Crawford (PA) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Landlords in Crawford County, PA, collectively manage a substantial portfolio of 6,749 Single Family Residential (SFR) properties, accounting for 28.5% of the market's total 23,700 SFR homes.

Individual investors overwhelmingly dominate this market, holding 5,846 properties (86.6%), significantly outpacing company-owned properties which total 1,017 (15.1%).

The investor landscape is further characterized by the prevalence of individual landlords, with 7,662 distinct entities compared to just 590 company landlords, demonstrating a highly fragmented market structure.

A striking 98.5% of all investor-owned SFR properties, totaling 6,649, are utilized as rentals, emphasizing the primary focus of landlords on generating rental income within the county.

A substantial majority of these properties, 5,510 or 81.6%, were acquired using cash, suggesting a strong preference for unencumbered asset ownership or a robust capacity for cash purchases among investors.

Landlords in Crawford County, PA, consistently acquire properties at a notable discount compared to traditional homeowners, exemplified by a 25.7% price gap in Q4 2025, paying an average of $150,537 while homeowners paid $202,623, a difference of $52,086 per property.

This price advantage has shown a dynamic trend throughout 2025, starting at a 14.5% discount in Q1, widening to 21.1% in Q2, peaking at 26.6% in Q3, and slightly narrowing to 25.7% in Q4, signaling varying market conditions or acquisition strategies.

Landlord acquisition prices have demonstrated a significant appreciation trend, rising from an average of $138,271 during the 2020-2023 period to $155,882 for Year 2025, indicating a robust upward trajectory in property values.

The consistent ability of landlords to purchase below homeowner prices suggests sophisticated market navigation, potentially leveraging off-market deals, bulk purchases, or distressed asset acquisitions.

Landlords in Crawford County, PA, were highly active in Q4 2025, securing 98 Single Family Residential (SFR) properties, which represents a substantial 42.4% of the total 231 SFR purchases in the quarter.

Mom-and-pop landlords, encompassing those with 1 to 10 properties (Tiers 01-04), overwhelmingly dominated this acquisition activity, collectively purchasing 89 properties, equating to 87.3% of all landlord purchases for the quarter.

A significant influx of new single-property landlords (Tier 01) entered the market, with 84 distinct entities acquiring 60 properties, underscoring grassroots investor interest and market entry.

In stark contrast, institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) demonstrated minimal purchasing activity in Q4, acquiring only 1 property, which represents a mere 1.0% of total landlord purchases.

The average properties per entity in Q4 varied significantly, with single-property entities (Tier 01) acquiring 0.71 properties per entity (60 properties by 84 entities), highlighting the entry-level nature of these acquisitions.

Crawford County's investor-owned SFR market is overwhelmingly dominated by mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04), who collectively control 95.8% of all investor-owned properties, totaling 6,717 homes.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) form the backbone of this market, holding a substantial 72.0% of the total investor portfolio with 5,052 properties, reflecting a highly accessible and localized investment landscape.

Institutional investors (Tier 09, 1000+ properties) maintain a negligible presence, owning only 8 properties, which accounts for a mere 0.1% of the total investor-owned SFR, challenging any perception of corporate dominance.

The distribution reveals a sharp drop-off in property counts as portfolio size increases; for instance, Tier 02 holds 586 properties (8.4%), while even medium-large landlords (Tier 51-100) control just 70 properties (1.0%).

The profound concentration in smaller tiers indicates that the vast majority of rental housing in Crawford County is managed by local, small-scale landlords rather than large corporate entities.

The ownership landscape in Crawford County, PA, shows a distinct transition where individual investors dominate smaller portfolios, but companies become the majority owners at the small-medium (11-20 properties) tier, controlling 70.7% of properties (87 properties) compared to individuals' 29.3% (36 properties).

Single-property portfolios (Tier 01) are overwhelmingly held by individuals, accounting for 4,744 properties or 92.6%, showcasing the prevalence of individual market entrants.

Conversely, in the medium-large tier (51-100 properties), company ownership soars to 98.6% (69 properties), with individual investors holding a mere 1.4% (1 property), demonstrating a near-complete corporate takeover at higher portfolio sizes.

The small landlord tiers (3-5 properties and 6-10 properties) still exhibit strong individual dominance, with 80.3% and 57.4% individual ownership respectively, before the shift towards company majority occurs.

This clear crossover point underscores that while individuals drive the foundational and smaller segments of the market, scaling up into mid-to-large portfolios is predominantly a corporate endeavor in Crawford County.

The geographic distribution of investor-owned properties in Crawford County, PA, reveals significant concentration, with zip code PA-Crawford-16335 leading by count with 1,737 properties, followed by PA-Crawford-16316 with 1,014 properties.

Beyond raw counts, investor ownership rates vary drastically across zip codes; PA-Crawford-16317 stands out with a 100.0% investor ownership rate, indicating a highly unique or specialized property market within that specific area.

Several other zip codes also demonstrate high investor penetration, with PA-Crawford-16438 at 51.9% and PA-Crawford-16422 at 50.6%, signifying that over half of all SFR properties in these areas are investor-owned.

A notable correlation exists in PA-Crawford-16316, which ranks high both in total landlord-owned properties (1,014) and investor ownership rate (40.7%), pointing to a substantial and densely landlord-held market.

This varied geographic pattern highlights pockets of intense investor activity and ownership, which could influence local housing dynamics and supply in targeted sub-markets within Crawford County.

Landlords in Crawford County, PA, are demonstrating robust net buying behavior, particularly in Q4 2025, where they purchased 132 properties while selling only 15, resulting in an impressive 8.8x buy-to-sell ratio and a net gain of 117 properties.

This trend of net accumulation is consistent throughout 2025, with overall landlord activity tallying 497 purchases against 67 sales, leading to a substantial net acquisition of 430 properties for the year.

In contrast to the broader landlord market, institutional investors (1000+ properties) maintained a strikingly balanced transaction profile in Year 2025, with 5 buys and 5 sells, signifying a net zero change in their portfolio size for the year.

While overall landlord buying activity was strong, the transaction volumes have shown some quarterly fluctuations for all landlords, with Q3 recording the highest buys at 168, followed by Q4 at 132 and Q2 at 126.

The divergent transaction patterns between all landlords and institutional investors suggest differing market strategies, with smaller-scale landlords actively expanding their portfolios while larger entities are holding steady or potentially rebalancing.

Landlords in Crawford County, PA, played a significant role in the Q4 2025 market, participating in 132 transactions, which constituted 37.9% of the total 348 SFR transactions for the quarter.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were the most active, accounting for 84 transactions, notably purchasing properties at a higher average price of $179,428 compared to other smaller tiers.

A clear pattern in acquisition pricing by tier emerges, with smaller landlords paying more; Tier 01 average purchase price was $179,428, while Tier 02 paid $71,438, and Tier 06-10 paid a significantly lower average of $53,167, suggesting larger landlords may target more value-oriented or distressed assets.

Inter-landlord trading activity was notably low across all tiers, with the highest percentage observed in Tier 02 at 12.5% (2 out of 16 transactions), and single-property landlords deriving only 6.0% of their transactions from other landlords.

The highest price spread is observed between Tier 01 ($179,428) and Tier 06-10 ($53,167), highlighting varied acquisition strategies and potentially different property types or market segments targeted by different investor sizes.

The dominance of mom-and-pop landlords in Q4 transactions (118 transactions from Tier 01-04 vs 1 from Tier 09) mirrors their overall ownership distribution, reinforcing their critical role in market liquidity.