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

Landlords in MS-Wayne County currently own 887 Single Family Residential (SFR) properties, constituting 16.8% of the total 5,281 SFR properties available in the market. This reveals a significant portion of the local housing stock is dedicated to investment purposes.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate the landlord landscape, owning 770 properties (86.8%) compared to companies holding just 119 properties (13.4%). This highlights the prevalence of mom-and-pop operations in the county.

The ownership structure is further emphasized by the landlord entity count, where individual landlords number 848 (91.7%) against 77 (8.3%) company landlords out of a total of 925 entities. This demonstrates a market heavily skewed towards small-scale, individual investors.

A striking 881 (99.3%) of all landlord-owned SFR properties are held outright through cash purchases, with only 6 properties (0.7%) financed. This strong preference for cash holdings indicates either a very conservative investment approach or limited access to financing for these properties.

All 887 investor-owned SFR properties are non-owner-occupied and primarily rented, with 864 properties specifically identified as rented, emphasizing their role in providing housing supply for tenants in MS-Wayne County.

Given the dominance of individual landlords, the high percentage of cash purchases suggests that the typical investor in MS-Wayne prefers to avoid debt, making the portfolio resilient to interest rate fluctuations.

The substantial number of individual landlords (848) compared to their total owned properties (770) suggests that many individual landlords are single-property owners, aligning with the mom-and-pop model.

A critical finding for MS-Wayne County is the complete absence of landlord acquisition data for Q4 2025, Year 2024, and the 2020-2023 period. This indicates zero reported purchase activity by landlords during these timeframes.

Due to the lack of recorded purchases, it is impossible to compare landlord acquisition prices against traditional homeowners or all purchasers in MS-Wayne County for the current quarter or recent past.

The inability to track acquisition prices means no trends can be identified regarding a potential landlord-homeowner price gap, or how this gap might have changed quarter-over-quarter.

Similarly, without any purchase data, it is not possible to determine if individual and company landlords exhibit different pricing strategies or average acquisition costs in MS-Wayne.

The lack of any recorded purchases from 2020-2023 to Q4 2025 prevents any assessment of price appreciation or decline in landlord acquisitions during this period.

The overall market in MS-Wayne County appears to be stagnant for landlord acquisitions across recent periods, suggesting either very low inventory, limited investor interest, or data reporting gaps.

The specific values for landlord average acquisition prices for Year 2024 ($52,156) and Years 2020-2023 ($90,413) are based on 0 properties purchased, meaning these values represent an absence of observed activity rather than actual market prices in these periods.

MS-Wayne County experienced a complete halt in landlord acquisition activity during Q4 2025, recording 0 SFR purchases by investors. This means landlords acquired 0.0% of the total 0 SFR purchases in the market.

The absence of any landlord purchases in Q4 2025 implies that no specific investor tiers were active during this period, nor did any mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04) make acquisitions.

Crucially, 0 new single-property landlords (Tier 01) entered the market in Q4 2025, signaling no expansion of the smallest investor segment for the quarter.

With zero activity, there is no distribution of purchases across tiers to analyze, indicating a stagnant quarter for investor new property acquisitions in MS-Wayne.

The fact that total Q4 SFR purchases were also 0 suggests a broader market slowdown, not just limited to landlord activity, potentially reflecting limited inventory or low buyer/seller interest.

This zero activity extends to institutional investors (Tier 09), who also recorded 0 purchases, maintaining their 0.0% share of landlord purchases for the quarter.

Consequently, the average properties per entity by tier for Q4 cannot be calculated, as no entities were observed making purchases during this timeframe.

Mom-and-pop landlords, encompassing Tiers 01-04 (1-10 properties), control a dominant 97.5% of all investor-owned SFR properties in MS-Wayne County. This represents a significant concentration of ownership among small-scale investors.

Single-property owners (Tier 01) form the backbone of this market, holding 670 properties, which accounts for an overwhelming 73.7% of the total landlord-owned portfolio. This highlights the extensive presence of first-time or very small landlords.

The combined share of smaller landlord tiers (Tier 01: 73.7%, Tier 02: 6.6%, Tier 03-05: 13.5%, Tier 06-10: 3.6%) collectively underscores the market's reliance on small-scale investors.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) have no recorded presence in MS-Wayne County, owning 0 properties (0.0% of total landlord-owned SFR). This contrasts sharply with broader national narratives about institutional dominance.

The absence of pricing data by tier for 'All Time', 'Q4', '2024', or '2020-2023' prevents any analysis of how acquisition prices might vary between different investor sizes in MS-Wayne County.

The largest observed tier for ownership is Tier 05-08, with Tier 05-08 (11-20 properties) holding 21 properties (2.3%) and Tier 06-08 (21-50 properties) holding 1 property (0.1%), further demonstrating the market's lean towards smaller portfolios.

The distribution of properties across tiers, with the vast majority in Tiers 01-04 and zero in Tier 09, suggests a stable, locally-driven investment market without significant corporate influence or major shifts in ownership structure.

Individual ownership strongly dominates across all observed portfolio tiers in MS-Wayne County, ranging from 92.4% in the single-property (Tier 01) segment to 72.7% in the 6-10 property (Tier 04) segment. This consistent pattern underscores the market's foundation on individual investors.

The highest concentration of individual ownership is found in Tier 01 (single-property), where individuals own 621 properties (92.4%) compared to companies owning just 51 properties (7.6%). This confirms that first-time or small-scale investors are predominantly individuals.

Conversely, company ownership, while still a minority, reaches its highest observed share in the 6-10 properties tier (Tier 04), where companies hold 9 properties (27.3%) against individuals' 24 properties (72.7%). This indicates a slight increase in corporate presence as portfolio size grows, though individuals remain majority owners.

There is no discernible crossover point where companies become majority owners in any of the provided tiers for MS-Wayne County, as individual investors consistently hold the larger share even up to Tier 04.

The data for Tier + Type Pricing is not available, preventing any comparison of average acquisition prices between individual and company buyers within each specific tier in MS-Wayne.

The distribution shows that for Tier 02 (two-property), individuals own 48 properties (80.0%) versus companies owning 12 properties (20.0%), and for Tier 03 (3-5 properties), individuals own 98 properties (79.7%) versus companies owning 25 properties (20.3%). These figures reinforce the consistent individual dominance.

Without historical data for growth patterns by owner type, it is not possible to analyze how individual vs. company ownership has evolved over time in MS-Wayne County.

Within MS-Wayne County, investor-owned properties are highly concentrated in a few specific zip codes, with MS-Wayne-39367 leading the county with 650 investor-owned SFR properties. This zip code alone represents a substantial portion of the county's investor market.

The top 5 sub-geographies by investor-owned property count — MS-Wayne-39367 (650), MS-Wayne-39322 (92), MS-Wayne-39362 (49), MS-Wayne-39443 (46), and MS-Wayne-39360 (39) — collectively hold 876 properties out of the county's 887 total, indicating extreme geographic concentration.

While MS-Wayne-39367 has the most investor-owned properties, MS-Wayne-39322 exhibits the highest investor ownership rate at 20.3%, followed closely by MS-Wayne-39443 at 18.0%. This highlights areas where investors hold a larger proportion of the total housing stock.

The difference between top regions by count and by percentage reveals distinct characteristics: MS-Wayne-39367 has the highest raw number, but other zip codes like MS-Wayne-39322 have a higher density of investor-owned properties relative to their total housing supply.

No acquisition price data is available for these geographic regions, precluding an analysis of how prices vary or which regions offer better deals for investors in MS-Wayne County.

The listed top 5 regions by investor-owned count also correspond exactly to the top 5 regions by investor ownership percentage, suggesting that high volume and high penetration go hand-in-hand within this county.

The granular data shows that MS-Wayne-39367, despite having the highest count, has an investor ownership rate of 17.3%, which is lower than that of MS-Wayne-39322 (20.3%) and MS-Wayne-39443 (18.0%), implying a larger overall housing market in 39367.

A significant finding for MS-Wayne County is the complete absence of historical transaction data for all landlords, including both buy and sell transactions across all timeframes provided (Q4, Q3, earlier quarters, annual, All Time).

This lack of data means it is impossible to determine whether landlords in MS-Wayne County have been net buyers or net sellers, as no buy/sell ratios can be calculated.

Similarly, the percentage of transactions involving inter-landlord trading (landlord-to-landlord purchases or sales) cannot be determined due to the missing transaction records.

Without historical transaction prices, it is not possible to compare average buy prices to average sell prices, thus precluding any analysis of implied profit margins for landlords in the county.

The institutional investor (1000+ tier) transaction data is also entirely absent, meaning no insights can be provided on their buying, selling, or net position in MS-Wayne County.

The inability to observe historical transaction patterns means any trends in market liquidity, investor sentiment, or overall market direction cannot be assessed from the provided data for MS-Wayne County.

This absence of transaction history suggests a very inactive or illiquid market for investor property sales and purchases within MS-Wayne County during the periods for which data would typically be available.

MS-Wayne County experienced a complete absence of landlord transaction activity in Q4 2025, with 0 recorded transactions by investors. This constitutes 0.0% of the total 0 SFR transactions in the market for the quarter.

Due to the lack of any transactions, it is not possible to analyze how transaction volumes vary across investor tiers, as all tiers, including mom-and-pop (Tier 01-04) and institutional (Tier 09), recorded zero transactions.

The absence of Q4 transactions also means there are no average purchase prices by tier to report, including for Tier 01 and Tier 09, preventing any comparison of pricing strategies across investor sizes.

No inter-landlord trading activity occurred in Q4 2025, as zero properties were bought from other landlords. Consequently, the percentage of purchases from other landlords cannot be determined for any tier.

Without any activity, a price spread between the highest and lowest transacting tiers cannot be calculated, leaving insights into pricing differences by investor size unaddressed.

The complete lack of Q4 transactions for both mom-and-pop and institutional investors indicates a universally stagnant period for the landlord market in MS-Wayne County.

This zero transaction activity starkly contrasts with the county's existing landlord ownership structure, suggesting a current market that is not seeing properties actively change hands among investors.