Sac County, Iowa Eviction Risk: Low

Sac County, Iowa scores 2.2/10 on the eviction-risk index, placing it in the Low risk tier and ranking 82nd of 99 Iowa eviction laws counties, meaning 81 counties carry more landlord risk and only 17 are more landlord-friendly. Across all 7 cities in the county, conditions are broadly favorable: a 9.6% poverty rate, an average rent of $679, and a rent-burden rate of just 20.9% all point to a renter base that is, on balance, financially stable relative to most Iowa markets.

The intra-county spread runs from 1.9 to 2.6 out of 10, a narrow band that tells you the entire county operates in the same low-risk register. Investors and landlords accustomed to higher-friction markets will find Sac County refreshingly manageable, though the city-level differences below still matter when sizing up a specific asset.

The cities inside Sac County

The highest-risk city in the county is Odebolt, at 2.6/10 with a population of 945. Lake View (2.3/10, pop. 967) and Schaller (2.3/10, pop. 775) follow, each sitting modestly above the county average. The county seat, Sac City, checks in right at the county average of 2.2/10 with the largest population at 1,885. Even at the top of that range, Odebolt's 2.6 is still a low-risk score by any Iowa standard.

At the lower end of the scale, Early, Wall Lake, and Nemaha each score 1.9/10, the lowest in the county. Early (pop. 869) and Wall Lake (pop. 725) are the larger of the three, and both represent the least landlord-risk environment available in Sac County. Risk is hyper-local, however, so an investor comparing two adjacent properties in different cities should treat these city-level scores, not just the county average, as the operative figure.

State-level laws that apply here

Landlords operating in Sac County are governed by Iowa Code SS 562A, the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Law. For non-payment of rent, the required notice period is 3 days. A lease-violation cure notice requires 7 days, and a no-cause end-of-term notice requires 30 days. Iowa does not require just cause for non-renewal, and state law preempts any local rent-control ordinance, so landlords face no local rent caps anywhere in the county. Understanding the full Iowa eviction process matters here because even an uncontested case runs 21 to 40 days from filing to resolution; a contested case can stretch to 45 to 100 days.

On the cost side, Iowa eviction costs include a court filing fee of $95 to $200, a sheriff lockout fee of $50 to $150, and attorney fees typically ranging from $500 to $2,500. Iowa security deposit limits and the full suite of Iowa tenant protections are set at the state level, so they apply uniformly across every city in Sac County with no local variation to track.

With an average renter share of 24.4% and a poverty rate of 9.6%, Sac County's rental market is modest in scale but stable in character; review the city grid above to compare individual scores across all 7 cities before committing to a specific address.