Bennett County

Bennett County sits at a median home price of $224,729, up 3.15% year-over-year, with an affordability index of 82, which places it in relatively accessible territory for a buy-and-hold acquisition. The dataset does not supply gross rent figures or net operating income, so cap rate and cash-on-cash return both come back as zero, meaning this is not a market where the model can confirm positive cash flow from the numbers provided. What it does confirm is an appreciation score of 80 out of 100 and a national percentile rank of 86th out of 1,000 counties, which tells you this county punches above its weight on price trajectory relative to most of the country. The stability score of 50, however, is a yellow flag, and the cash flow score of 0 means you should not underwrite this as a yield play without doing your own rent comps from the ground up.

Given that profile, Bennett is a market for the appreciation-oriented buyer who can carry a property on thin or break-even cash flow and is betting on continued price gains. The 3.15% annual price appreciation, combined with a purchase price under $225,000 and a 20% down payment of roughly $44,946, gives you a relatively low basis. At a 6.85% rate, the mortgage carry is real, but the entry price is low enough that a disciplined operator who sources rents locally may find a workable spread. The cash flow score of 0 does not mean cash flow is impossible, it means the model lacks the rent data to confirm it. An investor who can verify local rent levels above what the financing cost implies could still make this work, but that verification has to happen before closing, not after.

The economic anchors field is not provided for Bennett County, so no employer or sector analysis can be made here. What the raw population figure does tell you is that at 3,391 residents, this is a very small market. Thin population means thin tenant pools, limited liquidity on exit, and concentration risk on any single vacancy. You are not underwriting a diversified urban rental market; you are underwriting a rural South Dakota county where one bad tenant or one extended vacancy has an outsized effect on annual returns.

On carry costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance estimate is $307, built from a 1.28% state-average effective property tax rate and a 0.36% insurance rate, producing $2,877 in annual taxes and $809 in annual insurance on a $224,729 purchase. The 1.28% rate carries a "normal" flag, so it is not a headline risk the way a 1.7% or 2% rate would be, but $307 per month is still a fixed line item that belongs on your underwrite before you model cash flow. Keep in mind this is a state-average estimate using Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual county or township rates in Bennett County may differ, so confirm the specific millage rate with the county assessor before you finalize your numbers.

The primary risk here is concentration and illiquidity. A population of 3,391 is small enough that the rental market can shift materially with a single economic event, an employer leaving, a demographic contraction, or a weather pattern that changes agricultural activity in the area. The stability score of 50 reinforces this. There are no fabricated vacancy or crime statistics to cite, but the size of the market alone warrants a conservative occupancy assumption in your model, likely lower than what you would use in a county ten times this size.

Against its neighbors, Bennett at $224,729 is the second-cheapest entry point in the comparison set, behind only Harding County at $211,924. Harding and Bennett share the same overall score of 72, so the $12,800 price difference is modest and not by itself a reason to choose one over the other. Grant County at $228,365 and a score of 73, and Deuel County at $294,477 also at 73, offer marginally higher scores. McCook and Brule both come in at 71. Bennett makes the most sense over its neighbors when your primary constraint is minimizing purchase price while maintaining a top-decile national score, and when you have local knowledge or a property management relationship that lets you navigate a micro-market of under 3,500 people. If liquidity and tenant pool depth matter more to you than entry price, Grant or Deuel deserve a closer look despite their higher price tags.