Perquimans County

Perquimans County scores a cash-flow rate of zero and a cap rate of zero in this dataset, which tells you something important before you read another word: the rental income numbers are either unavailable or insufficient to model a positive return at the current $289,074 median price with a 6.85% financing rate. What the data does show clearly is an appreciation story. The county sits at the 89th national percentile overall, ranks second in North Carolina out of 100 counties scored, and posted 7.74% year-over-year home price growth. The affordability index of 68 suggests the market is not cheap, but not yet at the ceiling where appreciation stalls from demand exhaustion. With no rent-to-price ratio in the data, you cannot underwrite a cash-flow position here with confidence, and any investor who tries to back into the rent math using comparable markets should do so with extreme caution.

This market suits one profile almost exclusively: the appreciation buyer willing to carry negative or breakeven cash flow in exchange for price growth. The 7.74% YoY gain in a county with only 13,053 residents suggests price movement is being driven by something other than deep rental demand, whether that is coastal proximity, in-migration, or land scarcity. A value-add operator looking to force appreciation through renovation and then sell into a rising market could find opportunity here, particularly if the $289,074 median masks a spread between distressed and retail-ready properties. A pure cash-flow buyer, however, has no number in this dataset to justify entry. The cash-flow score is literally zero.

The dataset does not include economic anchor data for Perquimans County, so no employer-specific context is provided here. What the population figure of 13,053 does tell you is that this is a thin rental market. Small absolute population means the renter pool is small, which concentrates vacancy risk. A single large employer departure or a shift in local demographics could move occupancy rates in a way that a larger metro would absorb without consequence. Investors relying on rental income to service debt in this county are underwriting against a narrow tenant base, and that deserves weight in any sensitivity analysis.

On carry costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance estimate is $270, based on a state-average effective property tax rate of 0.84% and an insurance rate of 0.28%. The 0.84% rate is flagged as normal, so it does not create unusual drag relative to other North Carolina markets. At $289,074 purchase price, annual property tax runs approximately $2,428 and annual insurance approximately $809. These are manageable figures, but carry the standard caveat that 0.84% is a state-average estimate from Tax Foundation 2024 data, and the actual Perquimans County or township rate may differ. Pull the county assessor's current rate before closing any underwrite.

The primary risks here are concentration and demographic. A population of 13,053 is small enough that a single-property investor absorbs a meaningful share of the local rental supply, reducing the diversification that larger markets provide. There is no vacancy or crime data in this dataset, and none will be invented, but thin population markets historically correlate with lower liquidity at exit, wider bid-ask spreads, and longer days on market when conditions shift.

Compared to the neighboring counties provided, Perquimans scores higher overall (73) than all five neighbors, with Davidson County at 65, Cherokee at 62, Cumberland at 61, and Surry at 60, though Northampton County scores 78 despite a median home price of only $115,952. Northampton's lower price point and higher overall score suggests it may offer better risk-adjusted positioning for an investor who wants optionality, though its rent data is also absent here. Among the neighbors with rent data, Cumberland County shows a rent-to-price ratio of 0.075 at a $227,591 median, and Cherokee shows 0.071 at $274,117, both of which imply more actionable cash-flow underwriting than Perquimans at its current price level. Choose Perquimans over these neighbors only if your thesis is explicitly price appreciation and you are prepared to carry the position without relying on rent to cover debt service. If you need cash flow to work from day one, Cumberland or Cherokee give you actual ratios to model against.