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

Investors hold a significant 1,072 Single-Family Residential properties in Crawford County, accounting for 23.0% of the total 4,656 SFRs in the market.

Individual investors are the primary drivers of the rental market, owning 843 properties, which constitutes 78.6% of all investor-owned SFRs. In contrast, company-owned portfolios consist of 251 properties (23.4%).

By entity count, the disparity is even greater, with 1,064 individual landlords compared to just 196 company landlords, highlighting the prevalence of small-scale investment in the region.

A defining characteristic of this market is the low reliance on financing. An overwhelming 95.7% of investor-owned properties (1,026) are held in cash, while only 46 properties are financed, suggesting a financially conservative and low-leverage investor base.

The portfolio is almost entirely dedicated to rentals, with 1,057 of the 1,072 properties (98.6%) being rented out. This indicates a clear strategy of holding assets for rental income rather than short-term speculation.

There is no available acquisition pricing data for landlords or traditional homeowners in Crawford County for Q4 2025.

Historical pricing data, including averages for Q3 2025 and the 2020-2023 period, is also unavailable, preventing any analysis of price appreciation or market trends.

The absence of sales data makes it impossible to calculate the typical price difference or percentage discount between investor and homeowner purchases.

Similarly, a comparison between acquisition prices for individual versus company investors cannot be conducted.

The lack of data is a direct result of zero recorded SFR purchases in the market during the most recent quarter, indicating a complete halt in transactional activity.

The investor purchase market in Crawford County was completely stagnant in Q4 2025, with zero properties acquired by landlords. This mirrored the overall market, which also recorded zero total SFR purchases.

Activity was nonexistent across all investor sizes. Mom-and-pop landlords (1-10 properties) recorded zero purchases, making up 0.0% of the nonexistent activity.

Similarly, mid-size and institutional investors also acquired no properties, highlighting a market-wide pause in acquisitions.

As a result of zero purchases in the single-property tier, there were no new landlords entering the Crawford County market in Q4 2025.

This lack of activity indicates extreme illiquidity and a potential standoff between buyers and sellers, or a simple lack of available inventory and purchasing demand.

The investor landscape in Crawford County is defined by small-scale owners, with mom-and-pop landlords (1-10 properties) controlling a commanding 97.4% of all investor-held SFRs.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) are the backbone of the market, owning 869 properties, which alone accounts for 80.1% of the entire investor portfolio.

The concentration at the small end of the scale continues with two-property landlords holding 91 properties (8.4%) and those with 3-5 properties holding 79 (7.3%).

Conversely, large-scale investors have a minimal footprint. The institutional tier (1,000+ properties) consists of just a single property, representing only 0.1% of the market share.

Due to the lack of recent market activity, comparative pricing data across tiers is unavailable, so it is not possible to determine if larger investors pay more or less than their smaller counterparts.

Individual landlords form the vast majority of ownership in the entry-level tier, controlling 736 of the single-property investor homes (83.4%), compared to 146 held by companies (16.6%).

While individuals remain dominant in larger tiers, companies establish a more significant presence as portfolio sizes increase. In the two-property tier, companies own 29 properties (31.2%).

This trend continues in the 3-5 property tier, where companies own 31 properties, representing their highest market share at 37.8% among the measured tiers.

The available data does not show a crossover point where companies become the majority owners, indicating that individual ownership is the prevailing model even for multi-property landlords in this county.

Due to the absence of Q4 2025 transactions, it is not possible to analyze pricing strategies or acquisition price differences between individual and company buyers within any tier.

Geographic concentration is a key feature of investor ownership in Crawford County. The zip code 53821 is the epicenter of activity, with 450 investor-owned properties, representing 42.0% of the county's entire investor portfolio.

Following distantly are zip codes 54628 with 149 properties, 54626 with 143, and 54631 with 99, demonstrating a significant drop-off after the primary region.

High investor penetration is not limited to the area with the highest count. Zip code 54645 has the highest investor ownership rate at 45.8%, indicating that nearly half of all SFRs in that area are rentals.

Other zip codes with high landlord ownership rates include 54624 (41.3%), 54628 (36.7%), and 54665 (33.3%), suggesting that certain communities have a much higher proportion of rental housing.

This data reveals distinct sub-markets within the county—some are defined by the sheer volume of investor properties, while others are defined by the high density of investor ownership relative to the total housing stock.

A lack of historical transaction data for Crawford County means it is not possible to determine if landlords have been net buyers or net sellers over time.

The buy-to-sell ratio, a key indicator of market sentiment and portfolio growth, cannot be calculated for any historical timeframe (All Time, 2024, 2020-2023).

Analysis of inter-landlord transactions is also not possible. The data does not show what percentage of purchases came from other landlords or what percentage of sales went to other landlords.

Similarly, buy-side and sell-side pricing averages are unavailable, precluding any insight into potential profit margins or price trends for acquisitions versus dispositions.

Transaction patterns for institutional investors (1000+ tier) cannot be assessed, making it impossible to compare their behavior to the overall landlord market.

The transactional market in Crawford County was at a complete standstill in Q4 2025, with zero total SFR transactions recorded. Consequently, landlords' share of transactions was 0.0%.

No investor tier recorded any transaction activity. Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) and institutional investors (Tier 09) both had zero transactions for the quarter.

With no purchases, the average purchase price for every investor tier was effectively $0, providing no insight into current market valuations or tier-based pricing strategies.

Inter-landlord trading activity was also nonexistent. The percentage of properties bought from other landlords was 0%, as no acquisitions of any kind took place.

This complete lack of transactions across the board points to a deeply illiquid market, where neither assets are being offered for sale nor are buyers actively acquiring properties.