Daviess (MO) Investor Pulse Report (2026-Q1)

In Daviess County, MO, investors hold a substantial 1,154 single-family residential properties, which constitutes 37.3% of the total 3,091 SFRs in the market. This high penetration rate indicates a significant level of real estate investing activity relative to the market size.

Ownership is heavily skewed towards individuals over corporations. Individual landlords own 915 properties, accounting for 79.3% of the investor portfolio, while companies own the remaining 282 properties (24.4%).

This individual dominance is even more pronounced when looking at entity counts. There are 1,287 individual landlords compared to only 234 company landlords, reinforcing the 'mom-and-pop' character of the local investor landscape.

A key indicator of financial strategy in this market is the preference for cash acquisitions. Of the properties held by investors, 945 were purchased with cash, starkly contrasting with the 209 that are financed. This suggests investors in Daviess County are well-capitalized and less reliant on leverage.

The rental focus of these investors is clear, with 1,138 of the 1,154 properties classified as rented, confirming that the vast majority of the portfolio is actively used for generating rental income.

In a striking deviation from national trends, landlords in Daviess County paid a significant premium for properties in the first quarter of 2026. The average landlord acquisition price was $540,320, a staggering 138.2% more than the $226,856 paid by traditional homeowners, representing a price gap of $313,464.

This pricing behavior is not an isolated event but part of a volatile trend. While investors managed a 38.4% discount in Q2 2025 (paying $214,724 vs. the homeowner price of $348,792), they paid massive premiums in other recent quarters, including 49.3% in Q3 2025 and 183.3% in Q1 2025.

The data suggests a market where investors may be targeting specific high-value properties or competing aggressively for limited inventory, driving their acquisition costs well above the average for typical homebuyers.

Despite zero recorded landlord purchases in 2024 and 2025, historical pricing data shows a significant run-up. The average price during the 2020-2023 period was $310,234, indicating substantial price appreciation in the assets investors are now targeting.

This unusual pricing dynamic challenges the common assumption that investors always acquire properties at a discount. In Daviess County, the opposite has recently been true, signaling intense competition or a focus on a different class of asset than the average homebuyer.

Investor activity surged in the first quarter, with landlords purchasing 25 of the 39 SFRs sold in Daviess County. This represents a commanding 64.1% share of all market transactions, underscoring their role as the primary drivers of demand.

The entirety of this purchasing activity came from small-scale investors. Mom-and-pop landlords, defined as those owning 1-10 properties, accounted for 100% of the 26 properties acquired by investors, with zero purchases recorded from institutional buyers.

New investors were the most significant force in the market. The single-property tier saw 26 new entities enter the market, collectively buying 18 properties, which is 69.2% of all landlord acquisitions for the quarter.

This influx of new, small-scale landlords highlights a grassroots expansion of real estate investment in the county, rather than a consolidation by larger players.

The remaining activity was distributed among slightly larger small investors, with four entities in the two-property tier buying 5 homes (19.2%) and one entity in the 3-5 property tier acquiring 3 homes (11.5%).

The investor landscape in Daviess County is unequivocally dominated by small-scale operators. Mom-and-pop landlords (owning 1-10 properties) control a combined 97.1% of all investor-owned SFRs, a figure that showcases a highly fragmented and decentralized market structure.

The single-property landlord tier is the bedrock of this market. These investors, often considered new or small-scale, own 936 properties, which alone represents 78.9% of the entire investor-owned portfolio.

As portfolio size increases, the number of properties drops off sharply. Landlords with 2 properties hold 8.4% of the stock, while those with 3-5 properties hold 7.7%, and those with 6-10 properties hold just 2.2%.

Mid-size landlords (11-50 properties) represent a very small fraction of the market, controlling a combined 2.8% of properties.

In stark contrast to narratives of corporate consolidation, institutional investors (1,000+ properties) have virtually no footprint in Daviess County. Their entire portfolio consists of a single property, accounting for a mere 0.1% of investor-held housing.

A clear pattern emerges when analyzing ownership structure by portfolio size: individual investors command the smaller tiers, while companies take control as portfolios grow. Individuals own a commanding majority of properties in the mom-and-pop tiers, holding 79.4% of single-property portfolios and 79.1% of 3-5 property portfolios.

The tipping point occurs in the small-to-medium range. In the 11-20 property tier, ownership flips dramatically, with companies controlling 32 of the properties (71.1%) compared to just 13 properties (28.9%) held by individuals.

This indicates that as investors scale their operations beyond 10 properties in Daviess County, they are more likely to adopt a formal corporate structure for management and liability purposes.

Even so, individual ownership persists across nearly all tiers, demonstrating that private capital is the primary force in the local rental market, regardless of scale.

In the largest tiers represented locally, company ownership solidifies, illustrating a strategic shift from personal investment to a more formalized business operation as portfolios expand.

Geographic analysis of Daviess County reveals specific pockets of high investor concentration. The zip code 64640 (Gallatin) is the epicenter of activity by volume, with 542 investor-owned SFRs, representing 38.8% of its housing stock.

However, the highest penetration rates are found in smaller communities. The 64654 zip code stands out with a 100.0% investor ownership rate, indicating it may be an area with specialized housing or a very small sample size completely acquired by investors.

Other areas also show remarkably high investor saturation. The zip code 64620 (Coffey) has a 51.9% investor ownership rate, meaning landlords own more than half of the single-family homes. Similarly, 64642 (Jameson) and 64647 (Pattonsburg) have rates of 46.9% and 43.4%, respectively.

This distinction between high-volume areas like Gallatin and high-penetration areas like Coffey and Jameson highlights different market dynamics. One shows scale, while the others show an exceptionally high density of rental properties.

Following Gallatin, the areas with the next highest counts of investor properties are 64648 (Jamesport) with 177 properties and 64620 (Coffey) with 108 properties.

Transaction data reveals that landlords are in a strong accumulation phase in Daviess County. In the first quarter of 2026, they purchased 34 properties and sold only one, making them decisive net buyers and signaling confidence in the local market.

This behavior is not a recent development but a sustained trend. Throughout 2025, landlords acquired 158 properties while divesting only 20, resulting in a net gain of 138 properties and a buy-to-sell ratio of nearly 8-to-1.

The pattern was even stronger in 2024, when investors bought 155 properties and sold just 13, for a net increase of 142 properties and a ratio of almost 12-to-1.

The consistent, high-volume net buying activity demonstrates a long-term strategy of portfolio expansion among investors in the region.

Given the near-total absence of institutional players in the county, this transaction volume is driven entirely by individual and small-scale company investors who are actively growing their local holdings.

In the first quarter, landlords were the primary movers in the Daviess County real estate market, participating in 34 of the 53 total SFR transactions for a 64.2% market share.

This activity was exclusively driven by smaller investors. All 34 landlord transactions were conducted by entities in the mom-and-pop tiers (1-10 properties), with zero activity from mid-size or institutional tiers.

New entrants to the market paid top dollar for their acquisitions. Landlords purchasing their first rental property (Tier 01) recorded an average purchase price of $540,320, significantly higher than prices paid by traditional homeowners in the same period.

A significant finding is the source of these acquisitions. None of the 34 properties purchased by investors were bought from other landlords. This 0% inter-landlord transaction rate shows that investors are expanding the total rental pool by buying homes from owner-occupants, not just trading assets among themselves.

The concentration of transactions in the smallest tiers, particularly the 26 purchases by single-property landlords, reaffirms that the market's growth is fueled by new, small-scale capital.