Lowndes County, Georgia Eviction Risk: Low

Lowndes County scores 2.7/10 (Low) for eviction risk, placing it 10th out of 159 counties in Georgia, meaning only 9 counties carry higher risk for landlords. With a renter share of 53.3% across its 9 cities and an average rent of $1,086, the county presents a market that is majority-renter but operating under a state legal framework that is structurally favorable to landlords. The challenge here is not the law, it is the demand side: a 25.1% poverty rate and a rent burden averaging 33.7% of income create real collection pressure across the portfolio.

That aggregate 5.3 county score masks a meaningful range, from a low of 3.9 in the county's quietest community to a high of 5.4 at its urban core. Investors who treat Lowndes County as a single underwriting unit will likely misprice risk at the asset level. The spread of 1.5 points across 9 cities within one county boundary is wide enough to push a marginal deal from acceptable to problematic.

The cities inside Lowndes County

Valdosta (population 55,252) anchors the county and carries the highest risk score at 5.4/10, tied with smaller Remerton (2.9/10, population 1,280). Together these two cities account for the upper end of the county range. Moody AFB and Lake Park both score 2.3/10, representing a step down in risk that may partly reflect the stability of a military tenant base at Moody and the suburban character of Lake Park. Dasher comes in at 2.3/10, while Bemiss (population 9,201) and Hahira (population 3,451) each score 2.5/10.

At the low end, Naylor scores 1.8/10, the single most landlord-favorable location in the county and the only city that clearly separates from the pack. The 1.5-point gap between Naylor and the Valdosta/Remerton tier is a concrete illustration that risk is hyper-local here. An investor screening only at the county level would never see that difference.

State-level laws that apply here

Under Georgia state law (O.C.G.A. § 44-7), landlords hold several structural advantages. For nonpayment of rent or a material lease violation, the required notice period is just 3 days. A holdover or no-cause termination requires 60 days notice, and lease-end terminations require none. Uncontested evictions resolve in 14 to 30 days; contested cases take 45 to 90 days. Georgia does not require just cause to terminate a tenancy, and the state preempts local rent control ordinances under O.C.G.A. § 44-7-19, so no city in Lowndes County can impose rent caps or add just-cause requirements on top of state law.

Direct eviction costs run from a court filing fee of $60 to $250, a sheriff lockout fee of $25 to $100, and attorney fees of $500 to $3,000 if legal counsel is retained. For a full breakdown of the Georgia eviction process and how these timelines play out in practice, landlords should review the Georgia eviction costs guide. Separately, Georgia security deposit limits and Georgia tenant protections are both governed at the state level, giving Lowndes County landlords a consistent, predictable framework that does not vary by city.

With a county poverty rate of 25.1% and more than half of all households renting, individual city scores in the grid above carry more underwriting weight than the county average alone.