Scott County, Iowa Eviction Risk: Low

Scott County's average eviction-risk score of 2.5/10 (Low) across its 20 cities reflects a market that, on balance, leans toward landlords rather than tenants. Iowa eviction laws's preemption of local rent control and the absence of a just-cause eviction requirement at the state level give owners operating throughout the county a relatively stable legal footing. With a total population of 162,942 and an average rent of $1,041, the county draws a mix of workforce and family renters, and a rent burden rate of 28.6% suggests most households can sustain payments without chronic stress.

That headline Low rating, however, masks real variation inside county lines. Individual city scores run from 2 to 3.2, a 1.4-point spread that can meaningfully shift the practical risk profile of a portfolio depending on where exactly it sits. Compared with peer Iowa counties, Scott County (3.7) sits slightly above Linn County (3.6) and Muscatine County (3.6), and trails only Johnson County (4.0) among the peers in DATA, placing it in the higher-risk third of Iowa's 99 counties, ranked 14 of 99 where rank 1 is the most risky.

The cities inside Scott County

The county's highest-risk municipality is Maysville, scoring 3.2/10 with a population of roughly 1,097. Le Claire (population 4,735) follows at 2.3/10, and Park View (2.4/10, population 2,437) and Maysville (3.2/10) cluster just behind it. Blue Grass and Riverdale each score 2.5/10, while Bettendorf, the county's second-largest city at 39,647 residents, sits at 4.1/10. Landlords buying in these communities should price in a modestly more tenant-favorable environment relative to the county average.

The county seat, Davenport, home to more than 100,913 residents, scores just 3.4/10, one of the lower-risk readings in the county, which is notable given the scale of the rental inventory concentrated there. Eldridge comes in at 2.3/10 (population 6,818), and Walcott at 2.4/10. The gap between Davenport eviction risk's 3.4 and Buffalo's 4.7 underscores how hyper-local eviction risk can be even within a single county, and investors assembling a Scott County portfolio should evaluate each target city individually rather than relying solely on the county average.

State-level laws that apply here

Under Iowa Code SS 562A (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Law), landlords serving a non-payment-of-rent notice must give tenants just 3 days to cure before filing. Lease-violation notices require 7 days, and a no-cause termination at the end of a term requires 30 days. Once filed, an uncontested eviction typically resolves in 21 to 40 days; a contested case can stretch to 45 to 100 days. Cost exposure runs from a court filing fee of $95 to $200, a sheriff lockout fee of $50 to $150, and attorney fees ranging $500 to $2,500, depending on case complexity. The Iowa eviction process is meaningfully faster than many Midwest peers, and the Iowa eviction costs, while not trivial, are lower than those in states that require just-cause findings. Iowa does not cap rent at the state level and preempts any local jurisdiction from imposing its own rent controls, so Scott County landlords face no rent-ceiling risk from city ordinances.

With a poverty rate of 12% and 31.5% of households renting, Scott County carries a moderate tenant base, and conditions vary enough by municipality that the city-by-city grid above is the most reliable starting point for evaluating any specific acquisition target.