Newton County

Newton County sits at a median home price of $146,319, which dropped 2.0% year over year, putting buyers in a position where entry cost is low and declining. The affordability index of 99 is among the highest you'll find anywhere in the dataset, which tells you this market is accessible by almost any measure. What the data doesn't give you is a cap rate, a rent figure, or a cash-on-cash return, because those fields are zeroed out across the board. That's a meaningful gap. Without a verified rent estimate, you cannot underwrite a deal here from this data alone, and any investor who tries to back into a cap rate using regional comparables should do so carefully and label it an assumption. What you can say is that at $146,319 with a 20% down payment of $29,264, the capital commitment to get into this market is genuinely low, and at a 6.85% interest rate, the monthly mortgage load is a function of a small loan base. The appreciation score of 40 and a negative price trend suggest this is not a market pricing in future growth.

That combination, low price, no demonstrated appreciation, and missing rent data, points this market squarely at one type of operator: someone willing to do the local rent discovery work and buy at a price low enough that even modest rents produce acceptable yields. A cash-flow buyer could theoretically find deals here, but they need to go to the ground level, pull actual lease comps, and verify occupancy rates before committing. An appreciation buyer has little support from the data: a score of 40 and a declining price trend are not ingredients for a thesis built on price gains. A value-add operator in a market this small, population 21,275, faces the additional challenge of a thin buyer pool on exit. Whoever you sell to in three to five years is likely another investor or a local owner-occupant, not an institutional buyer.

The economic context data is not provided for Newton County, so no employer anchors or economy notes can be responsibly cited. What the population figure of 21,275 does signal is a small, rural county. Small populations concentrate risk: if the primary local employer contracts, vacancy in a small rental pool can move fast and stay elevated. That's not a statistic this data provides, but it's a structural reality investors should price into their underwriting assumptions when no economic anchor data is available to counter it.

On carry costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance estimate is $160, which works out to $1,917 annually on a $146,319 purchase. The property tax rate is flagged as normal at 0.81%, a state-average effective rate per the Tax Foundation's 2024 data. That's a reasonable number and not a material drag on cash flow relative to what comparable rural Mississippi markets carry. Keep in mind this is a state-average estimate and your actual county or township rate may differ, so pull the Newton County assessor's rate before finalizing any underwrite. Insurance at 0.50% annually adds $732 per year, which is worth watching given Mississippi's exposure to weather events, but at this price point it's not a deal-breaker on its own.

The primary risk here is concentration compounded by data opacity. A county of 21,275 people with no visible rent data in the dataset, a declining home price trend, a cash-flow score of zero, and no named economic anchors is a market where the investor is flying partially blind. That's manageable if you have local knowledge or a property manager on the ground who can verify rents and vacancy. It becomes dangerous if you're underwriting remotely with assumed rents. The stability score of 50 is middle of the road, which in a small rural county translates to: this market isn't collapsing, but it's not supported by the kind of diversified employment base that cushions downturns.

Compared to its neighbors, Newton's median of $146,319 is the second lowest in the comparison set, above only Pike County at $97,345. Forrest County at $182,640 shows a rent-to-price ratio of 7.34%, Harrison County at $220,811 shows 7.55%, and DeSoto County at $295,634 shows 7.04%. All three of those markets have demonstrated rent data and sit at overall scores of 62, one point above Newton's 61. If your goal is a market with verified rent comps and a larger population base to absorb vacancy, Forrest or Harrison are worth serious comparison. DeSoto, sitting near Memphis, carries a higher price point but also a deeper tenant pool at $1,734 median rent. Newton makes sense over those neighbors only if the entry price and down payment size are the binding constraint on your capital, or if you have specific local knowledge, a defined tenant pipeline, or an existing property management relationship that gives you the rent data this county-level dataset cannot.