Montgomery County

Montgomery County sits at a median home price of $128,856, a figure that immediately signals affordability, but the dataset does not supply a rent estimate or rent-to-price ratio for this county directly, so cap rate and cash-on-cash return cannot be calculated from the provided data. What is clear is that the county scores a perfect 100 on affordability and a 90 on appreciation, with home prices up 6.34% year-over-year. That combination, low entry price and above-average price growth, places Montgomery squarely on the appreciation end of the spectrum rather than the cash-flow end. The cash flow score of 0 confirms this: at a 6.85% rate on a $128,856 purchase with a $25,771 down payment, the monthly mortgage alone will likely consume most or all of gross rent before taxes and insurance are even factored in, depending on what the market will bear for rents.

The investor this market suits most cleanly is someone willing to accept thin or neutral operating cash flow in exchange for equity accumulation driven by price appreciation. A 6.34% annual price gain on a $128,856 asset translates to roughly $8,170 in equity appreciation over the first year, which is meaningful on a $25,771 down payment. That is not a cash-flow play, it is a total-return play, and the investor needs to be capitalized well enough to carry any monthly shortfall without stress. Value-add operators could find opportunity here given the low price point, since even modest renovation budgets are proportionally smaller relative to purchase price than in higher-cost markets, but without local rent data in this dataset the upside on forced appreciation through rent increases cannot be quantified here.

No economic anchors or employer data were provided for Montgomery County, so employment context cannot be addressed with the specificity this analysis requires.

The tax and insurance picture deserves serious attention before you underwrite a single deal here. Illinois carries a state-average effective property tax rate of 2.27%, which the Tax Foundation flags as very high, and that rate alone generates $2,925 in annual property tax on a $128,856 home. Add $348 in annual insurance at a 0.27% rate, and you are looking at $273 per month in combined tax and insurance before the mortgage, maintenance, vacancy, or management. On what is likely a sub-$1,000 monthly rent asset, that $273 is not a rounding error, it is a structural cost that can turn a breakeven deal into a loss. At 2.27%, the state-average rate is high enough to deserve its own dedicated line on your underwrite, and it warrants verification at the county and township level before closing, since actual rates can differ materially from the state average cited here.

The primary risk this data surfaces is scale. At a population of 28,352, Montgomery County is a small market. Thin tenant pools, limited buyer liquidity on exit, and concentration risk if any single employer softens are legitimate concerns in a county this size, though employment and vacancy data are not provided here to quantify those risks further. The stability score of 50 is the lowest-scoring dimension in the dataset and suggests the model sees real vulnerability, likely a function of that small population base and the absence of confirmed economic anchors.

Compared to neighboring counties, Montgomery's $128,856 median sits in the middle of the peer group: Vermilion County comes in at $93,310 with a 10.49% rent-to-price ratio and a $815 median rent, which is the only neighbor with full rent data supplied. That ratio makes Vermilion a materially better cash-flow market, and any investor prioritizing monthly income should look there first. Massac County at $112,844 offers a lower entry point at the same overall score of 81, while Marshall at $131,595 and Richland at $132,577 are essentially price-equivalent with Montgomery. Menard County at $198,736 is priced well above the group. Choose Montgomery over its neighbors specifically when the 6.34% year-over-year appreciation rate and perfect affordability score matter more to your return model than current-period cash flow, and when you have the balance sheet to carry the $273 monthly tax and insurance load without rental income covering it entirely.