Harper County

Harper County, Oklahoma sits at a median home price of $79,883, making it one of the more affordable entry points you'll find anywhere in the state or the country. The affordability index hits 100, the highest possible score in this dataset, and the county ranks 45th out of 77 Oklahoma counties overall. Nationally it lands at the 42nd percentile, meaning it outperforms roughly 42% of the 1,000 counties tracked. What's notable, and what investors need to sit with before committing capital, is that the cash flow score comes in at 0 and the cap rate field returns zero as well. That's not a data glitch, it's a signal: the income figures necessary to construct a clean price-to-rent ratio and cap rate aren't available here, which means you're underwriting in partial darkness. The appreciation score of 31 out of 100 is unimpressive, and the year-over-year home price change of negative 3.76% confirms that prices are moving the wrong direction, not treading water. Stability scores at 50, squarely middling.

The investor profile this county fits is narrow. At $79,883, the purchase price is low enough that an all-cash or near-cash buyer willing to absorb uncertainty could take a flier on a single-family or small multifamily without catastrophic downside exposure. A value-add operator might find appeal here purely on acquisition cost, since the floor is low enough that even modest improvements to rent roll or property condition could produce outsized percentage returns. But a conventional cash-flow buyer running numbers at 6.85% interest with a $15,977 down payment gets no usable cash-on-cash or cap rate figure from this data, which is itself an underwriting red flag rather than a green light. An appreciation buyer has even less to work with: a 31 appreciation score paired with a 3.76% price decline over the past year doesn't argue for near-term upside. If you need a thesis beyond "it's cheap," this data doesn't supply one.

The taxInsurance data does give you one concrete carry cost to build into your model. At Oklahoma's state-average effective property tax rate of 0.90% and an insurance rate of 0.72%, the combined monthly tax and insurance burden on an $79,883 property comes to approximately $108 per month, or roughly $1,294 annually. That's a manageable figure relative to the purchase price, and the property tax flag here is "normal," meaning the rate isn't a penalty you need to flag separately in your underwrite. The caveat worth repeating, pulled directly from the source: this is a state-average estimate using Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual county or township rates in Harper County may differ. Run the actual county assessor's numbers before closing. Oklahoma's insurance rates can also vary meaningfully by location given exposure to severe weather, so the 0.72% figure is a starting point, not a guarantee.

Harper County's population of 3,272 is the most consequential risk factor sitting in plain sight. A tenant pool this small creates concentration risk that no cap rate can fully compensate for. If a major local employer slows hiring, if a drought cycle hits agricultural activity, or if the county's modest population continues its historical trend of rural outmigration, vacancy can spike and stay elevated for extended periods with no replacement demand in the pipeline. No economic anchor data was provided for this county, which limits what can be said about employer diversity or job stability, but the absence of that data in a county of 3,272 people is itself instructive. Markets this small typically lack the institutional employment base that insulates rental demand from local shocks. Regulatory risk isn't flagged by the data, but rural Oklahoma counties generally operate under landlord-friendly frameworks, which is one structural positive.

Compared to the neighboring counties in this dataset, Harper is the cheapest to enter by a wide margin. Ellis County, the closest comp at $95,730, scores 56 overall versus Harper's 57, a wash, but commands a $15,847 premium on median price. Choctaw County at $133,863 and Okmulgee County at $128,733 both trade at prices that would require meaningfully more capital while scoring 58 and 55 respectively, barely distinguishable from Harper. Delaware County at $274,358 and McCurtain County at $206,069 are in a different capital tier entirely, with scores of 57 and 59, virtually identical to Harper's 57. The pattern across all five neighbors is that overall scores cluster tightly between 55 and 59, meaning Harper's marginal ranking advantage or disadvantage versus any single neighbor is negligible. The only differentiated argument for Harper over its neighbors is price: if your strategy is to deploy the minimum possible capital to test a rural Oklahoma thesis, Harper's $79,883 median is the lowest-cost laboratory. If you need a larger tenant pool, more established economic infrastructure, or a cleaner cap rate picture, Ellis County is the next rung up the ladder without a dramatic price jump. Choose Harper when cost basis is the primary constraint and you can absorb the illiquidity and demand uncertainty that come with a sub-3,300 population market.