Investing in Amory, MS — Market Analysis
Amory is one of the lower-basis entry points in Mississippi, with a median home price around $155,000. Amory is a smaller Mississippi market. Entry prices are low and gross rent-to-price ratios are among the best in the state, but appraisers have fewer rent comps to work with, and a single vacancy is a much larger share of annual income than it would be in a metro.
Buying a rental property in Amory on a DSCR loan means putting a minimum of $31,000 down (20% of purchase price), leaving a loan amount of $124,000 at 80% LTV. At current DSCR investor pricing near 7.50%, principal and interest on that loan runs about $867 per month. Add Monroe County property taxes of roughly $102/month and landlord insurance of about $62/month, and your all-in PITIA lands near $1,031/month. That PITIA figure — not the P&I — is what the lender divides your rent into.
A long-term lease in Amory should generate roughly $1,350/month in gross rent. Against a PITIA of $1,031, that produces an estimated DSCR ratio of 1.31x. That clears the 1.0 minimum comfortably and puts you in the strongest DSCR pricing tier most lenders offer, which usually means a rate improvement of 0.25%–0.50% versus a break-even deal.
Two Mississippi-specific items to build into your model: Mississippi assesses single-family rental property in Class II at 15% of true value with no homestead credit available to investors, and coastal Hancock, Harrison and Jackson county wind premiums are frequently the largest single line in the pro forma — quote insurance before you quote the loan. In Amory specifically, effective property tax on investment property runs around 0.79% of value annually — about $1,225 a year at the median price — and landlord insurance near $744 a year.
On return metrics, Amory pencils to an estimated cap rate of 6.48% using a 62% NOI margin, and a gross rent multiplier of 9.6. Monthly cash flow on a long-term lease at 20% down is estimated at $319 positive. A cash-flowing file at 20% down is the exception in most markets right now, and it gives you room to absorb a rate that doesn't come down.

