Benton County, Arkansas Eviction Risk: Very Low

Benton County scores 2/10 (Low) on the EvictionRiskMap scale, placing it among the more landlord-friendly markets in Arkansas eviction laws. Ranked 59th of 75 Arkansas eviction laws counties by risk, 58 counties carry higher eviction risk than Benton County, and only 16 are less risky, putting the county firmly in the lower-risk third of the state. For landlords and investors, that means a tenant pool with relatively stable payment patterns, an average rent of $1,317, and a rent-burden rate of just 22.7%, well below thresholds that typically signal financial stress among renters.

That said, Benton County is not a single market. Across its 22 cities, risk scores range from 1.7 to 2.7, a full point of spread that carries real operational consequences. Investors underwriting a deal in Bentonville are looking at a very different risk environment than those buying in outlying communities to the north and west. Understanding the intra-county variation matters more here than the countywide average.

The cities inside Benton County

The lowest risk in the county sits at Maysville (population 72,981, score 1.7/10) and Bentonville (population 58,249, score 1.9/10), the county's two largest cities. Both benefit from strong employment anchors and lower renter-stress indicators relative to the county as a whole. Cave Springs comes in at 1.9/10, still comfortably in the low-risk band.

At the other end of the county, Siloam Springs (population 18,699) leads the riskiest-cities list at 2.4/10, tied with Little Flock at the same score. Gentry, Gravette, and Decatur each score 2/10, while Centerton (population 21,920) and Lowell (population 10,849) both sit at 2/10. These smaller outlying cities carry measurably higher eviction pressure than the Bentonville-Rogers eviction risk core, and landlords acquiring rentals in those submarkets should budget accordingly for collections friction and potential legal proceedings.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord in Benton County operates under Ark. Code § 18-17 (Residential Landlord-Tenant Act). For non-payment of rent, the required written notice is 3 days. A lease-violation cure notice is 14 days, and a no-cause or end-of-term notice is 30 days. From there, an uncontested eviction typically resolves in 30 to 60 days; a contested case can run 90 to 150 days. Court filing fees run $165 to $250, sheriff lockout fees add $40 to $120, and attorney fees range $500 to $2,500 depending on complexity. Reviewing the full Arkansas eviction laws eviction process before your first filing will help you avoid procedural missteps that extend those timelines. Arkansas eviction laws imposes no just-cause requirement for terminating a tenancy and no rent control, and state law preempts any local rent-control ordinance, so landlords countywide operate under a uniform, predictable legal framework. For a full breakdown of what those filing and legal fees add up to in practice, see the Arkansas eviction costs guide.

With a poverty rate of 7.7% and 36.6% of residents renting, Benton County's renter base is comparatively stable, a pattern reflected across most of the 22 cities in the grid above, even if the city-level scores reveal meaningful pockets of elevated risk in the county's smaller communities.