Arkansas County, Arkansas Eviction Risk: Moderate

Arkansas County scores 2/10 (Low risk) on the EvictionRiskMap scale, placing it in the middle third of all Arkansas counties, with 30 counties carrying more risk and 44 carrying less. For landlords considering this Delta-region market, that average reflects a genuinely low-friction operating environment, though it describes a county of just 11,610 residents spread across small agricultural communities where tenant turnover patterns and local economic stress differ sharply from bigger metros.

Scores across the county's five tracked cities run from 1.5 to 2.1, a narrow band that signals relatively consistent conditions throughout Arkansas County rather than isolated pockets of high risk. Average rent sits at $855, and roughly 43.9% of households rent, which is a meaningful renter base for a rural county of this size. The rent burden average of 30.7% of income is worth watching, as tenants spending close to a third of income on rent have limited cushion when income disruptions hit.

The cities inside Arkansas County

Stuttgart, the county seat and by far the largest city at 7,903 residents, scores 2/10 and will be the primary market for most rental investors here. DeWitt, with a population of 2,933, carries the highest risk score in the county at 2.1/10, meaning landlords there face slightly more elevated exposure than elsewhere, though still firmly in the Low tier statewide. Gillett comes in at 1.9/10 with a population of 378.

At the other end of the range, St. Charles and Almyra both score 1.5/10, the lowest readings in the county, with populations of 250 and 146 respectively. These are very small communities where rental inventory is thin. The core lesson from this spread is that risk is hyper-local: even within a low-risk county, DeWitt landlords are operating in conditions meaningfully different from those in St. Charles, and underwriting should reflect that.

State-level laws that apply here

Under Ark. Code § 18-17 (Residential Landlord-Tenant Act), Arkansas eviction laws gives landlords a comparatively direct eviction path. Non-payment of rent requires only a 3-day notice before filing; lease violations carry a 14-day cure notice; and no-cause terminations at end of term require 30 days. The Arkansas eviction process, once a notice period has elapsed, moves to court, where uncontested cases typically conclude in 30 to 60 days and contested cases in 90 to 150 days. Arkansas eviction laws imposes no just-cause eviction requirement, and the state preempts local rent control ordinances, so there is no local rent cap that could apply in Arkansas County.

Knowing the Arkansas eviction costs in advance helps landlords budget realistically. Court filing fees run $165 to $250, sheriff lockout fees add $40 to $120, and attorney fees for a contested case can range from $500 to $2,500. Even a fully contested removal can therefore reach several thousand dollars when all components stack, reinforcing why thorough tenant screening matters even in a low-risk county.

With a poverty rate of 17.4% across Arkansas County, landlords should price screening and reserve requirements to account for income volatility, even though the county's overall risk profile remains low; the city-by-city grid above shows exactly where within the county that exposure is most concentrated.