Perry (AL) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

In Perry County, landlords own a significant 22.2% of the Single-Family Residential market, totaling 305 properties out of 1,374 available SFRs.

The ownership landscape is overwhelmingly dominated by 373 individual landlords who control 281 properties, representing 92.1% of the investor-owned housing stock. This leaves a small footprint for the 27 company investors, who own the remaining 28 properties (9.2%).

A defining characteristic of this market is the complete absence of leverage; 100% of the 305 investor-owned properties are held as cash assets, with no financed properties recorded. This points to a financially conservative, low-risk investor base.

The portfolio is heavily geared towards rental income, with 300 of the 305 properties (98.4%) identified as rented and non-owner-occupied. This high utilization rate underscores the primary strategy of buy-and-hold for rental yield.

The data reveals a market comprised of a large number of small-scale investors, with 400 distinct landlord entities for just 305 properties, suggesting co-ownership is prevalent among the dominant individual investor class.

A critical finding for Perry County is the complete lack of recent acquisition price data for landlords and homeowners, indicating an extremely low-velocity or inactive market in Q4 2025.

Without any recorded transactions for the quarter, it is impossible to calculate the typical price gap or discount that investors may achieve compared to traditional homeowners.

Similarly, quarter-over-quarter price trend analysis cannot be performed due to the absence of sales in the current and recent periods.

The market's inactivity prevents any meaningful comparison between prices paid by individual versus company investors.

The lack of transactional data is itself the primary insight, suggesting that Perry County is a stable, buy-and-hold market where properties rarely change hands, rather than a speculative or high-turnover environment.

Investor purchasing activity came to a complete standstill in Perry County during Q4 2025, with landlords acquiring zero new SFR properties.

This lack of activity means landlords captured 0.0% of the total market share for purchases, as there were no SFR sales recorded for any buyer type during the quarter.

The inactivity was universal across all investor sizes. Mom-and-pop landlords (1-10 properties) made up 0.0% of investor purchases, mirroring the 0.0% from institutional investors (1000+ properties).

Reflecting the halt in acquisitions, zero new single-property landlords (Tier 01) entered the Perry County market in Q4 2025.

This data points to a period of market stasis, with no new capital being deployed by investors of any scale to expand their portfolios within the county.

The investor market in Perry County is unequivocally controlled by small-scale landlords. Mom-and-pop investors (owning 1-10 properties) hold 99.7% of all landlord-owned SFRs, demonstrating a highly fragmented and localized ownership structure.

The concentration at the smallest end of the spectrum is profound, with single-property landlords (Tier 01) alone owning 284 properties, which constitutes 92.5% of the entire investor portfolio.

Ownership dwindles rapidly in larger tiers, with two-property landlords holding just 2.3% (7 properties) and those with 3-5 properties holding 4.6% (14 properties).

There is absolutely no presence of large-scale or institutional capital in this market, as investors in the 1000+ property tier (Tier 09) own 0.0% of the inventory.

This ownership distribution underscores a market completely reliant on local, small-scale individuals, insulated from the strategies and influence of regional or national institutional firms.

Individual investors maintain majority ownership across every active portfolio tier in Perry County, signaling that corporate entities have not established a significant foothold at any scale.

There is no crossover point where companies become the dominant owner type. Even among landlords with a single property, individuals own 266 homes (92.4%) compared to just 22 for companies (7.6%).

This pattern continues up the scale; in the two-property tier, individuals own 71.4%, and in the 3-5 property tier, they own 78.6%.

The largest active tier, small-medium (11-20 properties), consists of a single property that is 100% owned by an individual investor.

The lack of recent transactions prevents any analysis of pricing strategies or acquisition cost differences between individual and company investors within these tiers.

Investor ownership in Perry County is geographically concentrated, with two zip codes accounting for the vast majority of activity. The zip code 36756 is the epicenter of ownership by volume, containing 190 of the 305 total investor-owned properties.

However, the highest rate of investor penetration occurs in zip code 36786, where landlords own 39.8% of the SFR housing stock, totaling 88 properties.

This highlights a key distinction between where investors own the most properties (36756) and where they control the largest share of the market (36786).

The remaining zip codes show much smaller-scale activity, such as 36765 with 13 properties (21.7% rate) and 36701 with 12 properties (11.8% rate).

The data for zip code 36703 was unavailable for comparison, but the existing figures clearly point to specific sub-regions of interest for landlords within the county.

A comprehensive analysis of historical transaction patterns for landlords in Perry County is not possible due to the absence of available data.

Consequently, it cannot be determined whether landlords have historically been net buyers or net sellers, nor can a buy/sell ratio be calculated.

The lack of data also prevents any insight into the prevalence of inter-landlord trading, meaning the percentage of transactions between investors is unknown.

Similarly, a comparison of average buy prices versus sell prices to understand potential profit margins or market trends over time cannot be conducted.

This data gap, consistent with other findings, points to a market characterized by extremely low liquidity and long-term holds rather than frequent trading.

The fourth quarter of 2025 was marked by a complete freeze in the Perry County real estate market, with zero total SFR transactions recorded.

As a result, the landlord share of transactions was 0.0%, reflecting the total absence of market activity from any buyer or seller type.

Transaction volumes were zero across all nine investor tiers, from single-property landlords to institutional-scale firms.

No inter-landlord trading took place, meaning the percentage of properties bought from other landlords was zero.

The lack of sales activity makes it impossible to compare average purchase prices by tier or analyze the purchasing strategies of different investor segments for the quarter.