Sangamon County, Illinois Eviction Risk: Moderate

Sangamon County, Illinois scores 4.2/10 (Moderate) for eviction risk, placing it 13th of 102 Illinois eviction laws counties, meaning only 12 counties carry more risk for landlords and 89 are more landlord-friendly. That mid-tier average reflects a county where operating conditions are workable but not frictionless: average rent sits at $1,033 a month, rent burden averages 27.8% of income, and roughly 30.6% of residents are renters, giving landlords a real tenant pool while keeping underlying financial stress present in the market.

The county-wide score masks meaningful variation. Risk across the 23 tracked cities runs from a low of 4.9 to a high of 5.4, so a landlord operating in the most exposed pockets faces noticeably different conditions than one concentrated in the more stable suburban corridors. Understanding where each asset sits within that range matters as much as the county average itself.

The cities inside Sangamon County

At the top of the risk range, Riverton (3.9/10, population 3,513) and Jerome (4/10, population 1,807) share the highest scores in the county alongside Southern View and Grandview, both also at 5.4. Buffalo follows closely at 5.3, and Chatham, Pawnee, and New Berlin each score 5.2. These communities generally combine higher renter financial stress with the procedural demands of Illinois eviction laws eviction law, compressing a landlord's margin for error when a tenancy goes wrong.

The county seat, Springfield, is both the largest city (population 113,330) and one of the more moderate performers, scoring 5/10 alongside Rochester. Sherman and Auburn each land at 5.1. Chatham, the county's second-largest city at 14,639 residents, scores 5.2, nudging it into the elevated portion of the range. The difference between a 5.0 in Springfield and a 5.4 in Riverton is not dramatic in absolute terms, but at scale those fractions translate into measurably different collections rates and timeline risk across a portfolio.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord operating in Sangamon County works within the Illinois eviction laws Forcible Entry and Detainer statute, 735 ILCS 5/9. For nonpayment of rent, state law requires a 5-day notice before filing (735 ILCS 5/9-209); a material lease violation requires a 10-day cure notice (735 ILCS 5/9-210); and terminating a month-to-month tenancy requires 30 days. An uncontested case typically resolves in 30 to 60 days; a contested one can run 60 to 150 days. Court filing fees range from $200 to $400, sheriff lockout fees from $60 to $200, and attorney fees from $750 to $3,500, making the full cost of a contested eviction potentially significant. Reviewing the Illinois eviction laws eviction process and Illinois eviction costs before acquiring units here is worth the time. Illinois eviction laws does not require just cause to end a tenancy and preempts local rent-control ordinances statewide, so landlords face no patchwork of conflicting local caps, though source-of-income is a protected class under the Illinois eviction laws Department of Human Rights.

With a poverty rate averaging 13.4% across the county and nearly a third of residents renting, Sangamon County's risk profile is real but manageable, and the city grid above gives the clearest picture of where that risk concentrates block by block.