Garfield County

Garfield County comes in with a median home price of $247,921 and year-over-year price growth of just 0.67%, which tells you this is not a market driven by speculative appreciation. The affordability index of 77 is the standout number here, and with a state rank of 9 out of 28 Utah counties on overall score, Garfield is a relative bargain in a state where median prices in neighboring counties run anywhere from $322,000 to $578,000. The problem is that the cash flow score is zero, and the cap rate and cash-on-cash return fields come back empty, which means the rental income data needed to model a hold is either unavailable or insufficient to build a reliable underwrite. Appreciation scores 57 out of 100, which is middling. What you have is a modestly priced asset in a sparsely populated market with thin rental demand data and slow price growth.

The investor this county does not suit is a cash flow buyer seeking a dependable yield, at least not without doing deep local legwork to establish what market rents actually look like in a county of 5,121 people. The appreciation buyer will find the 0.67% annual price gain uncompelling unless they have a multi-year thesis tied to tourism or land scarcity. Where Garfield could make sense is for the value-add or lifestyle operator who sees an opportunity in a thin, underpenetrated market: short-term rental potential tied to Bryce Canyon National Park proximity, land basis plays, or a small portfolio of worker housing. But that thesis needs to be stress-tested locally, not modeled off county-level medians. The affordability index of 77 does mean entry cost is manageable at $247,921 with a 20% down payment of roughly $49,584, which limits capital at risk if the thesis doesn't hold.

On carry costs, Garfield's property tax picture is a genuine tailwind. Utah's state-average effective rate comes in at 0.63%, flagged as low, producing an estimated annual property tax of $1,562 on this median-priced asset. Insurance runs another $471 annually at 0.19%. Combined, that is $169 per month in tax and insurance, which is materially lower than you would pay in higher-rate states and leaves more gross rent available to cover debt service. Keep in mind the 0.63% is a state-average estimate from Tax Foundation 2024 data, and the actual Garfield County or township rate may differ, so pull the county assessor's current mill rate before finalizing your underwrite. That said, the directional read is favorable: carry costs here do not work against you the way they do in, say, a high-tax Rust Belt county.

The risk picture in Garfield is almost entirely a function of scale. A county population of 5,121 means the rental pool is shallow, tenant turnover risk is elevated, and a single large employer disruption or a bad tourism season can meaningfully move vacancy. There are no economic anchor employers listed in the data, so you cannot underwrite job-driven rental demand from a named institutional employer base the way you could in a county anchored by a university or federal facility. Price growth at 0.67% year-over-year suggests limited organic demand pressure. A stability score of 50 out of 100 reinforces that this market does not offer the kind of demand consistency that makes a leveraged buy-and-hold straightforward.

Against its neighbors, Garfield's median price of $247,921 is the lowest in the comparison set by a meaningful margin. Sevier County comes in at $322,742 with a median rent of $1,450 and an overall score of 61, matching Garfield's score while offering a rent-to-price ratio of 5.39% and actual rental market data to underwrite against. Sanpete is at $385,224, Duchesne at $370,278, Daggett at $337,573, and Rich County at $578,085. The only neighbor with a higher overall score than Garfield is Duchesne and Daggett, both at 63. If your goal is a conventional buy-and-hold rental with underwritable cash flow, Sevier County gives you a functioning rental market at a somewhat higher basis and the same overall score. Choose Garfield over its neighbors only if you have a specific operational angle, such as short-term rental or land, that the lower price basis supports and that you have verified through local market research rather than county-level data.