Franklin (IL) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

In Franklin County, investors hold a significant 2,573 Single-Family Residential properties, accounting for 18.9% of the total 13,613 SFRs in the market.

The ownership landscape is overwhelmingly dominated by 2,265 individual landlords who own 2,373 properties, or 92.2% of the entire investor portfolio. In contrast, 162 company landlords own just 230 properties (8.9%), underscoring a market driven by local individuals rather than corporate entities.

A striking feature of this market is its near-total lack of financing. A remarkable 2,572 of the 2,573 investor-owned properties are owned outright with cash, with only a single property recorded as financed. This indicates a highly solvent, low-leverage investor base.

The portfolio is clearly investment-focused, with 2,431 properties identified as rented, representing the core of the investor-held housing stock in the county.

The ratio of individual to company landlords is over 14-to-1 (2,265 vs. 162), reinforcing the 'main street' character of real estate investment in Franklin County.

Analysis of investor acquisition pricing is not possible for Q4 2025, as the data indicates a complete halt in purchasing activity in Franklin County.

No properties were purchased by landlords during the fourth quarter, resulting in a lack of data for average acquisition prices during this timeframe.

Consequently, a comparison between landlord and traditional homeowner prices cannot be performed. This absence of transactions for both buyer types prevents any analysis of a potential price gap or discount.

The lack of purchasing activity also means no trends can be identified regarding price appreciation or depreciation from previous periods like 2024 or the 2020-2023 timeframe.

The primary insight from the pricing data is the market's dormancy, suggesting that economic conditions, interest rates, or a lack of available inventory may have effectively frozen investor acquisitions in Q4 2025.

The fourth quarter of 2025 saw a complete cessation of investor purchasing activity in Franklin County's SFR market, with landlords acquiring zero properties.

This halt in activity means landlords captured 0.0% of the total 0 SFR purchases that occurred in the county during the quarter, indicating a market-wide slowdown, not just an investor retreat.

Activity was nonexistent across all investor sizes. Mom-and-pop landlords (1-10 properties), who form the backbone of the local market, made zero purchases.

Similarly, institutional investors (1,000+ properties) also recorded zero acquisitions, maintaining their minimal presence without any new investment.

A direct consequence of this market freeze is the lack of new entrants. Zero new single-property landlords (Tier 01) purchased homes, pausing any growth in the investor community during this period.

The investor market in Franklin County is defined by the dominance of small-scale landlords. Mom-and-pop investors (Tiers 01-04, holding 1-10 properties) collectively own 2,538 SFRs, which translates to a commanding 92.1% share of the entire investor-owned portfolio.

At the other end of the spectrum, institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) have a barely perceptible footprint, owning just 5 properties and accounting for only 0.2% of the market. This starkly contrasts with narratives of corporate landlord takeover.

The most significant group is the single-property landlord (Tier 01), who alone owns 1,512 properties. This represents 54.9% of all investor-held SFRs, highlighting that first-time or small-scale investment is the primary driver of the rental market.

Mid-size landlords (11-1000 properties) occupy a small niche, controlling a combined 7.7% of the portfolio. This further illustrates the market's heavy concentration at the smallest end of the investor scale.

No pricing data by tier is available due to the lack of recent transactions, preventing analysis of whether larger investors pay more or less than their smaller counterparts in this market.

Franklin County's investor landscape is unique in that individual landlords maintain majority ownership across all nine portfolio tiers. There is no crossover point where companies become the dominant owner type, a common trend in other markets.

This pattern is most evident in the single-property tier, where individuals own 1,415 of the 1,528 properties (92.6%), demonstrating that new market entrants are overwhelmingly private individuals.

Even at larger scales, individual ownership prevails. In the '101-1000 properties' tier, individuals own 7 of the 8 properties (87.5%), a clear sign that even the most substantial local portfolios are personally held.

Company ownership is a minority share across the board. Its peak penetration is in the '51-100' property tier, where it reaches just 25.0% (1 of 4 properties), failing to challenge the dominance of individual investors.

The data shows a consistent trend: as portfolio sizes increase, individual ownership remains the default, highlighting a market built on personal investment rather than corporate aggregation strategies.

Geographic analysis reveals that investor holdings are heavily concentrated in specific areas of Franklin County. The zip codes of 62896 (747 properties) and 62812 (691 properties) are the clear leaders, together accounting for over half of all investor-owned SFRs in the county.

There is a distinction between areas with the highest count and those with the highest percentage of investor ownership. Zip code 62856 has the highest investor penetration, where 31.3% of SFRs are investor-owned, indicating a strong rental focus in that community.

Following 62856, the zip codes with the next highest investor ownership rates are 62897 (28.6%) and 62825 (27.9%), highlighting pockets of significant rental density.

The zip code 62822 demonstrates a balance of both high volume and high concentration, with 241 investor-owned properties representing a 20.0% ownership rate.

Data for zip codes 62841 and 62859 was unavailable, preventing a complete geographic assessment of investor presence across the entire county.

The historical transaction data for Franklin County is unavailable, which precludes any analysis of long-term investor behavior and market dynamics.

It is not possible to determine whether landlords have been net buyers or net sellers. Calculating a buy/sell ratio, a key indicator of market sentiment and direction, cannot be performed.

Similarly, the activity of institutional investors (1000+ tier) cannot be tracked over time to see if they have been expanding or contracting their small footprint in the county.

Analysis of market liquidity, such as the percentage of transactions that occur between landlords, is also not possible. This metric typically reveals how mature and interconnected an investor market is.

Finally, trends in acquisition and disposition prices cannot be examined, preventing insights into potential investor profit margins or the evolution of market pricing over different timeframes.

In Q4 2025, the SFR transaction market involving landlords in Franklin County was completely inactive. Investors were involved in zero transactions, representing 0.0% of the quarter's market activity.

This inactivity was universal across all investor sizes. Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04), who own over 92% of the investor-held properties, did not buy or sell any homes.

Likewise, the market's few institutional-scale landlords (Tier 09) also recorded zero transactions, indicating the market freeze affected all participants equally.

Given the absence of purchasing, there was no variation in average purchase prices by tier; all stood at $0 for the quarter.

Naturally, with no buy-side activity, the percentage of properties bought from other landlords was zero. This highlights a complete pause in the circulation of rental properties within the investor community.