Wapello County, Iowa Eviction Risk: Low

Wapello County carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.6/10 (Low), but that headline number does real work for landlords only when read alongside where the county sits in Iowa's full ranking. With a rank of 9 out of 99 Iowa counties, only 8 counties in the state score higher, meaning Wapello lands in the higher-risk third statewide despite the Low label. For investors evaluating cash-flow property here, that context matters: the county is not the riskiest place to operate, but it carries more structural stress than the majority of Iowa markets.

The intra-county spread runs from 2.2 to 3, a range wide enough to shift portfolio decisions depending on which city you target. With 36.3% of residents renting and an average rent burden of 28.8%, demand for rental units is real, but a poverty rate of 18.6% keeps payment risk elevated across the county. Average market rent sits at $898, a figure that leaves thin margins for landlords who absorb even a single eviction cycle.

The cities inside Wapello County

Ottumwa dominates the county's risk picture. With a population of 25,430, it accounts for nearly the entire county's residents and scores 4/10, the highest in Wapello County. Because Ottumwa eviction risk is where most rental inventory concentrates, the county average is pulled strongly toward its number. Landlords operating in Ottumwa are working in a market with meaningfully more tenant-distress pressure than the county's smaller towns suggest.

Move outside Ottumwa and conditions improve substantially. Agency scores 2.6/10, Blakesburg 2.7/10, and Eldon 3/10. The three smallest cities, Eddyville (pop. 1,163), Kirkville (pop. 266), and Chillicothe (pop. 83), each score 2.9/10, the lowest in the county. The gap between Ottumwa at 4 and those three at 2.9 is a concrete illustration of how hyper-local eviction risk is: two landlords operating inside the same county line can face meaningfully different operating environments.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord in Wapello County operates under Iowa Code § 562A (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Law). Notice requirements are straightforward: 3 days for non-payment of rent, 7 days for a lease violation with cure opportunity, and 30 days for end-of-term or no-cause terminations. Uncontested cases typically resolve in 21 to 40 days; contested matters can stretch to 45 to 100 days. Understanding the full Iowa eviction process before a problem arises is the most reliable way to avoid timeline surprises. Direct costs include court filing fees of $95 to $200, sheriff lockout fees of $50 to $150, and attorney fees typically ranging from $500 to $2,500 depending on case complexity, making Iowa eviction costs a genuine planning variable for anyone running a rental portfolio here. Iowa does not require just cause for termination and state law preempts local rent-control ordinances, so landlords face no patchwork of municipal caps to track within Wapello County.

With a poverty rate of 18.6% and 36.3% of residents renting, the financial fragility underlying Wapello County's market is real, making city-level scores, shown in the grid above, the most actionable starting point for any acquisition or portfolio review here.