Franklin (ID) Investor Pulse Report (2025-Q4)

Investors hold a significant stake in Franklin County's housing market, owning 508 Single-Family Residential properties, which constitutes 10.6% of the total 4,775 SFRs in the area.

Ownership is skewed towards individual investors, who control 304 properties (59.8% of the investor portfolio), compared to companies which own 222 properties (43.7%).

When looking at landlord entities, individuals represent the vast majority, with 436 individual landlords compared to 166 company landlords. This 2.6-to-1 ratio highlights that the market is primarily composed of smaller, private investors rather than large corporations.

Cash is overwhelmingly the preferred method of acquisition for landlords in this market. Cash-owned properties (407) far outnumber financed ones (101), revealing that most investors are not highly leveraged.

The portfolio is heavily geared towards rental use, with 490 of the 508 investor-owned properties classified as rented. This 96.5% rental rate underscores a strong, active strategy of providing housing supply to the rental market.

In Q4 2025, landlords demonstrated a remarkable ability to acquire properties below market rate, paying an average of $299,404. This was a substantial 36.6% less than the $472,069 paid by traditional homeowners, translating to a $172,665 discount per property.

This deep discount is a stark reversal of a year-long trend. In the first three quarters of 2025, landlords consistently paid premiums. The trend shifted from a 165.1% premium in Q1 to a 28.5% premium in Q3, before collapsing into the Q4 discount, indicating highly volatile and opportunistic purchasing behavior.

The price paid by landlords in Q4 ($299,404) represents a significant drop from the prices they were paying earlier in the year, such as the $560,190 average in Q3 and an anomalous $1,184,232 in Q1.

Comparing prices to the pandemic era (2020-2023 average of $438,836), the Q4 2025 landlord acquisition price is notably lower, suggesting a market correction or a strategic shift towards purchasing lower-cost assets.

The wide and fluctuating gap between landlord and homeowner prices—from a $737,477 landlord premium in Q1 to a $172,665 landlord discount in Q4—signals an inefficient market where savvy investors can find significant value, while other periods see them paying top dollar for specific assets.

Investors were a significant force in the Q4 2025 market, purchasing 11 of the 66 total SFRs sold, capturing a 16.7% market share of all transactions.

The buying activity was almost entirely driven by small-scale investors. Mom-and-pop landlords (1-10 properties) acquired 10 properties, representing 90.9% of all landlord purchases for the quarter.

First-time investors made a strong showing, with the single-property tier being the most active. This group, comprising 11 distinct entities, purchased 7 properties, accounting for 53.8% of all investor acquisitions in Q4.

Mid-size and institutional investors were largely absent from the market. Landlords with portfolios over 10 properties acquired only 3 homes, while large institutional investors (1,000+ properties) made no purchases at all.

The data reveals a grassroots expansion of the rental market, characterized by new entrants and small landlords growing their portfolios, rather than consolidation by large corporate players.

The investor landscape in Franklin County is definitively controlled by small-scale landlords. Mom-and-pop investors (owning 1-10 properties) hold a combined 98.7% of all investor-owned SFRs, illustrating a highly decentralized market structure.

Single-property landlords form the bedrock of the rental housing supply, owning 365 properties. This represents 70.1% of the total investor portfolio, emphasizing the critical role of first-time and small investors.

In stark contrast to national narratives, institutional investors (1,000+ properties) have no footprint in this market, with 0.0% ownership. This absence underscores the local, non-corporate nature of real estate investment in the county.

The distribution is heavily weighted towards the smallest tiers. Following single-property owners, landlords with 3-5 properties hold the next largest share at 13.4%, while those with 6-10 properties own 6.9%.

Mid-size investors (11-50 properties) represent a very small fraction of the market, collectively owning just 7 properties or 1.4% of the total investor portfolio, further cementing the dominance of small landlords.

While individuals make up the majority of single-property landlords (70.0%), the transition to corporate ownership happens swiftly. Companies become the majority holders at the two-property tier, owning 28 of the 43 properties (65.1%).

Company dominance solidifies in slightly larger portfolios. In the 6-10 property tier, companies own 35 properties, an overwhelming 85.4% share, indicating a clear strategy for professionalizing ownership as portfolios grow.

An unusual pattern emerges in the 11-20 property tier, where individuals unexpectedly reclaim the majority with 60.0% ownership. This anomaly suggests that a few larger individual investors are active, bucking the trend of increasing corporate ownership with scale.

The single-property tier is the primary stronghold for individual investors, with 261 of the 365 properties held by individuals. This highlights the entry point for most landlords is personal, not corporate.

Across all tiers, individual investors own 304 properties while companies own 222. However, the tier-by-tier data reveals a clear strategic divergence: individuals dominate the entry-level, while companies control the established small-to-mid-size segment.

Real estate investment in Franklin County is geographically concentrated to an extreme degree. A single zip code, 83263, is home to 370 investor-owned properties, which accounts for 72.8% of the entire county's investor portfolio of 508 properties.

While 83263 leads in sheer volume, the 83241 zip code shows the highest level of market saturation. In this area, investors own 75.0% of the single-family housing stock, indicating a market dominated by rental properties.

There is a clear distinction between the leader in volume and the leader in penetration rate. The second-most-owned zip code, 83237, has only 51 investor properties, highlighting the massive gap between the primary investment zone and secondary markets.

High investor ownership is a common theme across the top sub-geographies. The top five areas by investor property count all exhibit ownership rates exceeding 8.8%, well above typical national averages.

The top five zip codes by percentage are led by 83241 (75.0%) and 83228 (13.5%), revealing pockets of exceptionally high investor concentration outside of the main volume hub of 83263 (10.7%).

Landlords in Franklin County are in a strong accumulation phase, acting as decisive net buyers. In Q4 2025, they purchased 17 properties while selling only 2, resulting in a buy-to-sell ratio of 8.5x and a net gain of 15 properties.

This aggressive buying posture in Q4 reflects an acceleration of a multi-year trend. For the full year 2025, landlords maintained a 4.8x buy-to-sell ratio (48 buys vs. 10 sells), which was an increase from the 3.7x ratio in 2024 (52 buys vs. 14 sells).

The transaction data shows a consistent strategy of portfolio expansion across the market, with buying activity consistently outpacing selling activity quarter after quarter.

Transaction volume has remained relatively steady over the past two years, with 48 purchases in 2025 and 52 in 2024, indicating a stable and ongoing appetite for acquisitions.

Institutional investors (1,000+ properties) were completely inactive, with zero buy or sell transactions recorded in any tracked timeframe. This reinforces that all market transaction dynamics are being driven by smaller, local landlords.

In Q4 2025, landlords participated in 17 of the 103 total SFR transactions in Franklin County, giving them a 16.5% share of all market activity.

The vast majority of this activity came from the smallest investors. The single-property tier alone was responsible for 11 transactions, representing 64.7% of all landlord deals. Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) collectively made up 14 of the 17 transactions.

New entrants into the market paid an average of $306,013 per property, establishing a baseline acquisition cost for first-time investors during the quarter.

Inter-landlord trading was minimal, with only one transaction sourced from another landlord. This occurred in the 6-10 property tier. This low rate (5.9%) indicates that investors are primarily adding to the overall rental stock by purchasing from homeowners, rather than trading assets among themselves.

Institutional investors logged zero transactions, continuing their pattern of inactivity and ceding the entire market to smaller players who are actively buying.