Sullivan (NH) Investor Pulse Report (2026-Q1)

Investor ownership in Sullivan County is substantial, with 5,886 Single Family Residential (SFR) properties held by landlords, accounting for a significant 40.4% of the county's 14,585 total SFRs.

The market is overwhelmingly characterized by small, individual investors rather than large corporations. Individual landlords own 5,305 properties, making up 90.1% of the investor-owned portfolio, while companies own just 889 properties (15.1%).

This individual dominance extends to the entity level, where 8,029 of the 8,861 total landlords (90.6%) are individuals. This highlights a market structure built on local, small-scale real estate investing.

Cash is the preferred acquisition method among Sullivan County landlords. The portfolio includes 3,613 properties owned outright with cash, significantly outnumbering the 2,273 properties that are financed.

The portfolio is heavily focused on rental income generation, with 5,860 of the 5,886 properties classified as rented. This demonstrates a clear strategy geared towards long-term rental holdings over other investment types.

In a notable reversal of typical market dynamics, landlords in Sullivan County paid more than traditional homeowners in Q1 2026. The average landlord acquisition price was $360,938, a 4.7% premium of $16,071 over the average homeowner price of $344,867.

This premium, while significant, represents a cooling from the extreme pricing seen in mid-2025. In Q3 2025, landlords paid an average of $461,854, which was a remarkable 26.3% ($96,247) higher than the homeowner price of $365,607.

The trend of landlords paying more has been consistent over the past year. In Q2 2025, the premium was 7.2% ($28,172), and in Q1 2025, it was a narrower 1.0% ($3,990), indicating intense competition for available properties.

Overall property values have fluctuated, with the average landlord purchase price in 2024 at $429,961, decreasing to $424,316 for all of 2025, before settling at $360,938 in the first quarter of 2026.

This unusual pricing behavior suggests that investors are targeting specific, high-demand properties or are operating in a highly competitive, low-inventory environment where they must outbid primary homebuyers to secure assets.

Investor activity dominated the Sullivan County market in the last quarter, with landlords purchasing 30 of the 55 available SFR properties, a controlling market share of 54.5%.

The entirety of this purchasing activity came from 'mom-and-pop' investors (owning 1-10 properties). Institutional investors (1,000+ properties) were completely inactive, underscoring the local, small-scale nature of the market.

New investors entering the market were the primary drivers of demand. Landlords buying their first investment property (Tier 01) accounted for 27 of the 30 purchases, representing 90.0% of all investor acquisitions.

This influx of new entrants involved 36 distinct entities purchasing 27 properties, suggesting some new investors may have partnered on their first acquisition.

The remaining activity was minimal, with one landlord expanding their portfolio to the 3-5 property tier and another to the 6-10 property tier, each acquiring just one additional property.

The investor landscape in Sullivan County is defined by its complete reliance on small landlords. Those owning 1-10 properties (Tiers 01-04) collectively hold 99.8% of all investor-owned SFRs, leaving virtually no room for larger players.

Single-property landlords (Tier 01) form the bedrock of the market, owning 5,546 properties. This tier alone accounts for an astonishing 92.3% of all investor-held housing in the county.

As portfolio sizes increase, ownership concentration drops off dramatically. Two-property landlords (Tier 02) hold 275 properties (4.6%), and those with 3-5 properties (Tier 03) own just 144 properties (2.4%).

The presence of mid-size and large investors is negligible to non-existent. There are no investors in the 51-1,000+ property tiers, and institutional investors (Tier 09) have 0.0% market share.

This distribution reveals a highly fragmented market composed almost exclusively of small, local operators, a structure that contrasts sharply with narratives of corporate landlord dominance seen in other regions.

Individual investors are the primary owners across nearly all portfolio sizes in Sullivan County. They own 88.0% of single-property portfolios (5,098 properties) and maintain a majority in the two-property (65.7%) and 3-5 property (51.7%) tiers.

The point at which companies become the dominant owner type occurs in the small-medium 21-50 property tier. Even here, the scale is minimal, with companies owning 5 of the 6 properties in this bracket (83.3%).

This crossover point highlights the threshold where the complexities of managing a larger portfolio likely encourage formal business structures, though very few investors in the county reach this scale.

In the largest active tiers, individual ownership persists but diminishes. For portfolios of 6-10 properties, ownership is nearly split, with individuals holding 17 properties (53.1%) and companies holding 15 (46.9%).

Overall, the data paints a picture of a market where incorporation is rare and typically reserved for the handful of investors who manage to build portfolios beyond 20 properties. The vast majority of the market's 5,886 investor-owned homes are held by individuals.

Investor activity in Sullivan County is highly concentrated in specific zip codes. The top two regions for investor-owned property count are NH-Sullivan-03753 with 1,045 properties and NH-Sullivan-03782 with 1,032 properties.

Analysis of ownership rates reveals pockets of intense investor saturation. The zip code NH-Sullivan-03754 is 100.0% investor-owned, followed by NH-Sullivan-03751 at 88.9% and NH-Sullivan-03601 at 82.4%. These figures suggest areas dominated by vacation homes or rental communities.

There is a strong correlation between the areas with the highest count of investor properties and those with high ownership rates. NH-Sullivan-03753, the leader by count, also has a 72.2% investor ownership rate, placing it fifth highest by saturation.

In contrast, some areas have far lower investor penetration. The NH-Sullivan-03743 zip code, while still fifth for total investor properties (526), has a much lower ownership rate of 17.2%.

This geographic distribution points to a dual market within the county: hyper-saturated rental and vacation zones alongside more traditional residential areas where investor presence is more moderate.

Investors in Sullivan County are in a strong accumulation phase, consistently buying far more properties than they sell. In Q1 2026, landlords were aggressive net buyers, with 39 acquisitions against only 2 sales.

This behavior is part of a long-term trend. Throughout 2025, landlords purchased 423 properties while selling only 38, resulting in a net gain of 385 properties and an 11.1x buy-to-sell ratio.

The acquisition pace was even more intense in 2024, when investors bought 429 properties and sold a mere 13, for a net gain of 416 properties and a ratio of 33 buys for every sale.

Transaction volume shows seasonality and responsiveness to market conditions. The peak buying period in the last two years was Q3 2025, with 132 acquisitions.

Institutional investors (1,000+ properties) have recorded no transactions, meaning all historical buying and selling activity is attributable to small and mid-sized landlords. This reinforces their role as the sole drivers of investor market dynamics in the county.

Investors were a formidable force in the Q1 2026 market, participating in 48.1% of all transactions. Of the 81 total SFR sales in Sullivan County, 39 were acquisitions by landlords.

Activity was almost entirely concentrated at the entry level of the market. Single-property landlords (Tier 01) were responsible for 36 of the 39 investor purchases, demonstrating a robust pipeline of new investors.

A significant price disparity exists between what new and existing landlords paid. First-time investors paid an average of $375,734 per property, while the few transactions from existing small landlords were at much lower price points: $79,000 (Tier 03-05) and $125,000 (Tier 06-10).

This price gap suggests new entrants are buying market-rate, move-in-ready homes, while experienced small landlords may be targeting distressed or lower-value properties for renovation.

Inter-landlord trading is not a primary source of inventory. Only 11.1% of properties purchased by single-property investors (4 out of 36) were bought from another landlord, indicating that most acquisitions come from the traditional homeowner market.