Investing in Hendry County, FL Real Estate: The Actual Numbers

Considering rental property in Hendry County, FL? The typical home ($275,334, Zillow) against typical rent ($2,108/mo, Zillow Observed Rent Index) works out to a 9.2% gross cap rate. Gross is where analysis starts, not ends — below is the investor cost stack that turns it into a real number, and the demand-and-supply data that decides whether the rent holds.

Hendry County yield at a glance

The investor cost stack, worked

Start with $25,290 of gross annual rent. Property tax: investors get NO homestead exemption and no 3% cap — at Hendry County’s typical 15.77 mills on a $275,334 assessment, roughly $4,342 a year (non-homestead assessments can still rise up to 10% annually). Insurance: Citizens averages about $2,420/yr here, and landlord (DP-3) policies typically price above owner-occupied. That already takes the yield to about 6.73% before vacancy, maintenance, management and any HOA — the line items that separate real operators from spreadsheet optimists.

Will the rent hold? Demand and supply

Rent growth here is running flat (Zillow index). On demand, IRS migration data shows a net 773 people per year into the county; on supply, builders pulled 470 residential permits in 2025. Rising rents plus positive migration plus a restrained pipeline is the configuration that protects yields; the reverse erodes them. Our valuation model currently reads the county as overvalued by 5.5% versus income-and-rent fundamentals.

Where investors actually buy here

Community-level medians, days on market and price trends for every tracked Hendry County community are on the county’s community and lifestyle pages — start with the county rent page (full rent-versus-own math).

The Hendry County market, in context

Hendry County is LaBelle and Clewiston — 'America's Sweetest Town' — the heart of Florida's sugar country on the southwest shore of Lake Okeechobee, a rural agricultural county of cane fields, cattle, and citrus far from the coastal crowds.

The economy behind the market: {'drivers': 'agriculture (sugar cane, cattle, citrus), food processing, and government', 'summary': "Hendry's economy is agriculture on a grand scale: U.S. Sugar Corporation is headquartered in Clewiston and dominates the local economy alongside vast cane fields, cattle ranches, and citrus groves. Food processing, the county-and-school-district government, and a small healthcare sector round out a deeply rural base.", 'employers': ['U.S. Sugar Corporation (Clewiston HQ)', 'Hendry County School District', 'Hendry County government', 'agriculture (sugar cane, cattle, citrus)', 'Hendry Regional Medical Center', 'food processing'], 'jobNote': "U.S. Sugar Corporation is headquartered in Clewiston — 'America's Sweetest Town' — and dominates the agricultural economy."}

What could change it: Hendry's risks are rural and agricultural: an economy heavily concentrated in sugar and farming, lake-and-canal flooding around Okeechobee, modest incomes, and inland hurricane exposure (the lake region took heavy rain in Irma and Ian). Insurance is moderate inland, and the market is thin.

Near-term outlook: Expect Hendry to stay a very affordable, agriculture-anchored market over the next 12 months, with steady local demand, abundant land, and slow price movement.

Run the numbers in Hendry County

• Find the best agent in Hendry County
• Get a cash offer in Hendry County
• Hendry County housing scorecard
• What would selling net you
• Buyer closing costs calculator

Common questions

Figures from Zillow research series, Zillow Observed Rent Index, verified county millage, Citizens Property Insurance, IRS SOI migration and Census permits, as of 2026-06-16; deemed reliable but not guaranteed. Informational only - not investment, tax or legal advice. Equal Housing Opportunity.