Union County, Arkansas Eviction Risk: Low

Union County, Arkansas eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.2/10, placing it in the Low risk tier. Ranked 35th of 75 Arkansas counties, 34 counties carry more risk and 40 are less risky, putting Union County squarely in the middle third of the state. For landlords and investors, that Low score reflects a legal environment that does not stack unusual obstacles in front of a landlord who needs to move a non-paying tenant out. Average rent runs $848 per month against an average rent-to-income burden of 28.6%, a ratio that is manageable but not comfortable in a county where the poverty rate reaches 22.8%. That poverty figure is worth keeping front of mind when underwriting vacancy and collection risk here.

The intra-county spread is narrow, running from a low of 2.2/10 to a high of 2.2/10 across 9 incorporated cities. In practical terms, nowhere inside Union County tips into elevated territory, but the gap between its most and least challenging cities still represents a real difference in tenant-pool composition and local market conditions. Investors evaluating any specific address should look at city-level data rather than stopping at the county average.

The cities inside Union County

Norphlet carries the county's highest score at 2.6/10, making it the most operationally demanding market in the county, though still firmly in the Low tier. El Dorado, the county seat and by far the largest city with a population of 17,115, sits at 2.2/10, as does the smaller community of Strong. Norphlet comes in at 2.6/10 with a population of 1,003. These four cities represent the upper half of the county's risk range.

At the lower end, Junction City, Calion, Urbana, and Lawson all score 2.4/10, the county's floor. These are small communities, with populations ranging from 564 (Junction City) down to 86 (Lawson), meaning thin rental markets with limited comparable-sale data. Risk here is low, but so is liquidity. The broader lesson is that even within a low-risk county like Union County, risk is hyper-local: a landlord holding units in Smackover is operating in a meaningfully different environment than one holding units in Calion, despite both sitting inside the same county boundary.

State-level laws that apply here

Every rental in Union County is governed by the Arkansas eviction laws Residential Landlord-Tenant Act (Ark. Code § 18-17). Under Arkansas eviction laws state law, a landlord serving a non-payment-of-rent notice must give the tenant 3 days to pay or vacate; a lease-violation cure notice requires 14 days; and a no-cause end-of-term notice requires 30 days. Once a case reaches court, an uncontested eviction typically resolves in 30 to 60 days, while a contested matter can run 90 to 150 days. The full Arkansas eviction laws eviction process, from first notice through lockout, carries court filing fees of $165 to $250, sheriff fees of $40 to $120, and attorney fees typically ranging from $500 to $2,500 depending on complexity. Landlords budgeting for worst-case contested proceedings should treat those attorney-fee ranges seriously. A thorough review of Arkansas eviction costs before acquiring rental property here will prevent surprises. Arkansas eviction laws has no statewide rent control and no just-cause eviction requirement, and state law preempts any local government from imposing rent caps, which is a meaningful structural advantage for landlords operating anywhere in the state.

With 39.5% of residents renting and a poverty rate of 22.8%, Union County presents a large renter pool alongside meaningful collection risk; the city-level scores in the grid above will help you pinpoint where within the county those dynamics are most concentrated.