Crawford County

Crawford County sits at a median home price of $173,354, up 5.38% year over year, with an affordability index of 93 out of 100. The data provided does not include a median rent figure or cap rate for this county, which is a meaningful gap: without a rent estimate, you cannot calculate gross yield or cash-on-cash return from the numbers alone, and the tool scores Crawford's cash-flow potential at zero for this reason. What the data does show clearly is where Crawford lands on the spectrum: an appreciation score of 87 out of 100, a national rank of 14 out of 1,000 counties (98th percentile), and a state rank of 4 out of 92. For a county of 10,511 people in southern Indiana, those appreciation scores are the headline. This is not a cash-flow-first market based on what the data supports; it is an appreciation and affordability play at a price point that keeps equity risk low.

That positioning determines who belongs here. The appreciation buyer gets a county priced at $173,354 with a demonstrated 5.38% annual price gain and a top-4 ranking in the state. The affordability score of 93 tells you the median home is accessible relative to local incomes, which tends to underpin price stability as it limits the pool of distressed sellers. A value-add operator working at this price point faces low absolute dollar risk on acquisition; the 20% down payment is roughly $34,671, meaning a forced-appreciation play does not require deep pockets to enter. The buyer who should look elsewhere is the pure cash-flow investor chasing a gross rent multiplier target, because the rent data to validate that thesis simply is not available for Crawford in this dataset, and neighboring Delaware County, at a rent-to-price ratio of 8.01%, gives you an actual number to underwrite against.

No economic anchors or employer data were provided for Crawford County, so it would be irresponsible to speculate about the employment base or industrial drivers behind rental demand. What can be said is that a population of 10,511 means you are operating in a thin market. Tenant demand, vacancy response times, and resale liquidity all behave differently in a county of this size than they do in a mid-size metro, and any underwrite needs to reflect that explicitly.

On carry costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance burden is $163, based on Indiana's state-average effective property tax rate of 0.85% and an insurance rate of 0.28%. That is a manageable figure relative to the purchase price, and the 0.85% rate carries a "normal" flag, meaning it is neither a tailwind nor a material headwind. Worth noting: the 0.85% figure is a state-average estimate from the Tax Foundation's 2024 data, and actual Crawford County or township-level rates may differ, so confirm the specific parcel's tax bill before closing. At $1,474 annually in taxes and $485 in insurance, neither line item alone is going to break a deal, but both need to be on the model given the absence of a verified rent figure to absorb them.

The primary risk here is concentration and liquidity, both direct products of the county's size. A population of 10,511 means the rental pool is narrow. If a property sits vacant, comparable tenants are limited. If you need to exit, the buyer pool at resale is thinner than in a 100,000-person county. There is also demographic concentration risk in any rural Indiana county: population trends in small rural markets can shift meaningfully over a decade, and this dataset does not provide growth or decline figures to assess that trajectory. Investors should independently verify whether the county is gaining or losing working-age residents before committing.

Compared to its neighbors, Crawford's $173,354 median puts it in the middle of the pack, above Grant ($147,231), Delaware ($160,460), and Miami ($163,132), but below Greene ($198,077) and Orange ($182,101). Crawford's overall score of 78 ties Greene for the best in this group, but Greene costs $24,700 more per door. The clearest case for choosing Crawford over a neighbor is appreciation potential at a lower entry price: an 87 appreciation score at $173,354 is more efficient than Greene's unspecified appreciation profile at $198,077. Delaware County is the strongest alternative if cash flow is the priority, given its documented rent-to-price ratio of 8.01% and a median rent of $1,071 on a $160,460 median price. The investor who chooses Crawford over Delaware is explicitly trading measurable current yield for a higher-ranked appreciation thesis, and should only make that trade if they have independent rent data to validate that the yield gap is acceptable at current rates.