Highland (OH) Investor Pulse Report (2026-Q1)

In Highland County, investors hold a significant 17.7% share of the single-family residential market, totaling 1,949 properties out of 11,013 available. This highlights a substantial presence of real estate investing activity shaping the local housing landscape.

The ownership structure is heavily skewed towards individuals over corporations. Individual landlords own 1,642 properties, accounting for 84.2% of the investor-owned portfolio, while companies own the remaining 337 properties (17.3%).

A similar pattern emerges when looking at landlord entities. Of the 2,400 distinct landlords in the county, 2,207 are individuals and only 193 are companies, reinforcing the 'mom-and-pop' character of the local rental market.

Cash transactions dominate investor holdings. There are 1,296 cash-owned properties, far surpassing the 653 properties that are financed. This 2-to-1 cash-to-finance ratio suggests that a majority of investors have high liquidity and are less reliant on traditional lending.

The portfolio is almost entirely dedicated to rentals. With 1,889 properties classified as rented, 96.9% of investor-owned homes are not occupied by their owners, underscoring a clear focus on generating rental income.

In Q1 2026, landlords demonstrated a distinct pricing advantage, acquiring properties for an average of $180,518 while traditional homeowners paid $204,221. This represents a substantial 11.6% discount, or a savings of $23,703 per home.

The landlord discount has been a consistent trend, though its magnitude has varied. The price gap was significantly wider in mid-2025, reaching a peak of 34.8% ($85,014) in Q2 2025. The narrowing of this gap to 11.6% in the most recent quarter suggests increasing competition for available inventory.

Acquisition prices have shown steady appreciation over the past several years. The average price paid by landlords during the 2020-2023 period was $126,295, which climbed to $142,700 in 2024 and reached an average of $180,518 in the first quarter of 2026.

This quarter-over-quarter price increase reveals a heated market. Landlord acquisition prices jumped from $143,329 in Q1 2025 to $180,518 in Q1 2026, a significant increase that outpaces the price growth for traditional homeowners in the same period.

The ability to secure properties below the typical market rate remains a key strategic advantage for investors in Highland County, even as the market becomes more competitive and the size of that discount shrinks.

Investor activity accounted for nearly a quarter of all single-family home purchases in the last quarter, with landlords acquiring 28 of the 114 properties sold. This 24.6% market share indicates a robust and active investor presence in Highland County.

The overwhelming majority of this purchasing activity comes from small-scale investors. Mom-and-pop landlords (owning 1-10 properties) were responsible for 92.9% of all investor acquisitions, purchasing 26 of the 28 homes.

New entrants are a primary driver of market activity. A total of 28 new landlord entities made their first purchase, acquiring 19 properties. This continuous influx of first-time investors underscores the accessibility of the local market.

In stark contrast, institutional-level buying was minimal. Investors in the 1,000+ property tier acquired just one property, representing only 3.6% of landlord purchases. This highlights a market dominated by small players rather than large corporations.

The data clearly shows that the new wave of investment is led by individuals. Single-property landlords alone bought 19 homes (67.9% of the total), reinforcing that the market's growth is fueled by small, independent operators.

The investor landscape in Highland County is overwhelmingly dominated by small-scale operators. Landlords owning between 1 and 10 properties, commonly known as mom-and-pops, control 93.8% of all investor-owned single-family homes.

Single-property landlords form the bedrock of this market. This group alone owns 1,535 properties, which constitutes a massive 76.2% share of the entire investor portfolio, demonstrating that the barrier to entry for property ownership is relatively low.

Conversely, institutional ownership is almost nonexistent. The largest tier of investors (1,000+ properties) holds just 13 homes, representing a fractional 0.6% of the market. This finding directly counters the common narrative of large corporations controlling residential housing.

Mid-size landlords (11-1,000 properties) also have a limited footprint, collectively owning just 123 properties, or 6.1% of the investor-owned housing stock. The market clearly favors smaller, more localized investment strategies.

The data paints a clear picture of a decentralized market where ownership is widely distributed among a large number of small investors, rather than concentrated in the hands of a few large entities.

While individual investors dominate the overall market, companies become the majority owners in portfolios of 6-10 properties. In this specific tier, companies own 34 homes (52.3%) compared to the 31 owned by individuals (47.7%), marking a clear strategic crossover point.

At the entry level, individual ownership is nearly absolute. Among landlords with a single property, 1,428 are individuals (91.5%) versus just 133 companies (8.5%). This underscores that the path to real estate investment in Highland County typically begins with personal, not corporate, capital.

Even as portfolio sizes grow, individual investors remain highly competitive. For landlords owning 3-5 properties, individuals hold a 77.8% majority. Surprisingly, this trend continues into the 11-20 property tier, where individuals still own 77.3% of the homes.

The two-property tier also shows strong individual dominance, with individuals owning 98 properties (79.0%) compared to 26 properties (21.0%) for companies. This indicates that scaling from one to two properties is a common path for individual investors.

The data suggests a market structure where individuals build small-to-medium portfolios, while corporate entities tend to enter at a slightly larger scale, becoming dominant only in the 6-10 property segment before individual ownership patterns re-emerge in the next tier up.

Geographic concentration is a defining feature of investor ownership in Highland County. A single zip code, 45133, accounts for nearly half of all investor-owned properties, with 955 homes, though its investor ownership rate is a more moderate 16.7%.

The areas with the highest investor penetration rates are different from those with the highest raw counts. The 45155 zip code leads the county with a 39.0% investor ownership rate, followed by 45132 (35.7%) and 45172 (31.4%), indicating these are hotspot markets for rental activity.

Only one zip code, 45123, appears in the top five for both total investor properties (489) and ownership percentage (23.0%). This makes it a balanced hub of significant investor activity and high market penetration.

The top five zip codes by property count collectively hold 1,830 properties, representing 93.9% of the entire investor portfolio in the county. This extreme concentration suggests that investors are targeting very specific neighborhoods and communities.

This analysis reveals two distinct geographic strategies: one focused on acquiring volume in a large, established area (45133), and another focused on achieving high market density in smaller, possibly emerging, rental markets (45155, 45132).

Landlords in Highland County are consistently expanding their portfolios, acting as strong net buyers across all recent timeframes. In Q1 2026, they purchased 42 properties while selling only 10, resulting in a net gain of 32 properties and a 4.2x buy-to-sell ratio.

This aggressive accumulation has been a long-term trend. For the full year of 2025, landlords acquired 151 properties and sold 42, for a net increase of 109 properties. The activity in 2024 was similar, with 111 buys and 47 sells, a net gain of 64 properties.

Institutional investors (1,000+ tier) exhibit a starkly different, more cautious behavior. In Q3 2025, this cohort was a net seller, acquiring only one property while selling two. This divergence suggests that the largest players are strategically trimming their portfolios while smaller investors expand.

Despite their recent selling, institutional investors were slight net buyers over a longer period. For the full year 2025, they bought 4 properties and sold 2, indicating a highly selective and tactical approach to acquisitions and divestitures.

The market dynamic is clear: the overall growth in investor ownership is being fueled by smaller landlords who are actively accumulating properties, while the few institutional players are taking a more measured, and at times contractionary, stance.

In Q1 2026, investors accounted for 25.6% of all property transactions, purchasing 42 of the 164 single-family homes sold. This sustained level of activity confirms their role as a major force in the local real estate market.

A dramatic pricing disparity exists between investor tiers. New, single-property landlords paid the most, with an average purchase price of $213,986. In sharp contrast, the one institutional purchase was for just $62,000, a staggering 71.0% discount compared to the entry-level buyer.

This price gap reveals fundamentally different acquisition strategies. Mom-and-pop buyers appear to be competing in the open market, while the institutional player is likely targeting distressed or off-market assets at deep discounts.

Landlord-to-landlord transactions show interesting patterns. Landlords in the two-property tier acquired all four of their properties from other landlords, suggesting they are buying existing rental portfolios rather than competing with traditional homebuyers.

Meanwhile, new single-property investors rely less on this channel, with only 10.3% (3 of 29) of their purchases coming from other landlords. This indicates they are primarily buying from homeowners, placing them in direct competition with typical buyers.