Johnson (IL) Investor Pulse Report (2026-Q1)

In Johnson County, IL, investors hold a modest 189 single-family residential properties, accounting for 6.3% of the total 3,003 SFRs in the market. This indicates a relatively low penetration of real estate investing activity compared to more saturated regions.

The ownership structure is overwhelmingly dominated by individual investors. They own 178 properties, or 94.2% of the investor-owned portfolio, while companies own the remaining 19 properties (10.1%). This highlights a market driven by local, small-scale participants rather than corporate entities.

By entity count, the disparity is even clearer, with 231 individual landlords compared to just 21 company landlords. This 11-to-1 ratio reinforces the 'mom-and-pop' character of the county's rental market.

A strong preference for all-cash acquisitions is evident in the portfolio composition. Investors own 163 properties with cash, far outpacing the 26 properties that are financed. This suggests a fiscally conservative approach to acquisitions or a market where financing is less common for investment properties.

The portfolio is clearly geared towards rental income, with 176 of the 189 properties (93.1%) actively rented. This demonstrates a clear focus on buy-and-hold strategies among the county's investor base.

In a striking deviation from typical market behavior, landlords in Johnson County paid a significant premium for properties in Q1 2026. Their average acquisition price was $327,000, which is 57.4% higher than the $207,700 average paid by traditional homeowners, representing a price difference of $119,300.

This Q1 2026 pricing represents a dramatic market reversal. In Q3 2025, landlords secured a 19.6% discount, paying $164,500 compared to the homeowner average of $204,652. This volatility suggests that low transaction volumes can lead to significant price swings based on a small number of atypical purchases.

Even in Q1 2025, landlords paid a smaller premium of 6.5% ($184,167 vs $172,984). The jump to a 57.4% premium in Q1 2026 is an outlier that signals either a specific high-value acquisition or a shift in the type of properties being targeted by investors.

Overall price trends show appreciation from the pandemic era (2020-2023), when the average investor acquisition price was $147,904. The jump to an average price of $224,385 in 2024 and the high watermark in Q1 2026 reflect broader market price increases despite low local volume.

The data does not provide a clear distinction between company and individual pricing due to the low number of transactions, making it difficult to ascertain if one owner type consistently pays more or less than the other in this specific market.

In Q4 2025, investors were moderately active in Johnson County, acquiring 4 of the 22 total SFR properties sold, which constitutes an 18.2% market share for the quarter. This level of activity, while not dominant, shows consistent investor participation.

The market's activity is exclusively driven by small-scale investors. Mom-and-pop landlords (Tiers 01-04) were responsible for 100% of all landlord purchases in the quarter, with institutional investors (Tier 09) showing no acquisition activity at all.

New entrants are the primary driver of growth. Three of the four properties purchased by investors were acquired by new, single-property landlords (Tier 01). This signifies that 75% of the buying activity came from individuals making their first rental property investment.

The remaining 25% of activity came from an existing landlord in the two-property tier (Tier 02), who added a new property to their small portfolio. This reinforces the pattern of small-scale accumulation rather than large-scale acquisitions.

The data shows a total of 5 distinct entities were involved in the 4 mom-and-pop purchases, indicating some properties may have co-ownership structures, a common feature in smaller, individual-driven markets.

The investor landscape in Johnson County is the definitive example of a mom-and-pop market. Landlords with 1-10 properties (Tiers 01-04) own a combined 98.5% of all investor-held SFRs, demonstrating near-total control by small-scale owners.

First-time and single-property investors form the bedrock of this market. The single-property tier (Tier 01) alone holds 164 properties, which is 83.7% of the entire investor portfolio. This concentration underscores the market's reliance on small, individual participants.

In stark contrast to national headlines, institutional investors with 1,000+ properties (Tier 09) have absolutely no footprint in Johnson County, with an ownership share of 0.0%. This market is completely off the radar for large corporate landlords.

Mid-size landlords are also exceptionally rare. Investors in the 11-50 property range (Tiers 05-06) own just 3 properties combined, making up only 1.5% of the investor-owned housing stock.

The distribution is heavily skewed towards the smallest portfolios, with two-property landlords (Tier 02) and those with 3-5 properties (Tier 03) each holding a 6.6% share. This structure indicates a market composed almost entirely of landlords managing just a handful of properties.

In Johnson County, individual investors maintain majority ownership across all portfolio sizes, a clear indicator of a market dominated by personal holdings rather than corporate structures. There is no crossover tier where companies become the dominant owner type.

The dominance of individuals is most absolute in the small landlord (3-5 properties) and small-medium (21-50 properties) tiers, where they own 100% of the properties. This suggests that even as portfolios grow modestly, they tend to remain under personal ownership.

Even in the single-property tier, where one might expect to see more LLCs for new investments, individuals own 158 of the 164 properties, a commanding 92.4% share.

Companies have their most significant, albeit still minor, presence among two-property landlords, where they own 3 of 14 properties (21.4%). This may represent small business owners or partners beginning to formalize their holdings.

In what constitutes the largest investor tier in the county (6-10 properties), individuals still hold a 66.7% majority, owning 2 of the 3 properties. This reinforces that scale does not equate to corporatization in this market.

Geographic analysis of Johnson County reveals that investor ownership is not evenly distributed but concentrated in specific areas. The zip codes 62972 and 62939 are the primary hubs for investor-owned single-family homes.

The highest rate of investor penetration is found in zip code 62972, where 13.5% of the housing stock is investor-owned. This is more than double the county-wide average of 6.3%, indicating a specific sub-market of interest to landlords.

In terms of sheer volume, zip code 62939 holds the largest number of investor properties, with 80 homes. However, its ownership rate of 7.5% is closer to the county average, suggesting a larger overall housing stock.

Following these two primary areas, zip code 62922 also shows a higher-than-average investor presence, with an ownership rate of 11.6%.

Conversely, several zip codes, including 62902, 62908, and 62909, have no recorded investor-owned SFR properties. This stark contrast highlights that investor strategy in Johnson County is highly localized, focusing on a few key postal codes while bypassing others entirely.

Transaction data reveals that landlords in Johnson County are in an accumulation phase, consistently buying more properties than they sell. In Q1 2026, they demonstrated strong net buying behavior with 5 purchases against only 1 sale, a ratio of 5-to-1.

This pattern of portfolio growth is not new. In the full year of 2025, investors were also net buyers, acquiring 9 properties while selling 4, for a net gain of 5 properties. This was identical to the net gain in 2024, which saw 13 purchases and 8 sales.

The market's transaction flow is handled exclusively by mom-and-pop and mid-size investors. With a 0.0% institutional ownership share, there were no recorded buy or sell transactions from large-scale investors in any of the observed timeframes.

There is no evidence of significant inter-landlord trading in this market. All transactions appear to involve a landlord on one side and a non-landlord (likely a traditional homeowner) on the other, suggesting investors are sourcing properties from the open market rather than from other investors.

The steady, albeit low-volume, net acquisition trend signals confidence among local investors, who continue to gradually expand their rental portfolios in Johnson County.

In Q1 2026, landlords participated in 16.1% of all SFR transactions in Johnson County, purchasing 5 of the 31 properties that changed hands. This represents a solid share of market activity for the quarter.

The entirety of this transaction volume was driven by mom-and-pop landlords. Single-property (Tier 01) and two-property (Tier 02) investors were responsible for all 5 landlord acquisitions, while institutional investors (Tier 09) recorded zero transactions.

A notable pricing pattern emerged among these small buyers. New, single-property landlords paid the highest average price at $327,000 per home, aligning with the unusual premium observed when comparing their purchases to homeowner prices in the same period.

Investors sourced all their new properties from outside the landlord community. The data shows that 0% of landlord purchases were from other landlords, meaning all 5 acquisitions were likely sourced from traditional homeowners or new construction.

This lack of inter-landlord trading suggests a less liquid investment market where landlords adopt a buy-and-hold strategy rather than frequently trading assets among themselves. Portfolio growth comes from absorbing properties from the general housing stock.