Cerro Gordo County, Iowa Eviction Risk: Low

Cerro Gordo County carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.5/10 (Low), but that headline understates how much variance a landlord actually faces across the county's 11 cities. The intra-county range runs from 2.7 at the low end to 3.7 at the high end, a full point of spread that matters when you are choosing between submarkets. Iowa eviction laws does not impose local rent control, and state-level eviction procedure is reasonably landlord-accessible, so the county sits at rank 22 of 99 Iowa counties, meaning 21 counties carry higher risk and 77 are less risky, placing Cerro Gordo in the higher-risk third of the state despite its Low label. For a buy-and-hold investor, the operating environment here is functional but not frictionless.

The county's average rent of $861 per month and a rent-burden rate of 24.3% suggest most tenants are not severely stretched, which tends to correlate with lower default and eviction frequency. Renter households make up 31.2% of all occupied units, a share large enough to support a real rental market while still leaving room for landlords who prefer owner-occupant neighborhoods as a stability proxy. At a poverty rate of 9.7%, the county is not a high-distress market, though pockets of elevated risk do show up at the city level.

The cities inside Cerro Gordo County

The highest-risk location in the county is Burchinal at 3/10, followed by Ventura at 2.3/10 (population 733) and Rock Falls at 2.8/10. Clear Lake, the county's second-largest city with a population of 7,607, comes in at 3.4/10, and Mason City, the county seat and largest city at 27,050 residents, scores exactly at the county average of 2.5/10. Risk here is genuinely hyper-local: the gap between Burchinal and Plymouth (3/10, population 407) is one full point even though the two communities sit within the same county lines.

Landlords concentrating holdings in Mason City eviction risk or Clear Lake eviction risk will find the broadest rental demand simply because of population density, while smaller communities like Plymouth offer the lowest risk scores in the county. Understanding those city-level distinctions is more useful than relying on the county average alone when sizing up a specific acquisition.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord operating in Cerro Gordo County works under Iowa eviction laws Code § 562A (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Law). For non-payment of rent, the required notice period is 3 days. Lease-violation cure notices require 7 days, and a no-cause end-of-term notice runs 30 days. Uncontested cases typically resolve in 21 to 40 days; contested cases can stretch to 45 to 100 days. Court filing fees run $95 to $200, sheriff lockout fees add $50 to $150, and attorney fees commonly range from $500 to $2,500, so a landlord should budget the component costs individually rather than assuming a fixed total. Iowa eviction laws does not require just cause for nonrenewal, and the state preempts any local attempt at rent control, meaning no city inside Cerro Gordo County can cap rents. For a full procedural walkthrough, see the Iowa eviction laws eviction process guide; for a breakdown of what removal actually costs, the Iowa eviction costs resource covers each fee tier in detail. Iowa security deposit limits and Iowa tenant protections are also worth reviewing before drafting or renewing leases.

With a poverty rate of 9.7% and renters comprising 31.2% of occupied units, Cerro Gordo County is a moderate-demand, lower-distress market; the city-level grid above shows where within that range each of the 11 communities actually falls.