Dewitt County

Dewitt County sits at a median home price of $161,769, up 11.34% year-over-year, with an affordability index of 95 out of 100. That combination, cheap entry and accelerating prices, places this market firmly toward the appreciation end of the spectrum rather than the cash-flow end. The cash-flow score of 0 tells you directly that the rent-to-price math is not working in your favor at current financing rates of 6.85%. Cap rate and cash-on-cash return data were not provided in the dataset, so any yield figures would be speculative, but the 0 cash-flow score is a clear signal: do not underwrite this expecting Day 1 surplus income without a significant down payment or a below-market acquisition.

The appreciation score of 77 and a national percentile rank of 91st out of 1,000 counties suggest this market is punching above its weight relative to peers. An affordability index of 95 means the purchase price remains accessible, which matters for appreciation durability: markets that get overpriced relative to local incomes tend to stall. At $161,769, Dewitt still has room to run before it hits affordability ceilings. This market suits a buy-and-hold appreciation investor with enough cash reserves to carry negative or breakeven cash flow, or a value-add operator who can force equity through renovation and refinance into better yields. It is not suited to the investor who needs a property to self-fund from month one at a 20-25% down payment.

Economic anchor data was not provided for Dewitt County, so employer-specific commentary would be speculative and is omitted here. What the population figure of 15,535 does tell you is that this is a small, rural Illinois county. Thin population means thin rental demand by absolute volume, which is a meaningful constraint. You are not underwriting to a deep tenant pool. Vacancy exposure per unit is higher than in a larger market simply because replacement tenants are scarcer when a unit turns.

Property taxes are the single sharpest line item in this underwrite. Illinois carries a state-average effective property tax rate of 2.27%, flagged here as very high, and on a $161,769 purchase that produces an estimated $3,672 in annual property taxes. Add $437 in estimated annual insurance and you are looking at $342 per month in combined tax and insurance before you account for mortgage, maintenance, or management. At 6.85% on a 20% down loan, that $342 is a substantial portion of total monthly carry. Any investor running numbers on Dewitt needs to stress-test whether gross rent can absorb this cost structure and still leave a margin. The 2.27% rate is a state-average estimate from Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual Dewitt County or township-level rates may differ, but the order of magnitude is real and should occupy its own line in your pro forma, not get buried in an "other expenses" catch-all.

The small population base is the primary concentration risk here. A county of 15,535 people has limited economic diversification by definition. If the dominant local employer contracts or a demographic shift continues rural Illinois's long-term population drift, rental demand softens quickly and there is no large metropolitan absorption to cushion it. There is no vacancy rate data in this dataset to cite precisely, but small rural markets structurally carry higher vacancy sensitivity than metro-adjacent ones. Regulatory risk specific to Dewitt was not provided and cannot be assessed from the data at hand.

Among the neighboring counties provided, Dewitt's $161,769 median is closely matched by Livingston at $160,375 and Shelby at $156,256, while Pike comes in materially cheaper at $112,450 and Woodford sits higher at $220,926. All five neighbors carry overall scores within three points of Dewitt's 74, so differentiation is narrow. Winnebago County is the one outlier with actual rent data: a median rent of $1,211.55 against a median price of $195,413 translates to a rent-to-price ratio of 0.074, which is meaningfully better cash-flow geometry than what Dewitt's score implies, at the cost of a $34,000 higher entry price. If cash flow is your primary objective, Winnebago's yield profile warrants a closer look despite the higher basis. If you are specifically targeting the appreciation trade at the lowest possible entry price with the highest affordability buffer, Dewitt's 11.34% YoY growth rate and 91st percentile national rank make it the more compelling choice in this peer group.