Jackson County, Iowa Eviction Risk: Low

Jackson County scores 2.9/10 (Low) across its 11 cities, placing it 31st of 99 Iowa eviction laws counties by eviction risk, with 30 counties carrying higher risk and 68 carrying lower risk. That puts the county in the higher-risk third of the state, a position worth noting for landlords who might assume a rural, low-density market is uniformly safe. Average rent runs $829, renters make up about 25.6% of occupied housing, and the average rent burden sits at 33.7% of income, a level that leaves households with limited cushion against income shocks.

The county-wide average, however, masks real spread. Individual city scores run from 2.3 to 3.3, a full point of range that can meaningfully change the risk calculus depending on exactly where a property sits. Landlords evaluating Jackson County should treat the county figure as a starting point, not a final answer, and price that intra-county variance into their underwriting.

The cities inside Jackson County

Maquoketa anchors the high end of the range at 3.3/10 and, with a population of 6,075, is by far the county's largest city. It accounts for the bulk of the county's rental activity, which means the county average is pulled meaningfully upward by conditions there. Landlords concentrating their portfolio in Maquoketa should budget for a moderately more tenant-protective environment than the county average suggests.

Andrew and Zwingle both score 2.8/10, representing the second tier of risk, while Baldwin comes in at 2.7/10. At the other end, Bellevue scores 2.3/10 with a population of 2,259, and Springbrook also scores 2.3/10. St. Donatus reaches 2.4/10. The lesson is consistent with what investors find in smaller Iowa markets generally: risk is hyper-local, and a short drive between towns can shift the operating environment by nearly a full point on a 10-point scale.

State-level laws that apply here

Iowa eviction laws state law governs the full eviction framework for every city in Jackson County. Under Iowa eviction laws Code § 562A (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Law), a nonpayment-of-rent case requires just a 3-day notice, while a lease-violation cure notice takes 7 days and a no-cause end-of-term notice requires 30 days. Landlords must also provide 24 hours notice before entering a unit. Understanding the Iowa eviction laws eviction process from the start is critical: uncontested cases resolve in roughly 21 to 40 days, but contested cases can stretch to 45 to 100 days.

Iowa eviction costs include a court filing fee of $95 to $200, a sheriff lockout fee of $50 to $150, and attorney fees of $500 to $2,500 depending on complexity. Iowa eviction laws has no rent control, and state law preempts any local rent-control ordinance, so investors face no patchwork of local caps. Just cause is not required to end a tenancy. Iowa security deposit limits and Iowa tenant protections are governed statewide, giving landlords consistent rules regardless of which Jackson County city a property sits in. Fair housing complaints are handled by the Iowa eviction laws Civil Rights Commission.

With a poverty rate of 14.1% and roughly one in four households renting, Jackson County's risk profile reflects real economic pressure in its tenant base; the city-level grid above shows where that pressure concentrates most within the county.