Sell Your Commercial Property In Mississippi

The Mississippi rental market at a glance

Mississippi had 343,643 renter households in the Census Bureau's 2020-2024 American Community Survey, or 30.0% of 1,145,431 occupied homes. Owners hold the other 70.0%. Apartment-style stock is modest: 123,070 Mississippi housing units, 9.2% of the 1,341,114 total, sit in buildings of five or more units, per ACS table B25024.

Mississippi rental vacancy stood at 8.2% in the 2020-2024 DP04 housing profile. Statewide median household income was $56,447, so the $954 median gross rent equals about 20.3% of a typical household's gross income. Renters themselves feel more strain: 51.3% of Mississippi renter households paid 30% or more of income on rent, per ACS table B25070.

Five-year trends in Mississippi

Mississippi median gross rent rose 22.3% between the 2015-2019 and 2020-2024 ACS periods, from $780 to $954 a month. Median household income grew 25.2% over the same span, from $45,081 to $56,447, so income outpaced rent by nearly 3 percentage points.

Mississippi lost 2.3% of its renter households between the two periods, down from 351,553 to 343,643, even as statewide population slipped 1.3% to 2,946,779. Units in five-plus buildings still rose 2.2%, and employment grew 1.6% to 1,255,444 workers, per ACS table B23025.

Mississippi county comparison

Among the four Mississippi counties covered here, median gross rent ranges from $1,061 in Hinds County to $1,451 in DeSoto County, and rental vacancy runs from 5.8% in Rankin County to 12.8% in DeSoto County, per each county's 2020-2024 ACS figures.

Hinds County leads this group on renter share, at 41.7%, and on units in five-plus buildings, at 17.9%. DeSoto County is the most owner-heavy of the four, with renters in just 22.1% of occupied homes.

Mississippi landlord, tax and transfer rules

Mississippi has no statewide rent control. Under Mississippi Code Section 89-8-21, a landlord must send an itemized written claim and return any remaining security deposit within 45 days after lease termination, delivery of possession and the tenant's written demand, or face bad-faith damages up to $200 plus actual loss.

Notice periods are short. Nonpayment of rent draws a 3-day written notice to pay or vacate under Section 89-7-27, while other lease violations get a 14-day cure notice under Section 89-8-13. Month-to-month tenancies require 30 days' notice to terminate and week-to-week tenancies 7 days, per Section 89-8-19.

Mississippi's Department of Revenue classes most commercial and rental real property as Class II, assessed at 15% of true value, while owner-occupied homes get the lower 10% Class I rate. Utilities fall under Class IV at 30%, and personal property under Class III at 15%. County assessors must revalue property at least once every four years, and property taxes are due February 1. Mississippi has no sale-triggered reassessment and no state real estate transfer tax, so a sale itself does not reset the assessment or trigger a state levy.

What this means if you sell in Mississippi

Owners who sell commercial property in Mississippi are priced on rent rolls, vacancy and the Class II assessment heading into the next tax bill. A building in Rankin County, at 5.8% vacancy, reads differently to a buyer than one in DeSoto County at 12.8%.

Taxes deserve a close look. Because Mississippi reassesses at least every four years at 15% of true value with no sale-triggered jump, we model the coming cycle rather than last year's bill alone. With no state transfer tax, no state levy comes off the sale price.

We review Mississippi buildings of five or more units in Hinds, Harrison, DeSoto and Rankin counties and across the rest of the state. Send the rent roll and the latest Mississippi tax statement, and we will set the property against these county figures and current vacancy data.