Tipton County

Tipton County posts a gross rent-to-price ratio of 6.83%, which puts it in the lower-middle tier of Tennessee markets, closer to the appreciation end of the spectrum than a pure cash-flow play. The 4.44% cap rate tells the same story: workable for a debt-free buyer or a low-leverage operator, but at a 6.85% mortgage rate the numbers bleed quickly. The model underwrite shows negative $415 per month in cash flow and a cash-on-cash return of -8.06% at 20% down, which means a leveraged buyer is writing a check every month to own this asset. Year-over-year home price growth of 1.14% is modest, so the investor is not being compensated with rapid appreciation to offset that carry deficit. The affordability index of 72 and a median home price just under $269,000 suggest the market is not overpriced in absolute terms, but the rent level at $1,529 per month has not kept pace enough with prices to make the leveraged math work cleanly at current rates.

That profile shapes who belongs here. A cash-flow buyer running conventional financing at 20% down should look elsewhere, full stop: the -8.06% cash-on-cash is not a rounding error, it is a structural problem at this rent-to-price ratio and this rate environment. An all-cash or low-leverage buyer with a long hold horizon gets a 4.44% cap rate, which beats savings but requires conviction that rents will move. The more interesting operator in Tipton is a value-add buyer who can acquire below the $269,000 median, improve the unit, and push rents above the $1,529 median, compressing that cash-flow gap through forced income rather than waiting on market appreciation of 1.14% annually. The affordability score of 72 is a mild tailwind here: there is a renter pool that is priced out of ownership, which supports occupancy for well-positioned product.

No economic anchor or employer data was provided for Tipton County, so employer-driven demand analysis is outside the scope of what the numbers here can support.

On carry costs, the combined monthly tax and insurance burden is $240, using a state-average effective property tax rate of 0.71% and an insurance rate of 0.36%, per Tax Foundation 2024 data. It bears repeating that these are state-average estimates and actual county and township rates will differ, so confirm the local millage before finalizing your underwrite. The 0.71% rate carries a "normal" flag, meaning it is neither a meaningful headwind nor a tailwind relative to Tennessee peers. At $240 per month, tax and insurance represent a real line item but not an outlier; the cash-flow problem in this market is fundamentally a rent-to-mortgage-payment gap, not a tax burden.

The stability score of 50 out of 100 is the number most worth underwriting carefully. Without vacancy or demographic detail in the provided data, the specific risk is not fully visible, but a stability score at the 50th percentile warrants stress-testing your rent assumptions before closing. A market this size, 61,116 people, can be sensitive to single-employer concentration or population softness in ways that larger metro counties absorb more easily.

Against its neighbors, Tipton's 6.83% rent-to-price ratio is better than Anderson County at 6.36% and Greene County at 6.52%, and competitive with Carroll County on price point, though Carroll lacks rent data for direct comparison. Shelby County at 7.58% and Madison County at 7.48% both post meaningfully better rent-to-price ratios, and that is where the comparison gets uncomfortable for Tipton. Both Shelby and Madison offer more rental income per dollar of asset, and both carry overall scores within two points of Tipton's 63. An investor optimizing for cash flow with a Tennessee focus should look hard at Shelby and Madison before committing capital here. Tipton makes sense over those neighbors primarily if you are buying below-median product with a value-add thesis, or if proximity to the Memphis metro, which Shelby County anchors, creates a specific operational or sourcing advantage that justifies a slightly thinner rent yield.