Greene County

Greene County, Iowa sits at a median home price of $179,380 with year-over-year appreciation of 4.95%, landing it at the 96th national percentile overall and 9th in Iowa out of 99 counties. That's a meaningful signal on the appreciation side. The cash-flow score, however, comes in at zero, and with cap rate and cash-on-cash return data not populated in the dataset, this is clearly a market where the return story is driven by price gains and affordability rather than immediate income yield. The affordability index of 92 confirms that entry is accessible relative to broader benchmarks, and the $179,380 median keeps the absolute dollar commitment manageable. This is not a place where you model a fat monthly spread; it's a place where you buy cheap, hold, and let appreciation carry the thesis.

The appreciation buyer is the natural fit here. A 4.95% annualized price gain at a $179,380 entry point means roughly $8,870 in price appreciation per year on the median asset before any leverage effect. For an investor putting $35,876 down, that raw appreciation alone represents nearly a 25% return on the down payment before accounting for mortgage paydown or any rental income. The stability score of 50 tempers that, indicating this is not a market immune to cyclical pressure, so appreciation-focused buyers need to be honest with themselves about hold period. The affordability score of 92 makes the value-add angle plausible on paper, since low entry prices leave room to manufacture equity through renovation, but the small population base of 8,801 constrains exit liquidity. A value-add operator needs a clear buyer or refinance path before acquiring here.

No economic anchor data was provided for Greene County, so employer-specific demand drivers cannot be assessed from this dataset. What the population figure does tell you is that this is a small rural Iowa market. At 8,801 residents, the rental pool is limited by definition, and vacancy risk is real even if no vacancy rate is available here. Rental demand in markets this size tends to be tied to agricultural employment, local services, and whatever regional employers anchor the surrounding area. Investors unfamiliar with small-county Iowa dynamics should spend time on the ground before committing, because absorption of even a handful of units can move local vacancy metrics meaningfully.

The tax and insurance picture deserves careful attention on your underwrite. At a state-average effective property tax rate of 1.53%, Iowa's rate is high enough to deserve its own line on your pro forma. On a $179,380 purchase, that translates to $2,745 in annual property taxes, and combined with $610 in estimated annual insurance, you're looking at $280 per month in tax and insurance carry before you touch principal, interest, maintenance, or management. With the mortgage data not populated in this dataset, the full PITI stack can't be calculated here, but at 6.85% on an 80% LTV loan the debt service alone would be material. The $280 monthly tax-and-insurance load is not a deal-killer at this price point, but it is a real drag on cash flow in a market where the income yield is already weak. Note that the 1.53% figure is a state-average estimate from Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual county or township rates in Greene County may be higher or lower.

The primary risks here are concentration and liquidity. A county of fewer than 9,000 people has a thin buyer pool when you need to exit, and if local economic conditions shift, there is limited institutional demand to absorb inventory. The stability score of 50 reflects this directly. There is no regulatory risk data in this dataset, and no vacancy or crime statistics to cite, so those dimensions can't be assessed from the numbers alone. What is clear is that small-market Iowa real estate rewards patient capital and penalizes investors who need quick liquidity.

Compared to its neighbors, Greene County at $179,380 sits in the middle of the pack on price. Hardin at $139,169, Hamilton at $162,389, and Franklin at $150,017 all come in cheaper, while Carroll at $199,882 is the priciest in the group. All five neighbors share the same overall score of 77, identical to Greene's, which means this peer group is genuinely comparable on the composite metric. If you are purely optimizing for lowest entry price, Hardin offers the cheapest door at $139,169. If you want the Greene County price-to-appreciation combination specifically, the 4.95% YoY gain is the differentiating data point this dataset provides for Greene that isn't available for the neighbors. An investor should choose Greene over its neighbors when the appreciation thesis is primary and the $179,380 entry price fits the capital plan, and should look at Hardin or Hamilton when keeping acquisition cost as low as possible matters more than any other variable.