Yalobusha County

Yalobusha County sits at a median home price of $160,364, down roughly 2% year-over-year, with an affordability index of 96, meaning the market is priced accessibly relative to income benchmarks. The cash flow score of 0 is the number that dominates every other signal here: the dataset carries no cap rate, no estimated monthly cash flow, and no gross rent multiplier, which means the income side of the equation is either absent or too thin to model with confidence. What the data does tell you is that this is a $160,000 entry point in a market that has been losing price ground, not gaining it, and ranks 30th out of 80 Mississippi counties overall, landing at roughly the 52nd national percentile across 1,000 counties. That is a middle-of-the-road position with no standout advantage on either the income or appreciation axis.

The investor profile this market suits most is someone willing to do significant ground-level work, specifically a value-add operator who can source off-market acquisitions below that $160,364 median and manufacture yield rather than rely on the market to deliver it. The appreciation score of 40 says this county is not a price-growth play, and a negative trailing year-over-year price change reinforces that. A pure cash-flow buyer needs rent data before underwriting anything here, and the absence of a cap rate in the structured model is a warning to go collect that data locally rather than assume. A passive appreciation buyer has no numerical case to make at all given the declining price trend. If you are disciplined about acquisition price, the low median does give you a wide margin to structure a deal below replacement cost, which is where value-add operators have historically found returns in thin rural markets.

Yalobusha County has a population of 12,499, which is a small, concentrated demand pool for rental housing. No economic anchors or employer data were provided for this county, so the rental demand story cannot be told with specifics here. What the population figure does communicate is that tenant turnover risk is amplified in a market this size: a single employer contraction or a demographic shift does not get absorbed the way it would in a county of 100,000. Stability scores at 50, the midpoint, which aligns with that read. This is not a county where you can underwrite stability with any confidence without doing your own employer and enrollment research on the ground.

On carry costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance load of $175 is a manageable figure relative to a $160,000 purchase price. The property tax rate is flagged as normal at a state-average effective rate of 0.81%, and the insurance rate is estimated at 0.50%. Neither number creates an underwriting problem on its own, though the standard caveat applies: this is a state-average estimate from the Tax Foundation's 2024 data, and actual county or township rates in Yalobusha may differ. Mississippi's insurance environment carries weather-related exposure depending on location, so a specific quote for the subject property matters more than any blended state figure. The $175 monthly figure is a reasonable starting placeholder, not a final number.

The central risk here is size and data opacity. A population of 12,499 means liquidity on exit will be limited and finding qualified tenants quickly after a vacancy is harder than in a larger market. The absence of any rent data in this structured model, unlike neighbors such as Forrest and Harrison counties where median rents of $1,117 and $1,390 are available, means Yalobusha cannot be underwritten from this dataset alone. You are flying partially blind on the income side, which is the single biggest underwriting risk.

Compared to the five neighboring counties provided, Yalobusha scores 60 overall and sits between Smith (59) and Neshoba (59) on the low end, and Forrest and Harrison (both 62) on the high end. Pike County at $97,345 median offers a lower entry point with a nearly equivalent overall score of 61, which would be worth examining if capital preservation and dollar-cost are the primary constraints. Forrest County at $182,640 median and a gross rent-to-price ratio of 7.34% and Harrison County at $220,811 median with a 7.55% ratio are the only two neighbors with actual rent data visible, and those ratios suggest meaningful cash-flow potential relative to price. An investor with flexibility to operate anywhere in this cluster should look hard at Forrest and Harrison first, where at least the rent side of the equation is visible. Yalobusha makes the most sense over those neighbors only if you are specifically targeting a sub-$165,000 purchase price and you have a proprietary rent data source that the structured model lacks.