Fulton County

Fulton County, Illinois sits at a median home price of $107,012, placing it among the most affordable entry points in the state and nationally. The affordability index comes in at a perfect 100, and the county ranks 14th out of 1,000 nationally, landing in the 98th percentile overall. Year-over-year home price appreciation of 3.46% is modest but positive, and the appreciation score of 81 suggests the market has room to run relative to peers. The cash flow score, however, registers at 0, which is the critical tension in this market: the data does not support a straightforward cash-flow underwrite at current conditions, and investors should treat that score as a yellow flag rather than a green light before running their own rent comps.

The investor profile best suited to Fulton County is an appreciation-oriented buyer or a value-add operator who can manufacture equity and yield where the market itself doesn't hand it over. The $107,012 median price is low enough that even a modest forced-appreciation play, a cosmetic renovation pushing resale or rental value meaningfully higher, can move the needle on returns in a way that wouldn't be possible in a $300,000 market. A pure cash-flow buyer chasing day-one yield should approach with caution: without confirmed rent-to-price ratios in the county-level data, there's no basis here to project a reliable gross yield, and the carry costs described below make the margin thinner than the sticker price implies.

Illinois's property tax burden is the single most important underwriting variable in Fulton County. The state-average effective rate is 2.27%, earning a "very high" flag, and at that rate on a $107,012 purchase, annual property taxes run approximately $2,429. Combined with estimated annual insurance of $289, the monthly tax-and-insurance load alone is $227. That figure deserves its own line on your underwrite before you model anything else. At a purchase price where gross monthly rent might be in the $700–$900 range for a typical single-family home in a rural Illinois market, $227 in tax-and-insurance represents 25–32% of gross rent consumed before debt service, maintenance, or vacancy. The data carries the honest caveat that 2.27% is a state-average estimate from the Tax Foundation; the actual county and township rate in Fulton may differ, and it's worth pulling the county assessor's records on any specific parcel before closing. Illinois has a long history of local levy variation, and that number could move in either direction.

No economic anchor data was provided for Fulton County, so employer-level analysis is not available here. What the population figure does tell you is that at 33,691 residents, this is a small, rural county. That scale introduces concentration risk: the rental demand pool is thin, and occupancy is more sensitive to individual employer shifts, demographic outmigration, or a single large facility closing than it would be in a metro market. Small-county Illinois markets have broadly faced population headwinds, and while the 3.46% price appreciation suggests some demand, a buy-and-hold investor should model conservatively on vacancy and plan for longer re-leasing periods between tenants.

Compared to the neighboring counties in the data, Fulton carries the lowest median home price by a meaningful margin. Edwards County comes closest at $124,765, while Bureau County sits at $143,471, Iroquois at $149,561, and Peoria County at $154,382. Peoria County is the most instructive comparison: at $154,382 median and a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0908, Peoria generates roughly $1,168 in median monthly rent. That's a better-documented cash-flow profile, and Peoria County's larger population base and regional economic anchors provide a deeper tenant pool. Saint Clair County, at $173,515 median and a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0844, tells a similar story. Both neighbors trade at higher prices but come with more legible rent economics. The case for choosing Fulton over any of these is essentially a lowest-cost-of-entry thesis: if you're a value-add operator who can buy at $80,000–$90,000 below the asking price through distressed acquisition, improve the asset, and either refinance or sell into the appreciation trend, Fulton's floor pricing is a real advantage. If you need a market to generate reliable month-one cash flow with minimal operational complexity, Peoria County's documented rent-to-price ratio of 9.1% and larger renter base make it the stronger default choice at a price point only $47,000 higher.