Washakie County

Washakie County sits at a median home price of $280,164 with year-over-year appreciation of 8.95%, which is the headline number that defines this market. The appreciation score of 83 out of 100 confirms the trend is real and relatively strong for a rural Wyoming county. The cash flow score, however, comes in at zero, and cap rate data returns null across the board, which tells you directly that this is not a market where the rent-to-price math pencils out on a leveraged basis at current prices. The affordability index of 70 and an overall score of 69, placing Washakie in the 78th national percentile out of 1,000 counties and 5th in Wyoming out of 23, reflects a market that ranks well on relative value and price trajectory but offers nothing for the income-focused buyer at first look.

The investor profile this market suits is the appreciation buyer with a long time horizon and the patience to hold through thin rental margins. With 8.95% price growth, someone acquiring at $280,164 today and carrying the asset for five or more years has a credible thesis based purely on capital gains, particularly if Wyoming's absence of a state income tax improves their net return picture. Value-add operators may find opportunity if they can source off-market deals below the median and manufacture equity through improvements, but the population of 7,725 means the buyer pool on exit is shallow, and forced appreciation depends on a market thin enough that any single transaction can skew comparables. Cash-flow buyers should look elsewhere, full stop: zero cash-on-cash return and a null cap rate are the data telling you what the numbers won't support.

Washakie County's county seat is Worland, and the broader economic base is rooted in agriculture, oil, and light industrial activity typical of north-central Wyoming. The stability score of 50 out of 100 reflects the double-edged nature of that base: extractive-sector employment provides wages that support rents, but commodity price cycles introduce volatility that a coastal or diversified market wouldn't carry. No specific economic anchor data was provided, so the analysis stops there rather than speculate on employers. What the stability score tells you practically is that vacancy risk during a downturn in energy or agriculture is real and should be stress-tested in your underwrite.

On carry costs, the tax and insurance picture is a genuine tailwind here. The state-average effective property tax rate for Wyoming is 0.61%, which the data flags as low, and the combined monthly tax and insurance estimate is $198 on a $280,164 purchase. Annualized, that's $1,709 in property tax and $672 in insurance, totaling $2,381, which is materially below what you'd carry in a higher-tax state on a similar asset. At 0.61%, Wyoming's rate is low enough to move the needle on cash flow projections: it buys back roughly $100 to $150 per month compared to a market taxed at 1.2% or higher on the same price point. Keep in mind this is a state-average estimate using Tax Foundation 2024 data, and county or township rates in Washakie may differ, so verify the actual assessor rate before closing.

The primary risk here is concentration and thin liquidity. A 7,725-person county is small enough that the rental market is measured in dozens of units, not hundreds, which means one large employer contraction, one significant new construction project, or one demographic shift can materially move vacancy. There is no diversification buffer. Regulatory risk appears low for Wyoming broadly, which has landlord-friendly statute, but that is a state-level observation and not county-specific data from this dataset. No vacancy or crime statistics were provided, and inventing them would give you false precision on a market where the ground-level survey matters more than modeled estimates.

Against its neighbors, Washakie at $280,164 sits in the middle of the pack: Big Horn County ($275,079, score 71) and Hot Springs County ($227,114, score 71) both carry higher overall scores at lower price points, which means a dollar deployed there has slightly better risk-adjusted positioning by the composite ranking. Niobrara County ($187,035, score 72) is the outlier on affordability and overall score, offering the lowest entry price with the highest composite rank among the five neighbors. Uinta County ($321,323, score 69) is priced higher than Washakie with the same overall score, which is hard to justify unless you have a specific deal thesis there. You'd choose Washakie over its neighbors specifically if you have conviction on that 8.95% appreciation trend continuing, if you want Wyoming's tax environment at a price point below Uinta's, or if you have local market knowledge that lets you source below the median in a county where the competition is thin.