Pearl River (MS) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Pearl River's Single Family Residential (SFR) market sees substantial investor presence, with landlords owning 3,629 properties, accounting for 18.7% of the total SFR inventory of 19,369 properties. This highlights a significant portion of the housing stock dedicated to rental income or investment portfolios within the county.

Individual landlords profoundly dominate the ownership landscape, holding 2,713 SFR properties, which represents a commanding 74.8% of all investor-owned SFR. In contrast, company investors account for 972 properties, or 26.8% of the landlord-owned portfolio, challenging narratives of corporate dominance in this market.

The investor base itself is heavily individual-centric, with 3,054 individual landlords compared to just 658 company landlords, meaning individuals constitute 82.3% of all landlord entities in Pearl River.

An overwhelming 97.2% (3,526 properties) of landlord-owned SFR properties are rented, underscoring that the vast majority of these holdings are actively utilized for income generation rather than being left vacant or used for other purposes.

A striking 94.2% of landlord-owned properties, totaling 3,419 units, were acquired with cash, indicating a strong preference for or reliance on liquid capital for acquisitions. Only 5.8% (210 properties) of the portfolio is currently financed, suggesting a low leverage environment among Pearl River landlords.

In Q4 2025, landlords in Pearl River, MS, demonstrated a notable pricing advantage, acquiring properties at an average of $142,500. This price point represents a significant 33.9% discount when compared to the average $215,468 paid by traditional homeowners, translating to a $72,968 savings per property.

The price gap between landlords and homeowners has fluctuated considerably throughout 2025. Starting with a 26.9% discount in Q1 ($207,723 vs $284,294), the discount narrowed to 10.7% in Q2 ($235,974 vs $264,292) before widening dramatically to 33.9% in Q4.

Landlord acquisition prices in 2025 have not followed a consistent upward or downward trend, peaking at $235,974 in Q2 and then declining to $142,500 by Q4. This volatility suggests market dynamics are influencing investor pricing strategies in the county.

Comparing the Q4 2025 landlord acquisition price of $142,500 to the average price of $148,363 observed during the 2020-2023 period reveals a slight decline of $5,863. This indicates that recent landlord purchases are occurring at prices below the pandemic-era average in Pearl River.

Landlords in Pearl River, MS, accounted for a notable 13.6% of all Single Family Residential (SFR) purchases in Q4 2025, acquiring 6 out of 44 total properties. This demonstrates a focused, albeit smaller, segment of market activity driven by investors.

The entirety of landlord purchasing activity in Q4 was spearheaded by mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04), who made all 6 purchases, representing 100.0% of the quarter's landlord acquisitions. This underscores the dominance of smaller-scale investors in recent market entry.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) remained entirely absent from the purchasing landscape in Q4 2025, recording 0 acquisitions. This starkly contrasts with the robust activity seen among smaller landlords.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were particularly active, responsible for half of all landlord purchases in Q4, acquiring 3 properties through 4 distinct entities. This indicates a consistent entry of new, first-time investors into the Pearl River market.

The combined activity of single-property (3 properties), two-property (2 properties), and small landlords (3-5 properties, 1 property) illustrates a diversified engagement from the mom-and-pop segment, ensuring market liquidity and competition even without larger players.

Mom-and-pop landlords, defined as those owning 1-10 properties (Tiers 01-04), exert overwhelming control over Pearl River's investor-owned SFR market. They collectively hold 3,470 properties, representing a substantial 92.3% of the total investor-owned portfolio.

The largest segment within this mom-and-pop dominance is single-property owners (Tier 01), who alone account for 2,555 properties, or 67.9% of all investor-owned SFR. This highlights the foundational role of individual, small-scale investors in the county's rental housing supply.

Mid-size landlords (Tiers 05-08) collectively manage 284 properties, making up 7.6% of the investor-owned market, indicating a noticeable but not dominant presence of investors with portfolios ranging from 11 to 1000 properties.

In stark contrast to the mom-and-pop sector, institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) maintain a minimal footprint in Pearl River, owning only 7 properties, which translates to a mere 0.2% of the investor-owned SFR market. This definitively counters any notion of significant institutional capture in this county.

The distribution reveals a classic pyramid structure, with decreasing property counts as portfolio size increases: 2,555 properties in Tier 01 down to just 7 properties in Tier 09, affirming a market primarily sustained by small and medium landlords.

While individual investors dominate the overall landlord market, a significant shift occurs at the 6-10 property tier (Small landlord), where companies become the majority owners. In this tier, companies own 80 properties (57.1%), surpassing individual owners who hold 60 properties (42.9%).

Individual investors maintain a strong lead in the smallest tiers; for example, they own 2,121 properties (81.6%) in the single-property (Tier 01) segment and 288 properties (74.0%) in the two-property (Tier 02) segment. This reinforces their foundational role in the market's entry points.

Even in the small landlord (3-5 properties) tier, individual owners still hold a substantial majority with 273 properties (70.2%), compared to companies at 116 properties (29.8%). This demonstrates the sustained individual presence deeper into the mom-and-pop segment.

However, the crossover at the 6-10 property tier signals a shift in business model, where companies begin to accumulate larger, albeit still mid-size, portfolios in Pearl River, indicating a different investment strategy compared to the smaller, individually-held portfolios.

For larger tiers (21-50, 51-100, 101-1000, and 1000+), the specific individual versus company breakdown is not provided, making it challenging to precisely define ownership structure beyond the 1-20 property range. However, the data for Tier 09 shows 7 properties under this institutional segment in total.

Within Pearl River County, the MS-Pearl River-39466 zip code stands out as the primary hub for investor activity, boasting the highest count of landlord-owned properties at 1,785. This concentration indicates a significant appeal for real estate investors in this specific area.

Beyond sheer volume, MS-Pearl River-39466 also leads in investor ownership rate, with 21.6% of its SFR properties owned by landlords. This suggests that over one-fifth of the housing stock in this zip code is part of an investment portfolio, making it a highly penetrated market.

Other significant sub-geographies by property count include MS-Pearl River-39426 with 955 properties and MS-Pearl River-39470 with 740 properties, showcasing broader distribution of investor interest across the county.

The investor ownership rates across the top-performing zip codes are consistently high, ranging from 15.2% in MS-Pearl River-39426 to 18.5% in MS-Pearl River-39470. This demonstrates a robust and pervasive landlord presence throughout the key areas of Pearl River.

The data confirms a strong correlation between high property counts and high ownership percentages, as seen with MS-Pearl River-39466 leading both metrics. This indicates that areas attracting the most investor volume are also becoming the most landlord-dense.

Pearl River landlords as a whole are decisively net buyers, demonstrating a strong market accumulation trend with a buy-to-sell ratio of 4.58x in 2025. They acquired 174 properties while selling only 38, resulting in a net increase of 136 properties to their portfolios.

This net buying activity has been consistent throughout 2025, with Q3 showing a 5.2x buy/sell ratio (52 buys vs 10 sells) and Q2 at 3.93x (59 buys vs 15 sells), indicating sustained growth in landlord holdings.

In 2024, landlords also maintained a strong net buyer position, purchasing 191 properties against 50 sells, for a 3.82x buy/sell ratio. This suggests a consistent multi-year trend of expansion within the landlord segment.

Institutional investors (Tier 1000+), though fewer in number, also show a net buyer position in 2025, acquiring 3 properties while selling 2, with a 1.5x buy/sell ratio. This signals their continued, albeit modest, portfolio growth in the county.

Comparing year-over-year, overall landlord buy volumes saw a slight decrease from 191 in 2024 to 174 in 2025, while sell volumes decreased from 50 to 38. Despite the reduced activity, the market remains firmly in an accumulation phase for landlords.

In Q4 2025, landlords in Pearl River, MS, were involved in 7 transactions, constituting 10.8% of the total 65 SFR transactions in the county. This highlights landlords as a consistent, though not dominant, force in quarterly real estate exchanges.

The entirety of the landlord transaction activity in Q4 was driven by mom-and-pop investors (Tiers 01-04), who completed all 7 transactions. Institutional investors (Tier 09) registered zero transactions, emphasizing their minimal direct impact on the quarterly market churn.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were the most active, accounting for 4 transactions at an average price of $142,500. This tier's pricing is significantly lower than the overall homeowner average for Q4, aligning with the discounts observed in Section 6.

Interestingly, 0.0% of the Q4 landlord transactions by tiers 01-05 were recorded as 'bought from landlords'. This indicates that all properties acquired by these smaller investors came from traditional homeowners or other non-landlord sellers, expanding the investor-owned inventory rather than merely reshuffling existing landlord portfolios.

The average purchase prices for the two-property and small landlord (3-5) tiers in Q4 are not provided, suggesting limited or no transactions in these specific segments during the quarter for which pricing data could be reliably calculated. This puts the spotlight on single-property acquisitions.