New Madrid County

New Madrid County sits at a median home price of $104,768, making it one of the most affordable entry points in Missouri and placing it at a perfect affordability score of 100. The year-over-year price change of -0.12% is effectively flat, confirming this is not an appreciation market. The county ranks 253rd out of 1,000 nationally, landing in the 68th percentile overall, which reflects the affordability advantage rather than income or growth momentum. The cash flow score registers at zero and the cap rate data is not populated, which means investors cannot rely on published income estimates here and will need to build their own underwrite from scratch using local rent comparables before committing capital.

The profile that fits New Madrid is narrow. An appreciation buyer has no case here: flat prices, a population of just 16,341, and a stability score of 50 suggest a market in slow structural decline rather than one coiling for growth. A conventional cash-flow buyer faces the same problem the zero cash flow score signals: at a 6.85% interest rate, even a $104,768 purchase requires the rents to pencil out against carrying costs, and without confirmed rent data for this specific county you cannot assume the yield works. The investor most likely to find value here is a deep-discount, value-add operator willing to buy below median, do light rehab, and rent to a cost-constrained tenant base that has essentially no option to purchase. The affordability index of 100 cuts both ways: homes are cheap to buy, but tenants are also likely budget-constrained, which caps achievable rents and limits your ability to push rent growth.

No economic anchor data was provided for New Madrid County, so employment concentration and job stability cannot be assessed from this dataset. That absence is itself worth flagging: in a county of 16,341 people, the lack of named institutional anchors, whether a hospital system, a regional employer, or a government installation, should prompt independent due diligence on the local labor market before you underwrite occupancy assumptions. Thin employment bases in small rural counties can produce vacancy spikes when a single employer contracts, and there is no data here to rule that risk out.

On carrying costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance figure of $123 is relatively manageable on a $104,768 asset. The state-average effective property tax rate of 0.97% carries a "normal" flag, meaning it is neither a tailwind nor a material drag, though as always this is a state-average estimate and your actual county or township rate may differ. Annual property tax runs approximately $1,016 and annual insurance approximately $461 at these averages. At a purchase price this low, neither figure is a deal-killer on its own, but because the gross rent number is unconfirmed, you cannot yet determine how much of potential rent those carrying costs consume. Run your own insurance quote for the specific property, since rural southeast Missouri can carry above-average wind and flood exposure depending on exact location.

The sharpest risk in New Madrid is population and demand concentration. A county with 16,341 residents has an extremely thin rental pool. Any softening in local employment, outmigration of working-age residents, or loss of a single large tenant source (an agricultural processor, a school district, a healthcare facility) could meaningfully move vacancy rates in a way that would not register as a systemic risk in a larger metro. There is no regulatory or demographic data provided to flag specific zoning or rent control concerns, but the combination of small population, flat prices, and a zero cash flow score warrants conservatism on exit assumptions. Liquidity on resale will also be limited; the buyer pool for a rental property in a 16,000-person rural county is narrow, so underwrite your hold period accordingly.

Compared to the neighboring counties in this dataset, New Madrid is the clear outlier on price. Monroe County sits at $216,427, DeKalb at $228,527, Saint Francois at $186,017, Putnam at $198,918, and Saint Clair at $205,283, all carrying overall scores between 64 and 65, essentially identical to New Madrid's 65. Saint Francois is the only neighbor with rent data available, showing a median rent of $1,019 and a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0657, which is a meaningfully higher yield signal than what the New Madrid data implies. If cash flow is your primary objective, Saint Francois delivers more confirmable income data at a higher price point but with a documented yield ratio. New Madrid makes sense over its neighbors only if you are explicitly targeting the lowest possible acquisition cost, have the local market knowledge to verify rents independently, and are comfortable with the liquidity and population-concentration risks that come with a county this small.