Calhoun County

Calhoun County, Arkansas sits at a median home price of $130,030, has appreciated 8.21% year-over-year, and scores 100 out of 100 on affordability. Those three facts together tell most of the story. The dataset does not include rent estimates or a cap rate for this county, so a traditional cash-flow underwrite cannot be completed from this data alone, and the cash-flow score registers as zero as a result. What the data does capture is an appreciation score of 84 out of 100 and a national overall rank of 13 out of 1,000 counties, landing Calhoun in the 98th percentile nationally and first in Arkansas out of 74 counties scored. At $130,030, the entry price is low enough that even modest rent relative to value could produce workable numbers, but an investor should pull local rent comps before underwriting, since the model cannot confirm them here.

The profile that fits best here is a buyer hunting low-entry, appreciation-oriented positions in deeply affordable markets. An 8.21% annual price gain on a $130,030 asset means roughly $10,700 in equity pickup in the trailing twelve months, on a down payment of around $26,000. That is a meaningful return on capital deployed, even before accounting for any rental income. A cash-flow buyer cannot lean on this dataset to confirm the spread between rent and carry costs, so that profile requires additional local research before committing. A value-add operator who can force equity in a low-priced asset and refinance or sell into the appreciation trend is also a reasonable fit, given the entry point. What this county does not obviously suit is an investor who needs day-one yield certainty from a spreadsheet alone.

On carry costs, the tax and insurance picture is a tailwind. Arkansas's state-average effective property tax rate is 0.62%, which the Tax Foundation classifies as low, and that translates to $806 annually on a $130,030 purchase. Insurance runs an estimated $624 per year at a 0.48% rate. Combined, monthly tax and insurance comes to $119. For context, that is a genuinely light burden relative to the asset price and relative to what investors face in higher-tax states. The low tax flag here is a real line-item advantage on a buy-and-hold underwrite, not a marginal one. As always, the 0.62% is a state-average estimate and actual Calhoun County or township-level rates may differ, so confirm with the local assessor before finalizing your numbers.

The stability score of 50 out of 100 deserves attention. With a population of 4,773, Calhoun is a small, rural county, and small populations concentrate risk. A single employer leaving, a demographic shift, or a natural disaster has outsized impact on a market this size. No economic anchor data was provided, so the drivers behind rental demand cannot be assessed here. An investor should independently verify what keeps households in the county, whether there are steady employment sources within commuting distance, and what the vacancy environment looks like on the ground. The affordability index of 100 suggests the local population can afford local home prices, but that metric does not speak to whether residents prefer to rent or own, or whether rental demand at any given price point is there.

Comparing Calhoun to its neighbors makes the value proposition clearer. Calhoun's $130,030 median is the lowest price point among the five neighbors listed, and it carries the highest overall score at 79, versus 74 for Prairie County ($149,082) and Grant County ($206,491), 73 for Scott County ($152,008), and 71 for Perry County ($182,366) and Jefferson County ($84,271). The one neighbor with rent data is Jefferson County, where a median rent of $885.69 against a $84,271 median price produces a gross rent-to-price ratio of 12.6%, which is a high-yield, lower-appreciation signal. If cash flow is the primary objective and the investor is comfortable with Jefferson's lower 71 score, Jefferson's yield profile is worth a direct comparison. If the objective is appreciation potential combined with low entry and low carry costs, Calhoun's 98th-percentile national rank and 8.21% price growth make it the more compelling choice among the group, provided the investor can independently confirm adequate rental demand in a county of fewer than 5,000 people.