Judith Basin (MT) Investor Pulse Report (2026-Q1)

Investors hold a majority stake in the Judith Basin single-family residential market, owning 171 out of 295 total properties, which translates to a high 58.0% market penetration rate.

The investor landscape is overwhelmingly dominated by individuals rather than corporations. Individual landlords own 164 properties, accounting for 95.9% of the investor-owned portfolio, while companies own just 9 properties (5.3%).

This individual dominance is also reflected in the landlord entity count, with 240 individual landlords compared to only 9 company entities. This structure underscores a market built on small-scale, local real estate investing.

Financing patterns reveal a strong preference for cash acquisitions. A substantial 139 properties in the investor portfolio are owned free and clear, more than four times the 32 properties that are financed.

The entire investor portfolio of 171 properties is classified as non-owner-occupied, confirming that these holdings are exclusively dedicated to rental income rather than personal use.

A lack of sales activity in Judith Basin prevents any meaningful analysis of acquisition pricing for Q1 2026, as no transactions were recorded for either landlords or traditional homeowners.

Historical data is also too limited to draw conclusions. For example, in Q3 2025, a single landlord purchase was recorded at $318,313, but with no corresponding homeowner sales, a price comparison is impossible.

Similarly, no consistent quarter-over-quarter transaction volume exists to track whether a price gap between landlords and homeowners is widening or narrowing over time.

The absence of data makes it impossible to compare price appreciation from the 2020-2023 period, which averaged $178,246 for landlords, to more recent periods.

Due to the low transaction volume, determining whether individual or company landlords pay different prices is not feasible with the available data.

Investor activity defined the entire Judith Basin SFR market in the fourth quarter of 2025, with landlords responsible for 100% of all purchases.

However, this market share is based on extremely low volume, as only one single-family property was transacted in total during the quarter.

The purchase was made by a new mom-and-pop investor, who acquired their first property. This single transaction accounts for 100% of the buying activity within the landlord category.

Consequently, small investors (Tiers 01-04) represented all purchasing activity, while mid-size and institutional investors (Tiers 05-09) were completely inactive, recording zero acquisitions.

This highlights a market characterized by minimal liquidity, where a single purchase by a new entrant can represent the totality of quarterly activity.

The investor ownership structure in Judith Basin is exclusively composed of mom-and-pop landlords, who control 100% of the 171 investor-owned SFRs.

First-time investors and single-property owners (Tier 01) form the backbone of this market, holding 161 properties, which constitutes a massive 93.1% share of all investor-owned housing.

The next largest segment, two-property landlords (Tier 02), holds a distant 11 properties (6.4%), further cementing the dominance of very small-scale investors.

There is a complete absence of larger investors. Mid-size landlords (11-1000 properties) and institutional investors (1000+ properties) have no footprint in this market, owning zero properties combined.

This highly concentrated ownership at the smallest end of the spectrum indicates a market operating without the influence of large-scale corporate or institutional capital.

Individual investors are the definitive owners across all active portfolio tiers in Judith Basin. There is no tier in which companies hold a majority, or even significant, share.

In the largest segment, single-property landlords, individuals own 155 of the 163 properties (95.1%), with companies holding a mere 8 properties (4.9%).

The dominance of individuals is absolute in the two-property tier, where they own all 11 properties (100.0%), leaving no room for company ownership.

This data illustrates a clear market character: investment is driven by private individuals, not by corporate entities, regardless of portfolio size.

Given the complete lack of mid-to-large size portfolios, a 'crossover point' where company ownership typically surpasses individual ownership does not exist in this market.

Investor activity in Judith Basin is not evenly distributed, showing hyper-concentration in a few key zip codes. The 59418 area stands out with a 100.0% investor ownership rate, meaning every SFR is investor-owned.

Other areas also show remarkably high investor saturation. The zip codes 59469 (75.0%), 59452 (62.5%), and 59479 (58.4%) all have investor ownership rates well over 50%.

The region with the largest volume of investor properties is 59479, containing 94 landlord-owned SFRs.

The area with the second-highest count is 59452, with 55 investor properties, which also corresponds to a high penetration rate of 62.5%.

This pattern suggests that investor focus is narrow, targeting specific communities within the county rather than spreading acquisitions broadly.

There is no historical transaction data available for Judith Basin, making it impossible to conduct a long-term analysis of landlord buying and selling behavior.

Key market health indicators, such as the buy-to-sell ratio, cannot be calculated. Therefore, whether landlords have historically been net buyers or net sellers remains unknown.

Analysis of inter-landlord activity is also not possible. The data does not allow for a measurement of what percentage of transactions are traded between investors.

Furthermore, without historical buy and sell prices, it is unfeasible to assess typical profit margins or pricing strategies over different timeframes.

Due to these data limitations, trends in market liquidity and investor sentiment over annual or multi-year periods cannot be determined for either the overall landlord market or the institutional tier.

The landlord community was responsible for all single-family transaction activity in Judith Basin during the fourth quarter of 2025, capturing a 100% market share.

This total market share is based on a single transaction, highlighting an exceptionally quiet quarter for the local real estate market.

The acquisition was made by an investor in the smallest category, the single-property tier, reflecting the dominance of new and small-scale players.

The property was not acquired from another landlord, as the 'Bought From Landlords' percentage was 0.0%. This suggests the seller was likely a traditional homeowner.

No other tiers, including mid-size or institutional investors, recorded any transactions, reinforcing the market's reliance on small, individual buyers.