Dekalb County

Dekalb County scores a cash-flow rating of zero, which tells you most of what you need to know about the buy-and-hold math here at current prices. The median home price sits at $306,151, and with a 6.85% rate on a 20% down conventional loan, debt service alone consumes a substantial portion of any rent you can realistically collect in a county of 20,000 people in middle Tennessee. The tool's cap rate also returns zero, meaning the estimated net operating income doesn't clear the purchase price hurdle under standard assumptions. What Dekalb does show up for is appreciation: a 69 appreciation score places it meaningfully above average on that axis, and home prices are up 1.91% year-over-year. That's not a screaming growth number, but in a small rural county it reflects steady, not speculative, price appreciation. The affordability index of 64 tells you housing is still accessible relative to local incomes, which is a precondition for continued owner-occupant demand, but it doesn't manufacture rent-to-price ratios that work for a leveraged investor.

This market fits one profile: the patient appreciation buyer who either pays cash or brings an unusually large down payment and is willing to accept thin or breakeven monthly cash flow in exchange for long-term equity accumulation. It does not suit a cash-flow-first operator who needs the property to service its own debt and return yield from day one. A value-add operator could potentially reposition underpriced assets above market rent, but in a county this small (20,209 residents), the rental pool is shallow, and there's limited margin for error if a renovation overshoots what local tenants can pay. The 1.91% annual appreciation is modest but consistent with the kind of secondary Tennessee markets that have benefited from Nashville-adjacent migration pressure, and the 64 affordability score suggests the entry price isn't yet stretched to a level that chokes off future buyers.

The provided data does not include specific economic anchors for Dekalb County, so this analysis won't speculate on employers or industries. What the demographic picture implies is a rural county with a constrained renter base, which matters when you're modeling vacancy assumptions. The stability score of 50, squarely at the midpoint, reflects that reality: this isn't an economically fragile market, but it also doesn't have the institutional employment depth that drives consistent rental demand in larger metros.

On carry costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance estimate comes in at $273, which works out to $3,276 annually against the $306,151 purchase price. The state-average effective property tax rate used here is 0.71%, flagged as normal, so it's not the underwriting headache you'd face in a high-tax state. That said, the note accompanying this estimate is worth taking seriously: this is a state-average rate from Tax Foundation 2024 data, and your actual Dekalb County or township rate may differ. Before closing, pull the county assessor's current levy and verify against recent tax bills on comparable properties. At 0.71% the tax burden is manageable, but in a cash-flow-constrained market, even a modest variance from the estimate can tip a marginal deal into negative territory.

The primary risk here is market size. A county of 20,000 people has limited tenant turnover, limited comparable sales data, and limited exit liquidity. If you need to sell in a down cycle, your buyer pool is thin. There's also concentration risk in any single-employer or single-sector economy, though the data doesn't specify what that is here. Regulatory risk for landlords in rural Tennessee is generally lower than in larger cities, but that can't be confirmed or denied from the provided data alone.

Measured against its neighbors, Dekalb's $306,151 median price is the highest in this comparison set, and that's where the cash-flow problem originates. Shelby County comes in at $215,746 with a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0758, and Madison County sits at $222,286 with a ratio of 0.0748. Both of those gross yield figures are materially better for a leveraged buyer. Greene County at $240,638 and a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0652 also undercuts Dekalb on yield at a lower entry price. Anderson County is priced similarly to Dekalb at $301,800 but generates a rent-to-price ratio of 0.0636, which is still higher than what Dekalb's zero cash-flow score implies. The only reason to choose Dekalb over these neighbors is if you have a specific thesis on its appreciation trajectory relative to those markets, you have an off-market deal below the median, or you're deploying capital without leverage and the monthly cash flow math changes enough to justify the thinner yield.