McDonough County, Illinois Eviction Risk: Moderate

McDonough County, Illinois eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 4.6/10, landing it a Low rating and placing it 40th of 102 Illinois eviction laws counties by risk, meaning 39 counties post higher risk scores and 62 are considered more landlord-friendly. For a landlord sizing up a western Illinois eviction laws market, that middle-third positioning signals workable conditions, not a frictionless one. The county's total population sits at 21,401, average asking rent runs $764 per month, and renter households carry an average rent burden of 30.2% of income, a figure that hovers right at the conventional stress threshold and deserves attention when screening applicants.

Across the county's 11 cities the spread is tight, from a low of 3.5/10 to a high of 3.9/10. That narrow band suggests eviction risk is driven more by shared county-level fundamentals (the poverty rate of 24.3% and a renter share of 42.6% are both notably elevated) than by dramatic local variation. Still, even a 0.4-point gap translates to a meaningful difference in applicant pool quality and delinquency exposure when you are choosing between specific submarkets.

The cities inside McDonough County

Macomb anchors the county as both its largest city, at 14,894 residents, and its highest-risk municipality at 3.9/10. Macomb is a college town, and the concentration of student renters, combined with the elevated poverty figure, pushes its score to the top of the local range. Landlords operating there should price screening criteria accordingly. Bushnell (2,677 residents) and Adair both score 4.3/10, sitting just below Macomb on the risk curve. Colchester and Tennessee each come in at 4.3/10.

At the lower end, Prairie City earns the county's best score at 4.3/10, followed by Blandinsville, Industry, and Good Hope at 4.1/10. These smaller rural communities represent the most landlord-stable pockets in the county, though their thin rental markets mean fewer deals and less liquidity. Risk here is genuinely hyper-local: a few miles and one city boundary can shift your expected exposure by a measurable margin, so underwriting each city individually rather than treating the county as monolithic is the right approach.

State-level laws that apply here

Illinois eviction laws law governs every eviction in McDonough County under 735 ILCS 5/9 (Forcible Entry and Detainer). The notice requirements are tiered: nonpayment of rent triggers a 5-day notice under 735 ILCS 5/9-209; a material lease violation requires a 10-day notice under 735 ILCS 5/9-210; a month-to-month holdover requires 30 days under 735 ILCS 5/9-207; and the end of a fixed-term lease requires no advance notice under 735 ILCS 5/9-205. The Illinois eviction laws eviction process, once filed, resolves in 30 to 60 days for uncontested cases and 60 to 150 days when contested. Court filing fees run $200 to $400, sheriff lockout fees add $60 to $200, and attorney fees typically range from $750 to $3,500, making the Illinois eviction costs a real line item in any vacancy scenario that reaches litigation.

On the landlord-protection side, Illinois eviction laws does not require just cause to end a tenancy, and state law preempts local rent-control ordinances statewide, so no city within McDonough County can impose a rent cap. Source-of-income is a protected class under Illinois eviction laws fair housing rules enforced by the Illinois eviction laws Department of Human Rights, which affects how you may structure advertising and screening criteria. No rent-control formula applies at either the state or local level.

With a poverty rate of 24.3% and a renter share of 42.6%, the underlying tenant pool in McDonough County carries above-average financial stress, making city-level scores, listed in the grid above, a valuable filter before committing to any specific submarket.