McLean (ND) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Investor ownership in McLean County represents an exceptionally high market penetration, with 1,631 Single-Family Residential (SFR) properties, or 54.4% of the total 2,999 SFRs, held by landlords.

The market is overwhelmingly controlled by individual investors rather than corporations. Individuals own 1,560 properties, accounting for 95.6% of the investor-owned portfolio, compared to just 96 properties (5.9%) owned by companies.

This individual dominance is also reflected in the landlord entity count, where 2,276 individual landlords vastly outnumber the 88 company landlords, highlighting a granular, non-centralized ownership structure.

Cash is the preferred method of acquisition for landlords in this region. Of all investor-owned properties, 1,261 were purchased with cash, representing 77.3% of the portfolio, while only 370 properties are financed.

The investor-owned housing stock is almost entirely utilized for rental purposes. A total of 1,623 properties are classified as rented, which constitutes 99.5% of the entire investor portfolio, indicating a strong focus on generating rental income.

In the fourth quarter of 2025, landlords demonstrated a strong purchasing advantage, acquiring properties for an average price of $206,025. This was 20.1% less than the $257,931 paid by traditional homeowners, resulting in a substantial average discount of $51,906 per property.

The landlord discount has been extremely volatile throughout the year, suggesting a market with low transaction volume where individual deals can heavily skew quarterly averages. After securing massive discounts of 63.9% in Q1 and 53.1% in Q2, landlords surprisingly paid a 30.4% premium in Q3, averaging $67,710 more than homeowners in that period.

The average acquisition price for landlords has fluctuated significantly, from a low of $87,500 in Q1 to a high of $290,760 in Q3, before settling at $206,025 in Q4.

Comparing recent prices to the pandemic era (2020-2023), the average landlord acquisition price in 2025 ($223,426) is moderately higher than the $208,423 average from the prior period, indicating modest price appreciation over the long term.

This price volatility highlights an opportunistic purchasing strategy among landlords, who appear to capitalize on deep discounts when available but are also willing to pay a premium for specific assets, as seen in Q3.

Landlords were the primary buyers in McLean County's Q4 2025 housing market, acquiring 27 of the 43 total SFR properties sold. This represents a commanding 62.8% share of all quarterly purchases.

The entirety of this Q4 investor activity was driven by small 'mom-and-pop' landlords. Investors in Tiers 01-04 (1-10 properties) made up 100% of landlord purchases, with zero activity recorded from mid-size or institutional investors.

New entrants and first-time investors were the most significant force in the market. The single-property (Tier 01) segment alone purchased 23 properties, accounting for 85.2% of all landlord acquisitions for the quarter.

A total of 35 distinct landlord entities participated in these single-property acquisitions, suggesting a high degree of co-ownership and a broad base of new market participants rather than a few active buyers.

In contrast to the high activity at the small end of the market, institutional investors (Tier 09) were completely absent, purchasing zero properties and reinforcing the grassroots nature of real estate investment in the county.

The investor landscape in McLean County is completely dominated by small-scale, mom-and-pop landlords. Those owning between 1 and 10 properties (Tiers 01-04) collectively control 99.2% of all investor-owned SFRs.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) form the bedrock of the market, owning 1,457 properties. This single tier accounts for an overwhelming 86.9% of the entire investor-owned housing supply.

As portfolio sizes increase, ownership drops off dramatically. Landlords with two properties (Tier 02) own 8.2% of the market, while those with 3-5 properties (Tier 03) hold just 3.5%.

The presence of large-scale investors is virtually non-existent. Institutional investors in the 1,000+ property tier (Tier 09) own only 2 properties, representing a mere 0.1% of the total investor portfolio.

This distribution reveals a highly fragmented and decentralized market structure, challenging any narrative of corporate landlord dominance and instead highlighting the importance of small, local investors.

Individual landlords maintain majority ownership across every single investor tier in McLean County, with no crossover point where companies become dominant.

In the foundational single-property tier, individuals own 1,418 homes (95.7%), establishing a pattern of personal ownership that persists as portfolios grow.

Company ownership peaks in the small landlord tier of 3-5 properties, yet even here, they own only 16 properties, representing a minority share of 27.6%. Individuals own the other 42 properties (72.4%) in this segment.

For larger portfolio tiers represented in the data, such as 6-10 properties and 11-20 properties, individual ownership is even more pronounced, at 91.7% and 100.0% respectively.

This data clearly illustrates that the path to scaling a rental portfolio in McLean County is almost exclusively pursued by individual investors, not corporate entities.

A significant geographic concentration of investor activity exists within McLean County, with just five zip codes containing 1,277 of the 1,631 investor-owned properties, or 78.3% of the total.

The top region by sheer volume is the 58540 zip code, where landlords own 488 properties. This represents a high investor ownership rate of 55.8% for that area.

However, the highest rate of investor penetration is found in the 58565 zip code, where landlords own 68.4% of all SFR properties, indicating an intense focus of investment in that specific community.

Other key areas of concentration include 58577 (268 properties, 42.6% rate), 58575 (198 properties, 59.6% rate), and 58576 (191 properties, 59.5% rate), all showing investor ownership rates well above the national average.

The data shows a clear pattern where investors target specific communities, leading to hyper-local markets with extremely high concentrations of rental housing.

Investors in McLean County are in a strong accumulation phase, acting as decisive net buyers. In 2025, landlords purchased 86 properties while selling only 4, creating an exceptionally high buy-to-sell ratio of 21.5x.

This trend of net buying has accelerated. In 2024, the activity was also positive but less intense, with 42 buys and 4 sells for a ratio of 10.5x. The near doubling of the net acquisition ratio indicates growing investor confidence and activity.

Transactional data shows consistent net buying on a quarterly basis as well. In Q3 2025, investors bought 29 properties and sold only 1, demonstrating sustained demand throughout the year.

Institutional investors (1000+ tier) were entirely absent from the transaction market, with zero recorded purchases or sales. This confirms their passive role and the market's reliance on smaller investors for liquidity and growth.

The strong and accelerating net-buyer position signals that the high investor market share in the county is not static but actively growing through consistent acquisitions.

Investor activity was a primary driver of the McLean County real estate market in Q4 2025, with landlords involved in 41 of the 68 total transactions, a share of 60.3%.

The market is expanding, not just churning. None of the landlord purchases in Q4 were from other landlords (0.0%), meaning investors acquired properties exclusively from homeowners or new construction, thereby increasing the overall rental supply.

A distinct pricing difference emerged between investor tiers. Landlords in the two-property tier paid the most, with an average purchase price of $299,900 across 6 transactions.

In contrast, new and single-property investors, who were the most active with 35 transactions, paid a much lower average price of $193,912. This creates a large price gap of $105,988 between the two most active tiers.

Institutional investors recorded zero transactions, further cementing the finding that all market-making activity from the investor side is concentrated within the mom-and-pop segment.