Neosho County

Neosho County sits at a median home price of $114,172, which is about as cheap as buy-and-hold real estate gets in Kansas. The affordability index scores a perfect 100, and the county ranks 7th nationally out of 1,000 counties tracked, landing in the 99th percentile. Year-over-year home price appreciation is running at 5.25%, which is a real number for a county at this price point. The cash flow score, however, comes in at zero, and the cap rate and cash-on-cash fields are unpopulated in the underlying data, meaning this is not a market where the numbers pencil cleanly on a stabilized cash flow basis at current rents. What the data is telling you is that the value here is almost entirely in entry price and appreciation trajectory, not in monthly spread.

That framing matters for who should look at Neosho. The appreciation score of 87 out of 100 combined with a $114K median makes this county most interesting to two types of investors: the value-add operator who can buy significantly below replacement cost, force equity through renovation, and refinance or sell into the 5.25% annual appreciation trend, and the long-horizon buy-and-hold investor willing to accept thin or break-even cash flow in exchange for low dollar exposure and price upside. A pure cash-flow buyer chasing yield should look elsewhere. The zero cash flow score is not a rounding artifact. At a 6.85% interest rate on a $22,834 down payment, the mortgage payment alone on the remaining $91,338 will compress any spread that thin rents at this price point might generate. Stability scores 50 out of 100, which is middle-of-road and warrants attention before committing capital.

No economic anchor data was provided for Neosho County, so this analysis will not speculate on employers or industry concentration. What the population figure of 15,826 does tell you is that this is a small, rural county. Rental demand in markets this size tends to be driven by a narrow set of employers or institutions, and that concentration risk is real even if the specific names are not in the data here. Before closing, any serious underwrite needs a ground-level answer to the question of what is keeping tenants employed locally and whether that base is growing, stable, or contracting.

On carry costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance estimate runs $189, built from a 1.41% state-average property tax rate and a 0.58% insurance rate. The tax rate flags as normal, so it is not a particular headwind relative to Kansas broadly, but it is worth noting that the 1.41% figure is a state-average effective rate from Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual county and township assessments in Neosho may differ materially. At $114K purchase price the annual tax bill is estimated at $1,610 and annual insurance at $662, totaling $2,272 per year or $189 per month before you factor in maintenance, management, or vacancy. On a thin-margin asset at this price point, $189 in fixed monthly carry is not catastrophic, but it is not trivial either when gross rent on a property this cheap may only be in the $800 to $1,000 range.

The primary risks here are scale and liquidity. A 15,826-person county means the pool of qualified tenants is small, the pool of buyers for your exit is smaller, and any single economic disruption, whether a plant closure or a highway bypass, can move vacancy and prices in ways that larger markets absorb more easily. The stability score of 50 reflects this. Regulatory risk is not flagged in the data, and this analysis will not invent one, but Kansas generally sits in a landlord-friendly regulatory environment at the state level.

Against its neighbors, Neosho's $114,172 median is the lowest in the comparison set except for Pawnee County at $107,014. Pawnee actually scores slightly higher overall at 82 versus Neosho's 80, so if pure entry price is the driver, Pawnee deserves a side-by-side look. Doniphan County scores 81 overall but at $158,045 requires 38% more capital at entry for a one-point overall score advantage, which is a poor trade for most investors in this tier. Dickinson and Sherman counties both score 78 at price points of $165,302 and $146,739 respectively, making them harder to justify unless specific local economic conditions in those markets offset the higher basis. You choose Neosho over its neighbors when your thesis is maximum affordability combined with above-average appreciation potential, you have conviction on local rental demand fundamentals from your own due diligence, and you are comfortable accepting a cash flow profile that is likely to be flat or slightly negative in early years before rent growth and equity accumulation improve returns.