Clarke (MS) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

In Clarke County, MS, individual landlords hold a significant majority of the investor-owned single-family residential (SFR) market, controlling 724 properties or 79.8% of the 907 total investor-owned SFRs. This concentration challenges perceptions of corporate dominance, with companies owning the remaining 184 properties (20.3%).

The investor-owned portfolio in Clarke County, MS, exhibits a strong rental focus, with 890 properties identified as rented, representing 98.1% of all investor-held SFR. This highlights the market's primary function as rental housing rather than owner-occupied investments.

Notably, 890 properties, or 98.1% of landlord-owned SFR, are recorded as cash purchases. This suggests a strong preference for unfinanced acquisitions among investors in Clarke County, MS, potentially reducing exposure to interest rate fluctuations.

A significant numerical imbalance exists between individual and company landlords in Clarke County, MS, with 776 individual entities compared to 151 companies. This ratio of 5.14 individual landlords for every company further underscores the market's reliance on smaller, local investors.

Overall, landlord-owned SFR properties constitute a notable 18.6% of the total 4,874 SFR properties in Clarke County, MS. This substantial market penetration indicates that investor activity is a significant component of the local housing landscape.

Analysis of acquisition pricing in Clarke County, MS, is currently limited by the absence of recorded landlord purchase data for Q4 2025. This prevents any direct comparison of landlord acquisition prices against those paid by traditional homeowners for the current period.

Furthermore, without any recorded landlord acquisitions in the previous quarters, it is impossible to track quarter-over-quarter trends in pricing or to determine if a price gap between landlords and homeowners has widened or narrowed over time in Clarke County, MS.

The data shows '0 properties' acquired by landlords in the years 2020-2023, with an average price of $41,000. This indicates an extremely low or non-existent volume of recorded purchases for landlords during this historical period within Clarke County, MS, making any pricing trends difficult to ascertain.

The lack of recent and historical acquisition data means that insights into price appreciation from the pandemic era (2020-2023) to Q4 2025 cannot be provided for Clarke County, MS. This signifies a quiet period for reported landlord purchasing activity.

Without transaction records for individual and company landlords, it is not possible to determine if these owner types pay different average prices for properties in Clarke County, MS, or to identify specific acquisition price trends by timeframe for distinct investor profiles.

In Clarke County, MS, Q4 2025 saw no recorded SFR purchase activity, resulting in zero landlord purchases for the quarter. This indicates a complete absence of new acquisitions by investors within the local market during this period.

As a direct consequence of no overall Q4 purchase activity, landlords did not account for any share of the SFR market. This implies a pause in market expansion through new property acquisitions by investors in Clarke County, MS.

The absence of Q4 purchase data means that neither mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04) nor institutional investors (Tier 09) registered any buying activity. This uniform lack of purchases across all investor tiers signals a quiet market for new investments.

With zero new purchases, there were no new landlords entering the market with single properties (Tier 01) in Q4 2025. This indicates a stagnant period for the formation of new, small-scale investor portfolios in Clarke County, MS.

Without any Q4 purchase transactions, it is not possible to determine which investor tiers were most active, nor to calculate the average properties per entity or the concentration of activity by tier for Clarke County, MS, during this quarter.

Mom-and-pop landlords, encompassing those with 1 to 10 properties (Tiers 01-04), collectively own an overwhelming 93.9% of all investor-held SFR properties in Clarke County, MS. This concentration highlights the profound reliance on small-scale investors in the local market.

The most dominant segment within investor ownership is single-property landlords (Tier 01), who control 692 properties, representing 73.8% of the total investor-owned portfolio. This makes first-time or minimal-portfolio landlords the primary force in the Clarke County, MS, rental market.

In stark contrast to the mom-and-pop dominance, institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) have no recorded ownership in Clarke County, MS. This signals an absence of large-scale corporate landlord operations in the area, differentiating it from more institutionally active markets.

Mid-size landlords, those owning 11-100 properties, account for a smaller but notable portion of the market, with 46 properties (4.9%) in the 11-20 tier, 6 properties (0.6%) in the 21-50 tier, and 5 properties (0.5%) in the 51-100 tier. This demonstrates a gradual progression of ownership beyond the mom-and-pop segment.

Given the lack of acquisition price data for specific tiers in Clarke County, MS, it is not possible to analyze how acquisition prices vary by investor size, nor to discern if larger investors secure properties at different price points compared to smaller landlords.

In Clarke County, MS, individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the smaller portfolio tiers, exemplified by their 81.0% share of single-property holdings (561 properties) and 89.3% share of two-property holdings (50 properties). This reinforces the role of local, individual investors in the foundational segments of the market.

The significant crossover point where companies become the majority owners occurs at the small-medium (11-20 properties) tier in Clarke County, MS. Here, companies own 27 properties (58.7%), surpassing individual investors who hold 19 properties (41.3%).

Even in smaller tiers, company ownership is present, accounting for 19.0% (132 properties) of the single-property tier and 10.7% (6 properties) of the two-property tier. This indicates that some entities classified as companies are also operating at a smaller scale.

Conversely, individual investors maintain substantial control in tiers up to 10 properties, with 90.2% (92 properties) in the 3-5 property tier and 90.3% (28 properties) in the 6-10 property tier. This consistent individual dominance in smaller tiers is a defining characteristic of the Clarke County, MS, investor market.

Given the absence of pricing data specific to owner types within tiers, it is not possible to assess how individual vs. company acquisition prices differ across portfolio sizes or to identify distinct growth patterns between these owner types from all-time data to Q4.

Within Clarke County, MS, the ZIP code MS-Clarke-39355 stands out as having the highest concentration of investor-owned properties, with 392 SFRs. This indicates a significant hub of landlord activity and investment within this specific sub-geography.

While MS-Clarke-39355 leads in raw property count, MS-Clarke-39363 exhibits the highest investor ownership rate at 27.9% of its total SFR inventory, owning 151 properties. This suggests that a larger proportion of the housing stock in this area is dedicated to rental purposes by investors.

Other top sub-geographies by investor-owned count include MS-Clarke-39363 with 151 properties, MS-Clarke-39360 with 141 properties, and MS-Clarke-39330 with 103 properties. These areas collectively highlight the primary zones of investor focus within Clarke County, MS.

Beyond the top count, MS-Clarke-39367 (23.4%) and MS-Clarke-39347 (21.5%) also show high investor ownership percentages, indicating markets where a substantial portion of properties are investor-owned despite not having the highest absolute counts. This reveals concentrated landlord penetration in these smaller sub-markets.

The varying acquisition prices across these specific geographic regions are not provided in the current dataset, thus limiting analysis into how pricing strategies might differ based on sub-geographical investor demand or market conditions within Clarke County, MS.

Analysis of historical transaction patterns for landlords in Clarke County, MS, is currently unfeasible due to the complete absence of data for both buy and sell transactions across all timeframes. This means no conclusions can be drawn about overall market direction or investor sentiment over time.

The lack of transaction records also extends to institutional investors (1000+ tier), meaning their historical buy/sell positions and activity cannot be determined. This prevents any comparison of institutional behavior against the broader landlord market in Clarke County, MS.

Without buy and sell transaction data, it is impossible to calculate the percentage of acquisitions that involved other landlords (inter-landlord transactions) or to assess the liquidity of the landlord-to-landlord market in Clarke County, MS.

Furthermore, the absence of average buy and sell prices for any timeframe means that implied profit margins or changes in pricing dynamics between acquisitions and dispositions cannot be analyzed for landlords in Clarke County, MS.

The lack of historical transaction volume prevents any assessment of how landlord activity has changed across timeframes (e.g., Q4 vs. Q3, annual comparisons). This indicates a quiet period for reported transaction activity or a limitation in data collection for Clarke County, MS.

Clarke County, MS, recorded zero total SFR transactions in Q4 2025, resulting in no landlord-involved transactions during this period. This indicates a complete halt in recorded property exchanges involving investors for the quarter.

As a direct consequence of zero transactions, landlords accounted for 0.0% of all Q4 SFR market activity in Clarke County, MS. This points to a stagnant or non-reporting period for investor transactions in the local market.

Without any recorded transactions by tier, it is not possible to analyze how transaction volumes vary across investor sizes in Q4 2025 for Clarke County, MS. This means no specific tiers showed buying or selling activity during the quarter.

Similarly, the absence of Q4 transaction data prevents any calculation of average purchase prices by tier. Therefore, insights into which investor tiers might have paid more or less, or what the price spread was, cannot be provided for Clarke County, MS.

Inter-landlord trading activity, such as properties bought from other landlords, also registered zero in Q4 2025 due to the overall lack of transactions in Clarke County, MS. This signifies no recorded internal market liquidity among landlords during this period.