Susquehanna County

Susquehanna County sits at a median home price of $243,887 with 5.16% year-over-year appreciation, yet the investment estimate data shows cash flow, cap rate, and cash-on-cash return all at zero, which means the rental income data needed to close that loop is absent from this snapshot. What the data does tell you clearly is where this county lands on the spectrum: an overall score of 73, a cash flow score of 0, and an appreciation score of 86 place it squarely in the appreciation camp. The affordability index of 78 suggests prices are still accessible relative to income, and a national percentile rank of 89th out of 1,000 counties is a real signal that the market is being recognized across the investor community, not just regionally. The absence of a calculable price-to-rent ratio or cap rate from the provided data means you need to build your own rent comps before underwriting, but the appreciation trajectory at 5.16% annually gives the buy-and-hold equity story a credible foundation.

This market suits an appreciation buyer and potentially a value-add operator more than a pure cash-flow buyer. The zero cash flow score is an honest flag: at $243,887 and a 6.85% interest rate, your mortgage alone demands serious rent coverage to net anything after expenses, and the data does not confirm that coverage exists. An appreciation buyer who can hold five-plus years and is willing to break even or carry modest negative cash flow while equity builds at a 5.16% annual clip has a cleaner thesis here. A value-add operator looking to force appreciation through renovation in a market already trending upward at that pace has two tailwinds rather than one. A cash-flow-first buyer hunting yield should look elsewhere in Pennsylvania before committing capital here.

Pennsylvania's state-average effective property tax rate of 1.54% is high enough to deserve its own line on your underwrite. On a $243,887 purchase, that translates to $3,756 annually in property tax, and combined with $561 in estimated annual insurance, you are carrying $360 per month in tax and insurance before you pay a dollar of principal, interest, or maintenance. That $360 figure is material: on a typical Pennsylvania small-county rental, it can represent 25 to 35 percent of gross rent, which is exactly why the cash flow score comes out at zero. The note attached to this data is worth repeating, the 1.54% is a state-average estimate from Tax Foundation 2024, and actual Susquehanna County township-level rates may differ. Pull the county assessor's current millage before you finalize any underwrite, because a few tenths of a percent in either direction at this price point moves your monthly carry by $40 to $60.

Susquehanna County is a rural, low-population market at 38,540 residents, and the data provides no economic anchors or employer information. That absence is itself a data point for underwriting purposes. Small-county rural markets with no identified anchor employers carry concentration risk by default: if the local economy is tied to one industry or one large employer and that changes, rental demand can soften faster than it does in diversified metro markets. A stability score of 50 out of 100 reflects that directly. Before deploying capital, an investor should independently identify what drives local employment, whether healthcare, agriculture, natural gas extraction, or something else, because the data here does not answer that question and it is a critical input to vacancy assumptions.

Compared to the five neighboring counties in the data, Susquehanna has the highest median home price of the group at $243,887, sitting above Philadelphia County ($228,589), Luzerne County ($213,661), Beaver County ($192,005), Blair County ($166,151), and Northumberland County ($158,522). Every one of those neighbors for which rent data is available shows a gross rent-to-price ratio between 0.067 and 0.089, with Philadelphia County leading at 0.089. Susquehanna does not have a rent-to-price figure in this dataset, which makes direct yield comparison impossible, but the pattern across neighbors suggests that buying at the highest price point in the peer group without confirmed rent data is a meaningful risk. Northumberland County at $158,522 median with a 0.073 rent-to-price ratio and an overall score of 75 offers a lower entry cost and a visible yield signal. Blair County at $166,151 scores 74 overall. An investor should choose Susquehanna over these neighbors only if their thesis is explicitly appreciation-driven and they have independent rent comps showing the market supports rents that justify the price premium, or if they are pursuing a specific value-add opportunity where the 5.16% price appreciation provides an exit or refinance option within a defined hold period.