Sumner County, Kansas Eviction Risk: Very Low
11 incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The county Eviction Risk Score is held aloft by the city of Wellington (2.8) and a small number of dense urban cores. Rent-control coverage varies by city.
Ranked #34 of 105 KS counties
14k residents · 11 cities · 6 tracts
Sumner County eviction risk score history
Key metrics
-
Tenant beats landlord15.5%/ 100 outcomesIn court-decided eviction outcomes for Sumner County, KS, tenants prevail in roughly 15.5% of contested cases. A higher number means landlords face stronger tenant defenses and longer calendars.
-
Timeline36dfiling → judgmentFrom the moment an unlawful-detainer notice is filed in Sumner County, KS until a money judgment is entered, a contested eviction takes about 36 days on average. Longer timelines mean more lost rent for landlords.
-
Cost range$1.3–3.2klegal + lost rentA typical eviction in Sumner County, KS costs landlords $1,287 to $3,192 all-in, covering court filing fees, process-server costs, attorney time, and lost rent.
-
Average rent$73623% stretched on rentAverage gross rent in Sumner County, KS is $736 per month per the U.S. Census American Community Survey. 23% of renter households here spend more than 30% of pre-tax income on rent.
-
Renters33.8%of households33.8% of occupied housing units in Sumner County, KS are renter-occupied. A higher renter share usually correlates with more eviction filings and a more active rental market.
-
Poverty13.6%5.4% unemp.13.6% of Sumner County, KS residents live below the federal poverty line, and unemployment runs at 5.4%. Both feed the economic-stress sub-score in our Eviction Risk Score model.
Scrub 50 years
Sumner County averages 2.2/10 across 11 cities, ranging from 1.6 (Milton) to 2.5 (Wellington, the highest-risk city in the county). Ranked 24th of 105 Kansas counties by eviction risk (rank 1 = highest risk).
How Sumner County ranks in Kansas
Landlord guides for Kansas
| City↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | % income on rent↕ | Average rent↕ | Lean↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Wellington | 7,615 | 2.3 | 23.4% | $733 | Rep |
| 002 | Conway Springs | 1,573 | 2.0 | 18.9% | $1,078 | Rep |
| 003 | Belle Plaine | 1,449 | 2.1 | 23.5% | $711 | Rep |
| 004 | Caldwell | 976 | 2.8 | 34.0% | $371 | Rep |
| 005 | Oxford | 964 | 1.8 | 21.4% | $660 | Rep |
| 006 | Argonia | 542 | 2.5 | 20.8% | $688 | Rep |
| 007 | South Haven | 276 | 1.7 | 17.0% | $572 | Rep |
| 008 | Milton | 185 | 1.7 | 23.3% | $736 | Rep |
| 009 | Hunnewell | 104 | 2.1 | 23.3% | $736 | Rep |
| 010 | Mayfield | 102 | 2.4 | 25.8% | $938 | Rep |
| 011 | Milan | 80 | 1.8 | 23.3% | $736 | Rep |
County heatmap
One county, multiple regulatory regimes.
Sumner County, Kansas eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.2/10 (Low) across its 11 cities, which on the surface reads as a calm market. The important qualifier is context: the county's rank of 24 of 105 Kansas eviction laws counties places it in the higher-risk third of the state, meaning 23 counties are riskier but 81 are less risky and more landlord-friendly. For investors weighing where to put capital in south-central Kansas eviction laws, that distinction matters, especially when average rent sits at $736 per month and roughly 33.8% of residents are renters.
Within those numbers, the intra-county spread runs from 1.7 to 2.8, a full point of variance inside a single county. That gap tells landlords that location choice within Sumner County carries real weight, and a county-level average only gets you so far when underwriting a specific property.
The cities inside Sumner County
The highest-risk communities are Wellington (population 7,615, score 2.3/10) and Belle Plaine (population 1,449, score 2.1/10), both sitting at the county ceiling. Wellington eviction risk, as the county seat and by far the largest city, drives a disproportionate share of total rental activity, so its score carries outsized practical weight for investors scanning the county. Belle Plaine is smaller but scores identically, signaling similar underlying stress indicators.
Conway Springs (score 2/10, population 1,573) and Caldwell (score 2.8/10, population 976) land in the middle range. At the other end of the spectrum sits Milton, with a score of 1.7/10 and a population of 185, the lowest-risk city in the county by a clear margin. The gap between Milton and Wellington is nearly a full point, confirming that eviction risk in Sumner County is genuinely hyper-local rather than uniformly distributed.
State-level laws that apply here
Every landlord operating in Sumner County works under the Kansas eviction laws Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (K.S.A. § 58-2540 et seq.). For nonpayment of rent, the required notice period is 3 days; a lease-violation notice allowing cure runs 14 days; and an end-of-term, no-cause termination requires 30 days. Kansas eviction laws does not require just cause for eviction and, by statute, preempts any local rent-control ordinances, so landlords face no city-level rent caps anywhere in the county. Understanding the full Kansas eviction laws eviction process is essential before filing: an uncontested case resolves in roughly 21 to 45 days, while a contested matter can stretch from 45 to 100 days.
On cost, Kansas eviction costs break down to a court filing fee of $120 to $200, a sheriff lockout fee of $40 to $150, and attorney fees typically ranging from $500 to $2,500. Kansas security deposit limits and the retaliation protections under K.S.A. § 58-2572 are the other key statutory guardrails landlords should know before signing leases in this market.
With an average poverty rate of 13.6% and 33.8% of residents renting, the risk profile across Sumner County's cities varies enough that the city-by-city grid above is the most reliable starting point for any site-specific due diligence.
How Sumner County compares
Among its closest peer counties, Sumner County's 2.2/10 average sits near the middle of the group: Bourbon County is slightly lower at 2.37/10, Atchison County is comparable at 2.42/10, and Cherokee County, Pratt County, and Barton County range from 2.45 to 2.52/10, all modestly higher. Within Kansas as a whole, Sumner County ranks 24th of 105 counties on the risk index (rank 1 = highest risk), placing it in the higher-risk third of the state despite its Low absolute score.