Union Parish (LA) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

In Union Parish, investors hold a significant 21.0% of the single-family residential market, totaling 1,254 properties. This market is overwhelmingly characterized by small, individual ownership rather than corporate control.

Individual landlords are the definitive backbone of the local rental market, owning 1,042 properties, which constitutes 83.1% of all investor-owned SFRs. In contrast, company-owned properties number just 214, or 17.1% of the investor portfolio.

The entity count further underscores this dynamic, with 1,185 individual landlords vastly outnumbering the 181 company landlords. This 6.5-to-1 ratio of individuals to companies signals a market driven by local, small-scale investment.

A striking financial pattern is the preference for cash acquisitions. Investors own 1,085 properties outright, compared to only 169 that are financed. This indicates a well-capitalized investor base that is less reliant on leverage.

The portfolio composition confirms a strong focus on rental income, with 1,231 of the 1,254 properties identified as rented, demonstrating the primary business model for real estate investors in Union Parish.

Investors in Union Parish demonstrated an exceptional ability to acquire properties at a deep discount in Q4 2025. Landlords paid an average price of just $56,148, which is 68.4% less than the $177,658 paid by traditional homeowners during the same period.

This price advantage represents a significant cash discount of $121,510 per property, highlighting a distinct purchasing strategy that likely targets distressed or off-market opportunities not pursued by typical homebuyers.

The discount for landlords has not been static; it has widened dramatically throughout the year. The 68.4% gap in Q4 is more than double the 30.5% discount seen in Q3 ($49,304) and the 27.0% discount in Q2 ($54,383), signaling a growing divergence between investor and homeowner acquisition costs.

This trend suggests that as the market changes, investors are becoming increasingly effective at identifying and securing properties well below the standard market rate paid by owner-occupiers.

Comparing prices year-over-year shows a cooling trend, with the average landlord acquisition price in 2025 ($147,607) being significantly lower than in 2024 ($209,248), reflecting broader market adjustments.

Investor purchasing activity accounted for 13.6% of the Union Parish SFR market in Q4 2025, with landlords acquiring 6 of the 44 total properties sold.

The quarter's activity was entirely dominated by new and small-scale investors. All 6 properties were purchased by landlords in the single-property tier, representing 100% of investor acquisitions.

This influx of new participants is highlighted by the creation of 9 new landlord entities, all of which now own a single property. This signals a healthy, entry-level market for aspiring real estate investors.

In stark contrast to the activity at the small end of the market, there were zero purchases by mid-size or institutional landlords (Tiers 05-09). This absence underscores the hyper-local, small-investor nature of the Union Parish market.

The data clearly shows that market growth is being driven from the ground up, with new mom-and-pop landlords responsible for all of the net new inventory added to investor portfolios this quarter.

The investor landscape in Union Parish is unequivocally dominated by small-scale operators. Mom-and-pop landlords, defined as those owning 1-10 properties, control a staggering 96.9% of all investor-owned SFRs.

The concentration at the smallest end of the spectrum is even more pronounced. Landlords owning just a single property (Tier 01) make up the largest group, holding 1,034 properties, which accounts for 81.0% of the entire investor portfolio.

This ownership structure firmly challenges any narrative of large-scale corporate dominance. The next three tiers combined—two-property (6.5%), 3-5 properties (6.8%), and 6-10 properties (2.7%)—make up the remainder of the mom-and-pop share.

Mid-size landlords (11-1000 properties) have a very limited presence, collectively owning just 3.0% of the investor-owned housing stock.

Institutional investors (1,000+ properties) have a near-zero footprint in the parish, owning only 2 properties. This represents just 0.2% of the market, confirming that large-scale capital has not penetrated this local market.

A distinct crossover point in ownership structure occurs as portfolio sizes grow in Union Parish. While individual investors dominate the smaller tiers, companies become the majority owners in portfolios of 11-20 properties, holding 24 of the 25 properties (96.0%) in that tier.

In the entry-level tiers, individual ownership is overwhelming. Individuals own 87.8% of single-property portfolios (908 properties) and 77.1% of two-property portfolios (64 properties).

This pattern continues into the small landlord tiers, with individuals holding 72.4% of properties in the 3-5 unit range and 70.6% in the 6-10 unit range.

The shift to corporate ownership past the 10-property mark suggests a strategic transition. As portfolios scale, investors are more likely to use corporate structures for liability protection, financing, and operational efficiency.

This data clearly illustrates two different investor profiles: the individual 'mom-and-pop' who dominates the 1-10 property space and the smaller, but more concentrated, group of companies that control the larger local portfolios.

Geographic analysis reveals that investor ownership in Union Parish is not evenly distributed, with specific zip codes showing high concentrations of activity. The 71241 zip code leads by sheer volume, containing 521 investor-owned SFR properties.

However, when measuring by market penetration, the 71256 zip code has the highest rate of investor ownership at 29.9%, indicating that nearly one in three SFRs in that area is investor-owned.

There is a strong correlation between the areas with high property counts and high ownership rates. The 71222 zip code ranks second for ownership rate (25.7%) and third for total count (201 properties), making it a clear investor hotspot.

Similarly, the 71260 zip code is fourth on both lists, with 176 investor properties and a 23.5% ownership rate, further reinforcing the geographic concentration of rental housing.

These patterns suggest that investors in Union Parish are targeting specific sub-markets, likely driven by factors such as rental demand, property values, and local economic conditions.

Transaction data reveals that landlords in Union Parish are firmly in an accumulation phase, consistently buying far more properties than they sell. In Q4 2025, investors were strong net buyers, with 9 acquisitions against only 1 sale.

This aggressive buying posture is a long-term trend, not a quarterly anomaly. For the full year of 2025, the buy-to-sell ratio was over 10-to-1, with 31 properties purchased and only 3 sold.

The pattern was similar in the preceding year. In 2024, landlords acquired 71 properties while selling just 10, resulting in a net gain of 61 properties and a robust 7.1x buy/sell ratio.

This sustained net buying activity signals strong confidence in the local rental market and a clear strategy of portfolio expansion among the parish's investor base.

Notably, all of this transaction activity is happening outside of the institutional sphere. The 1,000+ property tier recorded zero buys or sells, indicating that the market's growth and liquidity are driven entirely by mom-and-pop and mid-size investors.

In Q4 2025, investors participated in 14.8% of all SFR property transactions in Union Parish, with 9 landlord-involved transactions out of a market total of 61.

The entirety of this investor activity was driven by the smallest players. All 9 transactions were acquisitions made by landlords in the single-property (Tier 01) category, reflecting the entry of new investors into the market.

These new mom-and-pop buyers paid an average price of $56,148 per property, a price point that aligns with the deep discounts observed when comparing landlord to homeowner purchases.

A key finding is the source of these properties. None of the 9 landlord purchases in Q4 were acquired from other landlords. This 0% inter-landlord transaction rate shows that new investors are adding to the overall rental stock by buying from homeowners, rather than just trading existing rental properties among themselves.

This pattern of acquiring properties from outside the existing investor pool is a primary mechanism for how the overall investor market share grows within a region.