Leflore County

Leflore County's median home price of $71,977 is one of the lowest entry points you'll find anywhere in the United States, and the affordability index hitting 100 confirms it. But raw cheapness and investability are not the same thing. The cash flow score is 0 and the cap rate field returns zero, which reflects either missing rent data or a market where gross rents don't clear the bar needed to generate meaningful returns after expenses. The appreciation score of 12 out of 100, combined with a year-over-year price decline of 6.33%, tells you this is not a market where you buy and wait for value to compound. Leflore sits at the 23rd national percentile overall and ranks 46th out of 80 Mississippi counties, meaning roughly three-quarters of markets in the country and more than half of markets within the same state score better on a combined investment basis. That's a meaningful signal, not a rounding error.

The investor profile this market could theoretically serve is the deep-value or cash-flow buyer hunting for single-digit-price-to-rent ratios in distressed markets, but the data here doesn't support that conclusion yet. With cap rate and cash-on-cash return both showing zero, there's no number to anchor a cash-flow thesis. An appreciation buyer has even less to work with: a 6.33% price drop year-over-year in a county with a population of 27,920 and a shrinking demographic base is not a setup for price recovery. A value-add operator looking for below-replacement-cost acquisitions might find something in the $71,977 median, but only if local rents, which aren't provided here, can support a workable gross yield after accounting for the higher vacancy and management friction that thin, rural Mississippi markets tend to carry. Anyone underwriting this county needs to build in a serious stress test on occupancy.

No economic anchor data was provided for Leflore County, so no employer-level commentary is warranted. What the population figure alone tells you is that at 27,920 residents, the rental demand pool is small, concentrated, and sensitive to any single employer or institutional shift. Thin markets like this can generate outsized yields when they work, but they can also strand capital quickly if a major local employer contracts or a government facility closes. Without anchor data, that risk is unquantifiable from this dataset, which is itself a reason for caution.

On carry costs, the picture is relatively benign. Mississippi's state-average effective property tax rate of 0.81% is flagged as normal, generating an estimated $583 annually on a property at the median price. Combined with estimated annual insurance of $360, the monthly tax-and-insurance load runs to $79. That's a modest number and, at this price point, gives you some room on gross rent before these line items become the problem. Worth noting: 0.81% is a state-average estimate per Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual Leflore County or township rates may differ, so verify the county assessor's figures before closing. The mortgage field returns zero in this dataset, likely a data artifact, so you'll need to model the debt service yourself. At a $71,977 purchase price, 20% down ($14,395), and a 6.85% rate on a 30-year note, expect a principal-and-interest payment in the range of $375 to $380 per month. Add the $79 tax-and-insurance figure, and your base carry runs roughly $454 to $460 per month before any maintenance, vacancy, or management reserve. That's the number your rent needs to beat.

The specific risks here are demographic concentration and market depth. A county of 27,920 people in the Mississippi Delta is a thin market by definition. Price declines of 6.33% in a single year on a base this low suggest that demand is not absorbing available supply at current prices. Regulatory risk isn't flagged in the data, but small Mississippi municipalities have historically varied widely on landlord-tenant enforcement, so local legal counsel matters. There is no vacancy or crime data provided, and none will be invented here, but both are underwriting assumptions you cannot skip in a market like this.

Compared to the five neighboring counties in this dataset, Leflore is the lowest-priced by a wide margin: $71,977 against Adams County's $116,847, Copiah's $133,248, Winston's $136,992, Lincoln's $163,320, and Panola's $184,391. Yet every neighboring county scores higher overall, with Winston, Copiah, and Lincoln each at 53 to 54 versus Leflore's 50. Adams, the next closest in score at 46, is still not a standout. The pattern suggests that the cheapness in Leflore does not translate into better investor outcomes than its neighbors, at least on the metrics captured here. An investor should choose Leflore over a neighbor only if they have specific knowledge of a rental sub-market where gross yields are meaningfully higher than what the median home price implies, and only after verifying current rents on the ground. Without that local intelligence, the neighboring counties' higher scores on stability and overall rank make them more defensible starting points for a buy-and-hold allocation.