Decatur County

Decatur County sits at a median home price of $164,931 with year-over-year appreciation of 8.25%, which is the headline number that explains its national percentile ranking of 96th out of 1,000 counties scored. The affordability index of 95 out of 100 tells you entry cost is low relative to what comparable markets demand, and the appreciation score of 84 reinforces that price growth is doing real work here. What the data does not provide is a usable cap rate or cash-on-cash return, meaning the tool could not construct a rent estimate sufficient to close that math. Investors should treat this county as appreciation-led until they run local rent comps and confirm whether gross yields support carry costs at a 6.85% rate on a $164,931 purchase with $32,986 down.

That appreciation-first profile tells you immediately who this market is and is not for. A cash-flow buyer needs numbers the data cannot currently support, so that buyer should underwrite carefully before committing, pulling actual lease comparables from Leon and surrounding towns before assuming any spread. An appreciation buyer, by contrast, gets a county posting 8.25% price growth at a sub-$165,000 median, which is a combination that is increasingly rare at this price point nationally. The 96th-percentile national ranking and 9th-place finish among Iowa's 99 scored counties confirm this is not a sleeper that has gone unnoticed by the model; the appreciation score of 84 is the engine driving the overall score of 77. A value-add operator who can buy distressed assets below the $164,931 median and force appreciation through renovation is likely best positioned here, because the low entry price creates room to manufacture equity while the market's own price trend provides a tailwind.

The stability score of 50 is the honest counterweight to everything positive above. A population of 7,684 means thin rental demand, limited tenant pools, and concentration risk that a larger metro simply does not carry. Vacancy in a small county like this can move from acceptable to painful when a single employer reduces headcount or a handful of tenants relocate. No economic anchor data was provided for Decatur County, so this analysis cannot point to a specific employer base or sector driving rental demand. That absence is itself a signal: investors accustomed to underwriting against a dominant hospital system, university, or manufacturing plant will need to do primary research on the ground before sizing a position here.

Property taxes deserve a dedicated line on your underwrite. Iowa's state-average effective rate is 1.53%, which the tax flag marks as high, and at the $164,931 purchase price that produces an estimated $2,523 annually in property tax. Combined with estimated annual insurance of $561 at a 0.34% rate, you are carrying $257 per month in tax and insurance before touching mortgage, maintenance, management, or vacancy reserve. At a 6.85% interest rate on a $131,945 loan (80% LTV), your principal and interest alone is a meaningful number on top of that $257. The net effect is that your breakeven rent is higher than the sticker price of a sub-$165,000 home might suggest, which is exactly why the cash-flow score came back at zero. The caveat stated in the data applies directly here: 1.53% is a state-average estimate from Tax Foundation 2024, and your actual Decatur County or township rate may differ, so pull the county assessor's current millage before finalizing any pro forma.

Comparing Decatur to its five neighbors, all five carry the same overall score of 77, which means the differentiation is entirely in price and what you are buying for that price. Hardin County at $139,169 and Franklin County at $150,017 are cheaper entries, relevant if you want to maximize unit count per dollar deployed. Carroll County at $199,882 is the most expensive of the group, roughly $35,000 above Decatur, without a visible score premium to justify it. Hamilton County at $162,389 is nearly identical to Decatur in price. Fremont County at $166,833 is the closest comparable by price. None of these neighbors have differentiated economic anchor or tax data provided, so the selection case comes down to which specific asset you can buy below the local median and what the rent-to-price ratio looks like on that specific deal. Choose Decatur over a neighbor when the appreciation momentum at 8.25% is meaningfully higher than what you can verify in the competing county, or when a specific distressed acquisition in Decatur pencils better on a deal-by-deal basis. Avoid anchoring to the county-level median as if it guarantees any single transaction works.