Pottawatomie County

Pottawatomie County lands at the appreciation end of the cash-flow-to-appreciation spectrum, and the data makes that positioning clear. At a median home price of $333,017 and 5.9% year-over-year price growth, this is not where you go hunting for day-one cash flow. The cap rate and cash-on-cash return fields are effectively zero at current financing, which at 6.85% on a 20% down loan means the mortgage alone consumes most of what a market-rate tenant would pay. The affordability index of 59 confirms the county is not cheap relative to local incomes, and the overall score of 68 places it at the 77th national percentile, driven almost entirely by an appreciation score of 89. The cash flow score is 0. An investor underwriting this at current prices and rates should not expect a check at the end of the month; they should be buying a thesis about continued price appreciation.

That thesis suits one specific buyer profile: a longer-hold appreciation investor who can carry negative or break-even cash flow, has equity to put to work, and wants a market that has already demonstrated 5.9% annual price growth. The numbers actively exclude the cash-flow-focused buyer. A landlord whose underwriting requires a 7% or 8% gross rent multiplier will find nothing here at $333,017. A value-add operator looking to force equity through renovation needs a lower entry point to make the math work, and at this price tier with a stability score of only 50, the margin for error on a misread renovation budget is thin. The appreciation buyer, by contrast, is looking at a county ranked 47th out of 105 in Kansas, which is middle of the pack statewide, but 77th percentile nationally, a divergence suggesting this market punches above its weight in a lower-cost state context.

The economic context matters here more than in a large metro because Pottawatomie is a small county of roughly 25,000 people, and no economic anchors or employer data were provided in this analysis. What that means for an investor is that rental demand is harder to backstop with a named institutional employer, and the stability score of 50 likely reflects that concentration and demographic thinness. A population of 25,482 is a genuine constraint on rental pool depth. In a small county without a dominant employer anchor explicitly identified in the data, vacancy risk is real even if no vacancy statistics are provided here, and an investor should do their own ground-level diligence on who the tenants actually are and what keeps them in the county.

On carry costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance burden is $552, using a state-average property tax rate of 1.41% and an insurance rate of 0.58%. That is a state-average estimate per Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual county and township rates may differ. The 1.41% rate is flagged as "normal" rather than high or low, so it does not add a particular headwind or tailwind relative to national norms. Still, at a $333,017 purchase price, $552 per month is a meaningful fixed cost before any maintenance, management, or debt service. On a hypothetical rent of $1,400 to $1,600 per month, that one line item represents 35% to 39% of gross rent before you touch the mortgage. Any investor building a proforma here should treat $552 as a hard floor expense with no room to optimize.

The primary risk in Pottawatomie is concentration. At 25,000 people, a single employer contraction or demographic shift compresses both rents and absorption simultaneously. There is no large urban core to buffer a local demand shock. The stability score of 50 quantifies that fragility directly. Investors accustomed to secondary metro markets with diversified employment bases should treat this market's small-county dynamics as a structural risk rather than a temporary condition.

Comparing Pottawatomie to its neighbors, the price premium it carries is significant. Shawnee County sits at $198,892 with a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0686, Butler County at $241,761 with 0.0606, and Harvey County at $185,152 with 0.0558. Pottawatomie at $333,017 offers no rent-to-price ratio in the dataset, consistent with its cash flow score of 0, meaning the spread between it and Shawnee County, the most financially efficient neighbor in the data, is likely wider than the raw price gap suggests. Jefferson County at $269,844 and Cherokee County at $122,982 round out the neighbor set, with Cherokee representing a dramatically different entry-point market. All five neighbors carry overall scores of 67 or 68, essentially matching Pottawatomie's 68. An investor should choose Pottawatomie over its neighbors specifically when their primary goal is price appreciation in a market that has outperformed those neighbors on that single dimension, and when they have the holding power and cash reserves to carry a break-even or negative monthly position for several years. If current income is the objective, Shawnee County's 0.0686 rent-to-price ratio makes it the more logical starting point within this peer group.