Hickman County

Hickman County, Kentucky checks in at a median home price of $132,907, down 5.2% year-over-year, with an affordability index of 100, the highest possible score in this dataset. That price point is real, but the cash flow score of 0 and a reported cap rate of 0 tell you something critical: the rental income data here is thin or absent, which means underwriting from the ground up is your job, not a given. The county sits at the 27th national percentile overall (rank 575 of 1,000) and ranks 83rd out of 120 Kentucky counties, which positions it in the bottom third of the state. The appreciation score of 15 out of 100, combined with the price decline, removes any near-term upside thesis from that side of the ledger as well.

This is not a market for a passive buy-and-hold investor chasing appreciation or a turnkey cash flow stack. The numbers, such as they are, point toward a value-add or opportunistic buyer who can manufacture yield in a market where median prices sit under $133,000, prices are falling, and competition for deals is likely thin. A 4,491-person county with declining home values and rock-bottom entry costs can make sense if you are buying distressed assets well below that median, adding value, and either renting to a captive local tenant base or repositioning for resale. The stability score of 50 suggests the market is not in freefall, but it is not anchored by the kind of demand drivers that create a floor under rents either.

No economic anchor data was provided for Hickman County, so drawing conclusions about employer concentration or job stability from this dataset is not possible. What the population figure does tell you is that at 4,491 residents, this is a micro-market. Tenant pools are small, and a single large employer or a single plant closure can move vacancy in a way that a 200,000-person metro absorbs without flinching. That is a structural risk you carry whether or not the income data reflects it.

On carry costs, the combined monthly property tax and insurance estimate is $132, based on a Kentucky state-average effective tax rate of 0.86% and an insurance rate of 0.33%. The tax rate is flagged as normal, meaning it is neither a tailwind nor a penalty, but at $1,143 annually on a $132,907 asset it is a manageable line. The insurance figure of $439 annually is modest. That said, the dataset note is worth repeating: this is a state-average estimate from Tax Foundation 2024 data, and your actual county and township rate in Hickman may differ, so pull the assessor's records before you finalize any pro forma. Combined, the $132 monthly carry for taxes and insurance is low enough that it does not kill a deal on its own, but because gross rent figures are absent from the dataset, you cannot model net cash flow with any confidence from what is here.

The risks in a market like this are structural and worth naming plainly. Population of 4,491 means concentration risk is inherent: a thin tenant base, limited rent comparables, and limited exit liquidity when you want to sell. Home prices declining 5.2% year-over-year means the market is not self-correcting upward, and without appreciation or verified cash flow metrics, the dual-engine model that makes small markets tolerable is not firing. There is no vacancy or crime data in this dataset, so no claims are made there, but a falling-price environment in a micro-market warrants conservative vacancy assumptions in your own underwriting.

Compared to its neighbors in this dataset, Hickman is the second-cheapest market by median price, behind only Crittenden County at $119,603. Calloway County is the most instructive comparison: at a $176,410 median and a rent-to-price ratio of 7.76%, Calloway is throwing off a gross yield signal that Hickman simply cannot confirm or match without local rent data. If yield verification matters to you, Calloway is the better-documented bet in this peer group. Johnson County at $138,885 and an overall score of 51 is comparable to Hickman on price and score but again offers no yield data here. Bourbon County at $245,392 is a different risk profile entirely, closer to an appreciation play with a price point nearly double Hickman's. If your strategy is purely lowest-entry-cost and you are willing to do your own rent discovery work, Hickman's price point is the second most accessible in this group. If you want a data-supported gross yield to anchor underwriting before you travel to a market, Calloway is the only neighbor in this set that gives you that number.