Love County

Love County, Oklahoma sits at a median home price of $201,177 with a year-over-year price decline of 1.02%, landing it at the 49th national percentile across the 1,000 counties analyzed. The affordability index of 87 is a real number worth paying attention to: entry costs are meaningfully below national norms. What's conspicuously absent from the data is a cap rate, a cash-flow score of zero, and zeroed-out monthly cash flow and expense estimates, which signals that rental market data for this county is too thin to produce reliable income underwriting. That's not a minor gap. Without a verified rent figure or price-to-rent ratio, you cannot size your debt service coverage, and anyone quoting you a cap rate here is guessing. The appreciation score of 45 out of 100 is below average, and with prices already trending slightly negative, this market is not pricing in growth expectations either.

Given the data as it stands, Love County does not fit a pure cash-flow buyer or a pure appreciation buyer with confidence. The affordability score of 87 and a purchase price just above $200,000 make it theoretically accessible to a value-add operator willing to buy distressed assets cheap, force equity through rehab, and hold through a refinance, but that thesis depends entirely on rental demand that the available data cannot currently confirm. If a local rent survey or property manager can produce a verified gross rent for comparable assets, you'd need to clear roughly $1,400 to $1,500 per month on a property in this price range to hit even a 7% gross yield, and that's before vacancy, maintenance, and management. The population of 10,158 is small enough that a single large tenant departure or a structural shift in local employment can move your vacancy rate materially. Thin markets forgive fewer mistakes.

No economic anchors or employer data were provided for Love County, so no conclusions about job concentration, demand drivers, or employment stability can be drawn from this dataset. A county of roughly 10,000 people in southern Oklahoma deserves direct research: call a local property manager, check USDA rural development activity, and understand whether any single employer or sector accounts for a disproportionate share of renter demand before committing capital.

On carry costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance estimate of $272 is based on Oklahoma's state-average effective property tax rate of 0.90% and an insurance rate of 0.72%, producing annual figures of $1,811 and $1,448 respectively. The property tax flag is "normal," meaning it's neither a tailwind nor a meaningful headwind relative to other states, but the insurance figure deserves attention. Oklahoma's wind and hail exposure is real, and 0.72% annually on a $201,000 asset is $1,448 per year before any endorsements for catastrophic weather events. Verify your actual insurance quote before closing, particularly if the property has an older roof. The tax figure should also be verified at the county and township level, as the 0.90% is a state-average estimate and local levies in rural Oklahoma can deviate noticeably from that baseline.

The primary risk here is size and illiquidity. A population of 10,158 means the buyer pool for an exit is thin, tenant turnover is more disruptive proportionally, and any negative local economic event, whether a plant closure, a highway reroute, or a drought cycle affecting agriculture, will show up in vacancy faster than it would in a larger market. Regulatory risk is low in Oklahoma generally, which has historically landlord-friendly statutes, but that advantage is county-agnostic and doesn't offset the liquidity concern.

Among the neighboring counties, Oklahoma County at a $219,315 median and a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0711 gives you a verifiable 8.5% gross yield and an overall score of 61, and it is the largest metropolitan market in the state with a tenant pool that is orders of magnitude deeper. McClain County at $281,639 median and a 0.0618 gross yield scores 60 overall but carries a higher entry price. Choctaw County at $133,863 median and a score of 58 offers cheaper entry but no rent data either. If your goal is buy-and-hold with reliable rental income you can model before you close, Oklahoma County is the clearest choice in this peer group: the rent data exists, the yield is documented, and the tenant base is far less concentration-sensitive. Love County makes sense over its neighbors only if you have specific local knowledge, a direct deal below market, or a value-add angle that pencils out on your own rent comp research, none of which this dataset can currently supply.