Jasper County, Iowa Eviction Risk: Low

Jasper County scores 2.7/10 (Low) averaged across its 11 mapped cities, placing it 13th out of 99 Iowa eviction laws counties by eviction risk. That rank means 12 counties in Iowa carry more risk and 86 are less risky, putting Jasper County squarely in the higher-risk third of the state. For landlords weighing a market with an average rent of $821 and a rent burden sitting at 28.4% of income, the county reads as manageable on paper, though that single average masks real variation city by city.

The intra-county range runs from 2.4/10 at the low end to 4/10 at the high end, a gap that is operationally significant even within one small county. A 33% renter share across 25,538 residents means the rental pool is real but not dominant, and investors should expect tenant quality to vary sharply between the county seat and its smaller rural communities.

The cities inside Jasper County

Newton, the county's largest city at roughly 15,700 residents, scores 4/10, the highest mark in the county. Kellogg, a much smaller community of 676, also comes in at 3.2/10, and Reasnor reaches 2.9/10. These three concentrate the county's elevated risk and warrant the tightest screening and lease-enforcement standards.

Move to the smaller communities on the county's western and southern edges and the picture softens considerably. Sully scores 2.4/10, Monroe scores 2.3/10, and Baxter comes in at 2.6/10. Colfax, at 2.5/10 and a population of 2,210, sits in the middle of the range. Risk in Jasper County is genuinely hyper-local: a landlord active in Newton eviction risk faces a measurably different operating environment than one renting in Sully, even though both properties fall under the same county-level figures.

State-level laws that apply here

Every Jasper County tenancy is governed by Iowa eviction laws Code § 562A (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Law). For non-payment of rent, Iowa eviction laws gives landlords a 3-day notice. A lease violation with the right to cure requires a 7-day notice, and a no-cause end-of-term termination requires 30 days. Iowa eviction laws does not require just cause for non-renewal, and state law preempts local rent control, so no city in the county can impose caps independently. Landlords considering the full Iowa eviction laws eviction process should expect an uncontested case to resolve in 21 to 40 days and a contested case in 45 to 100 days. On Iowa eviction costs, the court filing fee runs $95 to $200, the sheriff lockout fee adds $50 to $150, and attorney fees typically range from $500 to $2,500, so a landlord should budget the individual components rather than assume a fixed total.

With a county poverty rate of 10.7% and a renter share of 33%, Jasper County's overall exposure is moderate, but the city-level grid above shows where within the county that risk concentrates.