	33.2%	3.6
15045	Glassport	PA	53,100	776	17.5%	2.6
15110	Duquesne	PA	44,500	780	21.0%	6.4
15132	McKeesport	PA	46,000	780	20.3%	2.2
15148	Wilmerding	PA	46,500	806	20.8%	0.5
15210	Pittsburgh	PA	54,400	876	19.3%	3.4
21521	Barton	MD	66,400	1,217	22.0%	5.1
21562	Westernport	MD	59,600	1,279	25.8%	4.9
44055	Lorain	OH	52,500	712	16.3%	1.3
44102	Cleveland	OH	48,000	821	20.5%	6.2
44104	Cleveland	OH	43,200	835	23.2%	8.3
61401	Galesburg	IL	64,200	1,058	19.8%	4.1
73108	Oklahoma City	OK	43,900	653	17.8%	3.8
73111	Oklahoma City	OK	49,200	718	17.5%	0.7