Census figures
Mississippi housing in figures
Younger homes, prices below the median
Mississippi’s median home value, $169,800, is below the national median of $332,700. About 41.5 percent of Mississippi’s homes were built before 1980 and 14.2 percent before 1960, against 49.7 and 25.6 percent nationally. Its homeowner vacancy rate, the share of the owner housing stock that is empty and for sale, is 0.8 percent (national: 0.9), and its rental vacancy rate is 8.2 percent (national: 5.5).
Mississippi’s housing is younger than the nation’s: 58.5 percent of its homes were built in 1980 or later. Age alone does not set the scope of the work: the inspection and a contractor’s walk-through do, and a house of any age can need work on its foundation or structure, which makes it a heavy rehab, priced and sized differently.
With the median home value below the national median, a full renovation budget on a lower-priced house can come close to the purchase price, one of the signs of a heavy rehab. Price the work before you make an offer, and tell us early if the budget is close to the price.
Insurance is one of the holding costs. Get the insurance quote for the property early, with flood insurance if the property needs it, before you sign a contract.
If you might keep the house as a rental, note that Mississippi’s rental vacancy rate is above the national rate; check rents and empty rentals near the property before you count on the rent.
Our state-by-state study puts a year of Mississippi’s median rent at about 6.74 dollars for every 100 dollars of its median home value, the highest of the 41 places we cover (40 states and the District of Columbia) (national: 5.10), a guide to how rents compare with prices if you keep the house. See rent compared with home values, state by state and rental vacancy rates, state by state.
For a flip, what matters is the house you have in mind: what it costs, what the work costs, how long the work and the sale take, and what similar renovated homes nearby have sold for. State figures are a starting point, not a substitute for the comparable sales, the contractor’s bid and the inspection of that property.