Goodhue (MN) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Landlords hold a modest presence in Goodhue County, owning just 60 SFR properties, which constitutes a mere 0.4% of the total 13,908 SFR properties in the market. This indicates a significantly lower investor penetration compared to broader trends observed in more active markets.

The investor landscape in Goodhue County is predominantly individual-driven, with individual landlords owning 46 properties (76.7%) compared to companies holding 15 properties (25.0%). This highlights the 'mom-and-pop' nature of the local rental market.

A strong focus on rental income is evident, as 68.3% of landlord-owned properties (41 properties) are actively rented out. This confirms the primary strategy of investors in the county is long-term rental income rather than quick turnovers.

Acquisition methods heavily favor cash purchases, with 48 properties (80.0%) being bought with cash, while only 12 properties (20.0%) were financed. This suggests a preference for strong balance sheets and reduced reliance on debt within the landlord community in Goodhue County.

Individual investors represent the vast majority of landlord entities in the county, with 64 individual landlords compared to only 14 company landlords. This 4.57:1 ratio underscores the localized, smaller-scale nature of the investment market, driven by individual entrepreneurs rather than large corporate entities.

In Q4 2025, landlords in Goodhue County continued to demonstrate strong negotiation power, acquiring properties for an average of $220,750. This represents a substantial $112,296 discount, or 33.7% less, than the average $333,046 paid by traditional homeowners.

The landlord-homeowner price gap has been exceptionally volatile throughout 2025. Starting with an unusual 138.8% premium in Q1 2025 ($840,000 vs $351,692), landlords then experienced a massive 62.8% discount in Q2 ($130,000 vs $349,381), followed by discounts of 35.4% in Q3 ($236,500 vs $366,332), and 33.7% in Q4.

Despite the Q4 discount, overall acquisition prices for landlords have seen a noticeable decline from the pandemic-era peak. The average price for acquisitions between 2020-2023 was $314,872, whereas the Q4 2025 average for landlords stood at $220,750, indicating a softening market or a shift towards lower-priced assets.

Landlord acquisition activity has been extremely low across recent periods, with 0 properties reported purchased for all individual quarters and full years 2024 and 2025 in the general acquisition summary. However, specific Q4 purchase data confirms 4 landlord transactions, underscoring the localized and opportunistic nature of recent investor buying.

The inconsistency in the price gap, from a massive premium to substantial discounts, suggests an opportunistic market where landlords are able to identify and secure significantly undervalued properties, especially evident in the deep discounts observed in Q2, Q3, and Q4.

Landlord activity in Goodhue County remained subdued in Q4 2025, with investors purchasing only 4 SFR properties, representing a minimal 2.5% share of the total 162 SFR purchases made in the quarter.

Mom-and-pop investors (Tiers 01-04) drove the majority of this limited activity, accounting for 75.0% of landlord purchases by acquiring 3 properties. This highlights the continued reliance on smaller, local investors for market transactions.

The largest investor tier (101-1000 properties) also contributed to Q4 activity, with one entity acquiring a single property, representing 25.0% of landlord purchases. This shows that larger, though not institutional, investors are still making targeted acquisitions.

Consistent with the overall market structure, new single-property landlords (Tier 01) continued to enter the market, with 1 new entity acquiring 1 property in Q4 2025. This indicates a steady flow of first-time or small-scale investors.

The average number of properties purchased per active entity in Q4 was consistently one across all tiers with purchasing activity (Tier 01, Tier 03, Tier 07). This suggests that even larger entities were making singular, strategic additions rather than portfolio-level expansions.

Goodhue County's investor-owned SFR market is overwhelmingly dominated by mom-and-pop landlords, with Tiers 01-04 (1-10 properties) collectively controlling an impressive 93.4% of all investor-held properties. This structure contrasts sharply with perceptions of institutional control in other markets.

The foundation of this market is the single-property landlord (Tier 01), who alone accounts for 63.9% of all investor-owned properties, totaling 39 units. This highlights the crucial role of individual, first-time, and small-scale investors.

Small-to-medium landlords (Tiers 03 and 04) further solidify the mom-and-pop dominance, with Tiers 03 (3-5 properties) and 04 (6-10 properties) owning 18.0% (11 properties) and 8.2% (5 properties) respectively.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) have a negligible footprint in Goodhue County, owning just 1 property, representing a mere 1.6% of the total investor-owned SFR portfolio. This confirms the absence of large-scale corporate investment in this specific county.

The distribution reveals a highly fragmented market where smaller investors, likely local and individual, are the primary drivers of rental housing supply, making it distinct from markets experiencing significant institutional acquisition.

While individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the smaller portfolio tiers, a distinct crossover point emerges at Tier 04 (6-10 properties), where company ownership becomes the majority. In this tier, companies own 60.0% (3 properties) compared to individuals at 40.0% (2 properties).

Individual investors are the sole owners in the two-property tier (Tier 02), holding 100.0% of properties, and maintain a dominant 92.5% share (37 properties) in the single-property tier (Tier 01), with companies holding only 7.5% (3 properties).

The transition toward more balanced ownership begins in the small landlord tier of 3-5 properties (Tier 03), where individuals hold 54.5% (6 properties) and companies hold 45.5% (5 properties), showcasing a near-even split before companies take a majority share in the next tier.

This pattern indicates that while initial market entry and smaller-scale investing are primarily individual-driven, as portfolios grow into the mid-size range (6-10 properties), company structures become more prevalent, suggesting a point where investors opt for corporate entity benefits.

The observed tier-specific ownership split highlights the different strategies and capacities of individual versus company investors in Goodhue County, with companies tending to scale up more effectively once past the very smallest portfolio sizes.

In Goodhue County, MN, investor-owned properties are most concentrated in zip code 55041, which holds 5 investor-owned properties. This region also records the highest investor ownership rate in the county at 0.9%.

Following closely, zip code 55027 shows the second-highest concentration of investor activity, with 4 investor-owned properties, representing a 0.6% ownership rate. These two areas appear to be the primary hubs for real estate investment within the county.

Other listed sub-geographies, such as MN-Goodhue-55018, MN-Goodhue-55033, and MN-Goodhue-55053, did not report specific property counts or rates, implying either negligible or zero investor activity within the provided data for these areas.

The correlation between regions with the highest property counts and highest ownership percentages is clear in Goodhue County, as 55041 and 55027 lead in both metrics, indicating specific areas of landlord interest.

The limited number of investor-owned properties across the top active zip codes, with 5 and 4 properties respectively, further underscores the overall low investor penetration and highly fragmented nature of the landlord market in Goodhue County.

Goodhue County landlords concluded Q4 2025 as net buyers, acquiring 4 properties while selling only 1, resulting in a net gain of 3 properties. This trend reverses their net seller status from Q3 2025, when they sold 3 properties against 2 buys.

Looking at the full year, landlords in Goodhue County were net buyers in 2025, with 15 purchases versus 8 sales, resulting in a positive net balance of 7 properties. This contrasts with 2024, where they were net sellers, selling 19 properties against 12 purchases, leading to a net divestment of 7 properties.

The buy-to-sell ratio has shown significant volatility: 4.0 in Q4 2025, 0.67 in Q3 2025, and 2.33 in Q2 2025, demonstrating an opportunistic and reactive market where transactions can swing between accumulation and divestment.

Data for institutional investor (1000+ tier) transactions is not available, preventing a comparison of activity patterns between large-scale entities and the broader landlord market in Goodhue County.

The lack of consistent transaction volumes across quarters suggests a highly illiquid market for investor-owned properties, with sporadic buying and selling activity rather than continuous market participation, particularly given zero reported inter-landlord transactions.

Landlords comprised a very small fraction of the overall market activity in Q4 2025, participating in only 4 out of 268 total transactions, representing a marginal 1.5% share in Goodhue County. This indicates a very limited impact on the broader real estate transaction volume.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) were responsible for all 3 transactions among the active tiers, with one single-property landlord (Tier 01) purchasing a property and two small landlords (Tier 03) completing transactions. This confirms their dominant role in the county's investor market.

Average purchase prices varied significantly by tier: single-property landlords (Tier 01) paid $195,000, small landlords (Tier 03) paid $196,000, while a larger landlord (Tier 07, 101-1000 properties) paid $296,000. This suggests larger investors are acquiring higher-value properties or have different investment criteria.

The Q4 data shows no inter-landlord trading activity, as 0% of transactions across all tiers were bought from other landlords. This indicates that investor transactions primarily involve non-landlord sellers in Goodhue County for this quarter.

The $101,000 price spread between the lowest-priced tier (Tier 01 at $195,000) and the highest-priced active tier (Tier 07 at $296,000) suggests that different investment strategies are at play, with larger entities targeting more expensive assets.