Fairfield (OH) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Landlords in Fairfield County own 10,918 Single Family Residential (SFR) properties, accounting for a significant 22.4% of the total SFR market. This establishes investor activity as a substantial force within the local housing landscape.

Individual landlords are the dominant force, owning 9,301 SFR properties, which represents 83.7% of the 11,115 properties where ownership type is clearly defined. In contrast, company-owned SFR properties account for 1,814 properties, or 16.3% of the landlord-owned inventory, highlighting the grassroots nature of the market.

The prevalence of individual ownership extends to the entity count, with 13,573 individual landlords making up 93.6% of all 14,498 landlord entities. This far outpaces the 925 company landlords (6.4%), underscoring that the vast majority of investment activity stems from smaller, non-corporate entities.

The portfolio exhibits a strong rental focus, with 10,754 properties, or 98.5% of landlord-owned SFRs, classified as rented. This high non-owner-occupied rate confirms that investor holdings are primarily utilized for income generation rather than alternative uses.

A notable balance exists in acquisition methods for the 10,918 properties with known financing status, with 6,070 (55.6%) properties being financed and 4,848 (44.4%) acquired via cash. This nearly even split indicates a diverse approach to investment, with both leveraged growth and unleveraged stability playing key roles.

In a notable shift, landlords in Fairfield County paid an average acquisition price of $358,632 in Q4 2025, which was a $7,913, or 2.3%, premium over traditional homeowners who averaged $350,719. This reverses a long-standing trend where landlords typically secured discounts.

The landlord pricing advantage has eroded significantly throughout 2025; starting with a substantial 9.0% discount ($33,554) in Q1 2025 and an even larger 9.6% discount ($38,105) in Q2 2025, it narrowed to 7.1% ($27,749) in Q3 before turning into a premium in Q4.

Despite the recent premium in Q4 2025, landlord acquisition prices have seen substantial appreciation over time. The Q4 average of $358,632 represents a 19.3% increase from the average acquisition price of $300,532 observed during the 2020-2023 period, reflecting strong market growth over the past few years.

The consistent pattern of landlords securing discounts throughout Q1-Q3 2025, only to pay a premium in Q4, indicates a tightening market and increased competition. This suggests that the strategic pricing advantage previously enjoyed by investors may be diminishing in the current quarter.

While specific property counts for landlord acquisitions were reported as '0' for several timeframes in the provided data, the consistently reported average prices across quarters indicate an underlying market valuation trend. This suggests that while formal acquisition tracking might be limited in these specific data points, the market itself continued to establish price benchmarks for investor properties.

Landlords significantly dominated the SFR purchase market in Fairfield County during Q4 2025, acquiring 313 properties. This represents a substantial 65.1% of the total 481 SFR purchases made in the quarter, clearly positioning investors as the primary drivers of market activity.

Mom-and-pop landlords (those with 1-10 properties, Tiers 01-04) were overwhelmingly active, responsible for 308 properties, which accounts for 98.4% of all landlord purchases in Q4. This highlights their critical role in fueling local housing investment.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) spearheaded this activity, purchasing 284 properties and representing 90.7% of all landlord acquisitions. This underscores the continuous entry and expansion of new and small-scale investors into the market.

A notable 469 entities classified as single-property landlords (Tier 01) were active in Q4 2025, far outnumbering the properties they acquired (284). This suggests a high number of individual investors entering the market, potentially involving co-ownership or diversified portfolios.

The stark contrast between mom-and-pop and institutional activity is evident, with institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) making zero purchases in Q4. This indicates a significant divergence in investment strategies, with larger entities opting out of recent acquisition efforts in Fairfield County.

Mom-and-pop landlords (Tier 01-04, owning 1-10 properties) overwhelmingly control the investor-owned SFR market in Fairfield County, holding 91.9% of all properties. This translates to a significant majority of investor-owned housing remaining in the hands of smaller, local investors.

Within this mom-and-pop segment, single-property landlords (Tier 01) represent the backbone of the market, owning 8,710 properties. This 78.3% share of all investor-owned SFRs demonstrates that individual, first-time, or small-scale investors are the primary custodians of the rental housing stock.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, with 1000+ properties) maintain a comparatively small footprint, controlling just 4.2% of the investor-owned SFR properties, totaling 470 units. This proportion is significantly lower than their perceived influence, highlighting the local nature of the Fairfield County market.

The distribution across other tiers shows a rapid decline in property share as portfolio size increases. For example, Tier 02 (two properties) holds 5.0% (558 properties), decreasing to 2.9% (319 properties) for Tier 06-10, before rising slightly to 4.2% for the institutional tier.

While specific pricing data by tier for all-time ownership was not provided, the concentration of properties in the lower tiers suggests that the majority of investor-owned housing reflects prices typical of smaller, individual transactions rather than large-scale portfolio acquisitions. This market structure is unlikely to have evolved significantly in the short term, maintaining a stable base of small property owners.

Individual investors are the predominant owners in smaller portfolios across Fairfield County. For instance, in the single-property (Tier 01) segment, individuals own 8,302 properties, representing a commanding 93.7% of the total, while companies hold only 555 properties (6.3%).

The ownership dynamic shifts considerably as portfolio size increases; companies become the majority owners at the Small-medium (11-20 properties) tier. Here, companies own 188 properties (74.9%), far surpassing individual ownership of 63 properties (25.1%).

This crossover point between Tier 06-10 and Tier 11-20 is a critical indicator of market structure. In the Small landlord (6-10 properties) tier, individuals still hold a majority at 52.7% (168 properties) compared to companies at 47.3% (151 properties), demonstrating a gradual transition towards corporate ownership in larger portfolios.

The concentration of company ownership steadily grows with tier size, moving from a minority share of 6.3% in Tier 01 to a dominant 74.9% in the 11-20 property tier. This pattern suggests that larger portfolio expansion is primarily driven by corporate entities, indicating a strategic preference for scale among companies.

Conversely, individual investors maintain a strong presence through the mom-and-pop tiers, holding 77.4% (438 properties) in Tier 02 and 72.2% (465 properties) in Tier 03-05. This highlights their foundational role in the market, particularly in the entry-level and small-scale investment segments.

Within Fairfield County, investor-owned SFR properties are geographically concentrated in specific zip codes. OH-Fairfield-43130 leads by volume with 4,398 investor-owned properties, representing a 23.8% ownership rate, signifying a robust rental market.

OH-Fairfield-43147 follows closely in property count, with 2,703 investor-owned SFRs and a 19.0% ownership rate. These two zip codes collectively form the primary hubs for landlord investment within the county.

While OH-Fairfield-43130 leads in property count, other zip codes exhibit exceptionally high investor ownership rates. OH-Fairfield-43008 stands out with a 100.0% investor ownership rate, suggesting a uniquely focused or smaller market completely dominated by investors.

Other high-percentage regions include OH-Fairfield-43157 at 45.1% and OH-Fairfield-43136 at 41.2%, demonstrating areas where investor presence is proportionally much higher, even if the absolute number of properties is lower than the top count regions.

There's a clear distinction between regions with high investor property counts and those with high investor ownership rates. The top count areas like OH-Fairfield-43130 have significant market volume, while areas like OH-Fairfield-43008, despite potentially lower absolute numbers, show a complete or near-complete saturation of investor ownership, reflecting different types of investment focus or market characteristics.

Landlords in Fairfield County are overwhelmingly net buyers, demonstrating a highly acquisitive market. In Q4 2025, they executed 503 buy transactions against only 41 sell transactions, resulting in a staggering 12.27x buy-to-sell ratio and a net gain of 462 properties.

This aggressive net buying trend has been consistent throughout 2025, with landlords acquiring 2,256 properties against 163 sells, yielding a 13.84x buy-to-sell ratio year-to-date. This sustained activity indicates strong confidence and expansion in the landlord sector.

In stark contrast to the overall landlord market, institutional investors (1000+ properties) have become net sellers. In 2025, they sold 18 properties while only buying 2, leading to a net divestment of 16 properties, a significant shift from their neutral position of 4 buys and 4 sells in 2024.

The divergent behavior between all landlords (net buyers) and institutional investors (net sellers) suggests distinct market outlooks or strategic adjustments among different investor segments. Smaller investors appear to be in an accumulation phase, while larger entities are divesting or rebalancing their portfolios.

While data on inter-landlord transaction percentages and average buy/sell prices was not provided in this section, the high volume of buy transactions across all landlord types signals robust market liquidity and ongoing investment, particularly from non-institutional players.

Landlords accounted for a dominant 66.2% of all SFR transactions in Fairfield County during Q4 2025, participating in 503 out of 760 total sales. This high share underscores the significant influence of investors on the quarterly housing market dynamics.

The overwhelming majority of this activity originated from single-property landlords (Tier 01), who completed 469 transactions, representing 93.2% of all landlord transactions. This highlights the sustained dynamism of the smallest investor segment.

Average purchase prices varied significantly across tiers in Q4 2025, indicating diverse investment strategies. Single-property landlords (Tier 01) paid the highest average price at $371,014, while small landlords in Tier 06-10 paid the lowest at $135,400, reflecting a substantial price spread of $235,614 between these segments.

Inter-landlord trading activity was highest for Small-medium (11-20 properties) landlords, with 100.0% of their 2 transactions in Q4 being sourced from other landlords. This suggests specialized market segments where investors trade properties among themselves, although overall the percentage is low for the dominant Tier 01 at 7.2%.

The strong transaction activity from single-property landlords (Tier 01), who also represent the largest ownership segment (78.3%), confirms their continuous engagement in the market. Conversely, institutional investors (Tier 09), despite owning 4.2% of properties, had zero Q4 transactions, indicating a lack of recent transactional engagement from the largest players.