Tyler County

Tyler County prices in at a median of $117,852, making it one of the more affordable entry points in West Virginia and nationally, sitting at the 78th percentile across the 1,000 counties in this dataset. Year-over-year appreciation of 0.94% is essentially flat in real terms, which signals this is not a market where you are buying for price growth. The affordability index hits 100, a perfect score, confirming the entry cost is genuinely accessible. The cap rate and cash-on-cash return fields are not populated in the data, so underwriting those figures precisely requires your own rent survey, but the affordability score and price point set the ceiling for what you need in gross rent to make the numbers work.

The profile here suits an investor who prioritizes affordability and wants low acquisition cost over near-term appreciation or strong cash flow signals. At $117,852 you are buying cheap enough that even modest rents can produce serviceable yields if you source the deal right, but the 0.94% YoY price growth tells you clearly that you are not getting a tailwind from appreciation. The cash flow score of 0 is a flag worth taking seriously: that score suggests the market, at current prices and rents, does not produce obvious positive cash flow on a financed basis at 6.85% interest. A cash buyer or a deep value-add operator who acquires meaningfully below median has more room to work with than someone financing at market price.

No economic anchor data was provided for Tyler County, so this analysis cannot speak to employer concentration, job base quality, or specific demand drivers. For a county of 8,336 people, that absence is itself a consideration. Small rural counties with limited disclosed economic data tend to have thin rental demand pools, which means vacancy risk is harder to diversify away. A single employer departure or demographic outflow can move local rents meaningfully in a county this size.

On carry costs, the tax and insurance picture is genuinely favorable. Using the state-average effective property tax rate of 0.59%, annual tax on the median property runs approximately $695, and insurance adds roughly $306 per year, for a combined monthly tax and insurance load of about $83. That is a real tailwind for the cash-flow story. The 0.59% rate is flagged as low, and at that level it meaningfully reduces the fixed cost floor you are underwriting against each month. Keep in mind this is a state-average estimate per Tax Foundation 2024 data and actual county or township rates can differ, so pull the Tyler County assessor figures before finalizing your numbers.

The primary risk in a county this size is concentration and demographic thinning. With 8,336 residents, the rentable tenant pool is small. Population trends are not provided here, but West Virginia broadly faces outmigration pressure, and rural counties bear the most direct exposure to that dynamic. A landlord with two or three units in Tyler County is not diversified against local demand shifts the way the same capital deployed in a mid-sized metro would be. Regulatory risk does not appear to be flagged in the data, but vacancy risk tied to thin demand is the underwrite variable that deserves the most stress-testing.

Compared to its neighbors, Tyler County's $117,852 median is the lowest in the group. Harrison County prices at $143,189 with a documented median rent of $1,023 and a gross rent-to-price ratio of 0.0857, which works out to roughly 8.6% annualized, a materially stronger cash-flow signal than Tyler provides on current data. Brooke County, at $128,032, is the next closest in price and scores nearly identically at 68 overall. Greenbrier at $203,064, Mason at $157,279, and Pocahontas at $178,228 all carry higher acquisition costs without a meaningful score advantage. The case for choosing Tyler over its neighbors comes down to one thing: you need the lowest possible entry price and are willing to do your own rent discovery, accept thinner liquidity, and hold through a flat appreciation environment. If cash flow clarity matters and you can absorb a modest price step-up, Harrison County's documented rent data makes it the more underwritable choice from this dataset.