Tattnall County

Tattnall County sits at a gross rent-to-price ratio of 0.68% monthly, or roughly 8.2% annualized, which places it in the lower-middle range for cash flow. The modeled cap rate comes in at 4.44%, and the all-in cash-on-cash return at a 20% down payment and 6.85% financing is negative 8.06%, driven by a monthly mortgage of $1,059 against $1,150 in rent and $403 in estimated expenses. That gap is not catastrophic, but it confirms this is not a pure cash-flow market at current financing rates. Where Tattnall earns its score is on the appreciation side: home prices are up 9.01% year-over-year, the appreciation score is 82 out of 100, and the county ranks 11th in Georgia out of 159 counties and in the 82nd percentile nationally. With a median home price of $202,067 and an affordability index of 87, the entry point remains accessible for investors who can absorb some negative carry while waiting for equity to compound.

The investor profile this market suits is someone with a medium to long hold horizon who can fund the monthly shortfall out of other cash flow or reserves, and who believes the 9% appreciation trend has legs beyond a single data point. A pure cash-flow buyer running a strict break-even or positive day-one underwrite will likely need to look elsewhere, because at 6.85% rates and a $1,150 rent ceiling there is no obvious way to engineer positive cash-on-cash without a significant reduction in purchase price or a very large down payment that compresses the leveraged return. A value-add operator could potentially force appreciation by purchasing below the $202,067 median and lifting rents, but the market's stability score of 50 out of 100 suggests the tenant base and demand drivers have real concentration risk, which should temper how aggressively anyone underwrites lease-up assumptions.

The $216 per month in combined taxes and insurance is based on Georgia's state-average effective property tax rate of 0.92% and an insurance rate of 0.36%, with the honest caveat that actual Tattnall County or township-level rates may differ from these state averages. That said, 0.92% is tagged as a "normal" rate, which means it is not a tailwind but also not a material drag in the way a 1.5% or higher rate would be. The $155 monthly tax figure and $61 in insurance are reasonable to carry in your underwrite as a starting assumption, but verify the actual millage rate with the county tax assessor before closing.

The stability score of 50 is the most important risk flag in this data set. Tattnall County has a population of 24,309, which is a small base, and small rural Georgia counties with limited economic diversification can experience outsized swings in rental demand when a single employer contracts or a military-adjacent population shifts. No economic anchor data was provided for this county, so it is not possible to identify specific employers or institutional demand drivers here. What the low stability score does signal is that an investor should do their own homework on what is actually driving the 9% appreciation, whether that is genuine income-driven demand, low inventory, or speculative spillover from nearby markets, before underwriting that trend as durable.

Compared to the neighboring counties provided, Tattnall is not the easiest cash-flow story in the region. Lanier County has a rent-to-price ratio of 9.81% monthly annualized, a median rent of $1,722.50 against a median price of $210,779, and an overall score of 73, making it a meaningfully better cash-flow option at comparable price points. Lee County has a ratio of 7.68% annualized with a $1,703.67 median rent, though at a $266,123 median price the capital requirement is higher. Toombs and Cook counties come in at lower price points ($169,068 and $157,160 respectively) but lack rent data in this dataset, making direct comparison difficult. Decatur County scores 77 overall, the highest among the neighbors listed, at a $171,230 median price. An investor should choose Tattnall over its neighbors specifically when the case is built around the appreciation score of 82 and the 9% price growth trend, not when the thesis is day-one income. If cash-on-cash return is the primary underwriting metric, Lanier County's 9.81% gross yield ratio and $1,722 median rent make it the more compelling alternative from the data available.