Jackson County, Illinois Eviction Risk: Moderate

Jackson County, Illinois eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 4.7/10 (Moderate) across its 12 cities, placing it at rank 16 of 102 Illinois counties. That position means 15 counties statewide are riskier, and 86 are more landlord-friendly, putting Jackson County firmly in the higher-risk third of Illinois eviction laws. With a 62.1% renter share and an average rent of $753, the county draws a tenant-heavy market where eviction exposure is a real operating consideration, not a theoretical one.

The intra-county score range of 3.3 to 4.9 is narrow but meaningful. At a rent-burden rate of 30.6%, a notable share of tenants are already stretched thin, which tends to compress the margin between on-time rent and a missed payment. Landlords underwriting a new acquisition here should treat that thinness as a baseline operating condition rather than an anomaly.

The cities inside Jackson County

Carbondale, the county's largest city at 22,158 residents, scores 4.9/10, the highest risk in the county. Its dense student-adjacent rental stock and high poverty concentration drive that reading. Murphysboro, the second-largest city with a population of 6,735, scores 4.7/10, matching De Soto (4.4/10) and Hurst (4.2/10). Elkville and Grand Tower both come in at 4.8/10.

The lower end of the risk spectrum is considerably more moderate. Makanda scores 3.3/10, the lowest in the county, followed by Ava at 4/10 and Harrison at 4.7/10. The spread across the 12 cities demonstrates that risk is hyper-local inside Jackson County: a landlord operating in Makanda faces meaningfully different tenant-payment dynamics than one holding units in Carbondale, even though both sit within the same county lines.

State-level laws that apply here

All landlords in Jackson County operate under Illinois state law, specifically 735 ILCS 5/9 (Forcible Entry and Detainer). For nonpayment of rent, the required notice period is 5 days; a material lease violation requires a 10-day notice; and a month-to-month holdover tenant requires 30 days. Once a case is filed, uncontested proceedings typically resolve in 30 to 60 days, while a contested case can run 60 to 150 days. Understanding the Illinois eviction process from notice through lockout is essential before placing tenants, because those timelines directly affect cash-flow exposure on a non-performing unit.

Court filing fees run $200 to $400, sheriff lockout fees add another $60 to $200, and attorney fees typically range from $750 to $3,500 depending on complexity. Illinois eviction costs can therefore reach several thousand dollars on a contested case, a number that should factor into screening standards and security deposit strategy. Illinois does not impose rent control, and no just-cause requirement applies at the state level, giving landlords termination flexibility at lease end that many other states have removed.

With a county-wide poverty rate of 29.1% and 62.1% of residents renting, the financial baseline here is thinner than in most Illinois counties; the city grid above breaks that risk down to the individual market level so you can target the pockets of relative stability before committing capital.