Ellis County

Ellis County, Oklahoma sits at a median home price of $106,187, which is one of the lowest entry points you'll find anywhere in the dataset, reflected in a perfect affordability score of 100. Year-over-year price growth came in at 1.8%, which is modest appreciation rather than any kind of speculative run-up. The overall score of 72 places it in the 86th national percentile out of 1,000 counties, and 13th out of 77 in Oklahoma, which is a respectable showing for a county this small. The cash flow score registers at 0, meaning the data does not support underwriting this as a yield play with confidence, and the cap rate field is also unpopulated. What the data does support is an appreciation and affordability thesis, with an appreciation score of 68 and an entry price well below any neighboring county in the comparison set.

The investor this market suits is someone buying for long-term appreciation and low capital exposure rather than immediate income. At $106,187 purchase price and a 20% down payment of roughly $21,237, the equity at risk is low. The affordability score of 100 suggests pricing is at or near the floor for the region, which limits downside from price compression. The stability score of 50 is middling, which is worth factoring into any hold-period assumption. A value-add operator looking for extremely low acquisition costs could find a fit here, but without rent and cap rate data in the dataset, you cannot underwrite a specific return target from this data alone. The cash flow score of 0 is not a confirmed negative, it is an absence of data, but it should be treated as a yellow flag until you pull local rent comps from the ground.

No economic anchor data was provided for Ellis County, so employer-level analysis is not possible from this dataset. With a population of 3,755, this is a very small rural county, and market depth is a real consideration. Thin rental demand and low transaction volume are the natural byproducts of a population at this scale. That does not automatically make it uninvestable, but it does mean you cannot assume a steady pipeline of tenants or quick re-leasing cycles between vacancies.

On carry costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance figure is $143, based on a state-average effective property tax rate of 0.90% and an insurance rate of 0.72%. Oklahoma insurance costs can be material given the state's exposure to severe weather, and $765 annually in estimated insurance reflects that. The tax rate at 0.90% is flagged as normal, which means no special penalty or tailwind there, but keep in mind this is a state-average estimate and actual county or township rates may differ, so pull the Ellis County assessor data before finalizing your underwrite. At a $106,187 price point, $143 per month in tax and insurance is a proportionally significant carry cost if rents are low, which reinforces the need for ground-level rent verification before committing.

The primary risks here are concentration and liquidity. A population of 3,755 means the tenant pool is extremely narrow. Any downturn in the local economy, outmigration, or employer contraction could leave a property vacant with few alternative tenants available. There is also the question of exit liquidity, since selling a rental property in a sub-4,000-person county requires finding a buyer with a specific appetite for rural Oklahoma, which could mean extended hold periods or price concessions at sale. These are structural features of the market, not temporary conditions.

Compared to the neighboring counties in the dataset, Ellis County's median home price of $106,187 is dramatically lower than all five neighbors: Kingfisher at $225,453, McIntosh at $195,367, Custer at $178,537, Pawnee at $170,901, and Adair at $168,812. Overall scores across the group are tightly clustered between 71 and 74, meaning Ellis trades at roughly half the price of its neighbors for essentially the same composite score. Custer County is the only neighbor with rent data available, showing a median rent of $951 and a rent-to-price ratio of 0.064, which is a meaningfully better cash flow profile than what can be confirmed for Ellis. If yield is the priority, Custer's numbers make a clearer case. If absolute price minimization and appreciation upside from a low base matter more, Ellis is the outlier worth examining, provided you are willing to accept the liquidity and demand constraints that come with a market of this size.