Webster County

Webster County sits at a gross rent-to-price ratio of 6.78%, which places it squarely in cash-flow territory on paper, but the actual underwriting tells a more complicated story. At a $138,265 purchase price with 20% down and a 6.85% rate, the modeled monthly mortgage comes to $725. Layer in $274 of estimated expenses and you get negative $217 in monthly cash flow, producing a cash-on-cash return of -8.19%. The cap rate of 4.41% is real but modest, and it gets compressed quickly once financing enters the picture. Year-over-year home price growth of 1.09% is well below inflation, so appreciation is not doing the work that would compensate for the carry drag. The affordability index of 100, the highest possible score in this dataset, tells you entry cost is genuinely low, and the overall score of 68 puts Webster in the 77th national percentile across 1,000 counties, which is respectable. But investors need to go in clear-eyed: this is not a market where the numbers auto-close at standard leverage.

The buyer this market is best positioned for is either an all-cash or low-leverage operator who can push the cap rate of 4.41% into actual yield without a large debt service load, or a value-add operator who can lift rents above the $781.61 median on repositioned product. At $138,265 median price, the entry bar is low enough that an all-cash purchase keeps unlevered yield in a workable range, and a buyer who can acquire at a discount to median has room to make the math work. The appreciation score of 61 and 1.09% price growth mean this is not where you park capital hoping for a 5-year equity pop. The stability score of 50 is the weakest number in the profile and deserves attention, suggesting the market does not offer the demand floor that cushions vacancy risk in tighter metros.

The tax and insurance picture is a real line item here. At Iowa's state-average effective property tax rate of 1.53%, the flagging is "high," and this county's combined monthly tax and insurance burden runs $215, meaning roughly 28% of gross rent ($781.61) disappears before you pay a dollar of mortgage. That is not a market-killer, but at a 4.41% cap rate there is no slack. Investors underwriting Webster need to model that $215 figure explicitly, and should verify actual county and township rates before closing, since the 1.53% figure is a state-average estimate and local levies can diverge materially. If anything, county-level research that surfaces a rate below state average would be a meaningful upside to the current model; if rates run above it, the cash-on-cash return deteriorates further from an already negative baseline.

On the risk side, the population of 36,986 creates real concentration exposure. A single large employer reducing headcount or a demographic shift in a county of this size can move vacancy rates in ways that a more diversified metro absorbs gradually. The stability score of 50 reinforces this. There is no employer or economic anchor data provided for Webster, so specific job-base commentary would be speculative, but any investor buying here should independently stress-test the local employment base and verify that renter demand is not disproportionately tied to a single sector or institution. Regulatory risk data is not provided, so no specific flag is warranted there, but Iowa generally runs landlord-friendly and that is a structural positive.

Compared to its neighbors, Webster's clearest differentiator is price. Johnson County prices at $297,138 with rent of $1,755.86 and a similar rent-to-price ratio of 7.09%, offering better absolute cash flow potential and a substantially larger renter base given its university-market character, but the entry cost is more than double Webster's. Pottawattamie County at $232,170 and a 6.67% rent-to-price ratio is a weaker yield profile and a higher buy-in. Clarke County at $189,690 and a 7.07% rent-to-price ratio is the closest competitor on yield mechanics with a higher price point. Calhoun County at $139,624 is essentially a peer to Webster on price and carries an identical overall score of 68, so the decision between those two comes down to local employment and demographic research rather than headline metrics. An investor should choose Webster over its neighbors specifically when the priority is minimizing capital deployed per door and accepting the trade-off of a thinner demand pool, or when a specific value-add opportunity surfaces below median that the larger markets cannot offer at comparable entry prices. Webster is not the right call for a buyer seeking appreciation upside or a large, diversified renter base.