Sevier County

Sevier County, Arkansas ranks 13th nationally out of 1,000 counties in this dataset, landing in the 98th percentile overall and first in the state out of 74 Arkansas counties. That's a headline number worth unpacking carefully, because the score is driven almost entirely by appreciation and affordability rather than cash flow. The appreciation score sits at 92, affordability at 91, and the median home price of $180,028 rose 6.97% year-over-year. The cash flow score, however, is 0, and with no rent or cap rate data provided, the income side of this market cannot be quantified from the available data. What can be said clearly is that at a $180,028 median price with a 6.85% rate on a conventional 20% down structure, the entry cost is low relative to most US markets, but buyers need to do their own rent surveys before assuming the income math pencils.

The investor profile this market suits most naturally is an appreciation buyer who is comfortable running conservative income assumptions in the absence of hard rent comps. The 6.97% annual home price appreciation is real and meaningful at this price point: on a $180,028 purchase, that's roughly $12,500 in equity gain in a single year, which can justify thin monthly cash flow for a patient hold. An affordability index of 91 also signals that local incomes relative to home prices are near parity, which historically supports price stability, limits the pool of distressed sellers, and keeps the entry bar low for a value-add operator buying below-market assets and forcing appreciation through renovation. A pure cash-flow buyer who needs day-one income certainty should approach with caution until local rent data can be verified, since the data here simply doesn't support a positive cash-flow conclusion.

On the cost-of-carry side, the tax and insurance picture is genuinely favorable. Arkansas carries a state-average effective property tax rate of 0.62%, which the Tax Foundation flags as low, and combined with an insurance rate of 0.48%, the monthly tax-and-insurance burden on this median-priced home works out to approximately $165. That's a meaningful tailwind. Many comparable-price markets in the Midwest and South carry combined tax-and-insurance loads of $300 to $400 monthly, so Sevier's $165 figure expands the margin window for investors underwriting thin cash flow. Keep in mind this is a state-average estimate and actual county or township rates can diverge, so pull the county assessor data before finalizing your pro forma, but the directional signal here is positive.

No economic anchors or employer data were provided for Sevier County, so no claims about the local job base can be made from this dataset. With a population of 15,913, this is a small, rural Arkansas county, and that context matters for underwriting. Small-county markets can deliver attractive appreciation and affordability numbers while still carrying concentration risk: a single employer exit, a demographic outflow trend, or a shift in local agricultural or industrial activity can reprice the market quickly. A stability score of 50 out of 100 reflects exactly this tension. The appreciation and affordability scores pull the overall number to 79, but the stability score is telling an investor to probe the economic base before committing.

Against its neighbors, Sevier County holds the highest overall score at 79, compared to Prairie County at 74, Grant County at 74, Scott County at 73, Perry County at 71, and Jefferson County at 71. On price, Sevier sits in the middle of the group: $180,028 versus Scott County's $152,008 and Prairie County's $149,082 on the low end, and Grant County's $206,491 at the high end. The one neighbor with rent data is Jefferson County, which shows a rent-to-price ratio of 0.126, or 12.6 cents of annual rent per dollar of purchase price. That is an unusually high ratio and signals that Jefferson County is the cash-flow play in this peer group if income matters most to you. Sevier outscores Jefferson by 8 points overall, driven by its appreciation trajectory and affordability, but if an investor's model requires documented day-one income yield, Jefferson's $84,271 median price and 12.6% rent-to-price ratio make it a credible alternative worth running a full underwrite on before defaulting to Sevier's appreciation story.