Hopkins County, Kentucky Eviction Risk: Low

Hopkins County carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.6/10 (Low) across its 11 cities, but that headline number conceals meaningful variation on the ground. The county ranks 21st of 120 in Kentucky eviction laws, meaning 20 counties statewide carry higher risk and 99 are more landlord-friendly, placing Hopkins County in the higher-risk third of the state. For investors weighing a Kentucky eviction laws market, that context matters: operating here requires attention to local tenant economics, not just the statewide label.

Rent averages $811 per month, rent burden sits at 31.8% of income, and the poverty rate is 21.7%. Roughly 33.9% of residents are renters. Those figures describe a market with real demand but elevated credit stress, which is the primary driver of payment-related friction for landlords. The intra-county score range, 1.8 to 2.9, is wide enough that city selection materially changes the risk profile of a portfolio.

The cities inside Hopkins County

Dawson Springs is both the county seat and the highest-risk city in the county, scoring 2.9/10 with a population of 19,515. It accounts for the bulk of the county's rental housing stock, so investors concentrating here are operating at the county's upper risk boundary. Dawson Springs (population 1,951) follows at 2.9/10, and Earlington (population 1,084) at 2.8/10. These three cities alone span a 0.5-point spread, illustrating that risk is genuinely hyper-local within a single county.

At the opposite end of the spectrum, St. Charles scores 2.3/10, the lowest in the county. White Plains comes in at 2.4/10 and Mortons Gap at 2.1/10. Landlords who can source inventory in these smaller communities are operating with noticeably less risk exposure than peers buying in Madisonville, even though all fall under the same county-level laws and court system.

State-level laws that apply here

Every Hopkins County tenancy is governed by the Kentucky eviction laws eviction process under KRS § 383.500 et seq. (Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act). For nonpayment of rent, landlords must serve a 7-day notice before filing. Lease-violation cases require a 14-day cure notice, and no-cause terminations at lease end require 30 days. An uncontested case typically resolves in 21 to 45 days from filing; a contested case can stretch to 45 to 120 days. Court filing fees run $150 to $250, sheriff lockout fees add $40 to $150, and attorney fees range from $500 to $2,500 depending on complexity.

Kentucky eviction laws does not require just cause for eviction and the state preempts any local rent-control ordinance, so no city inside Hopkins County can impose its own caps. Source-of-income protections are not mandated under state law. Landlords who want a full breakdown of allowable charges and tenant remedies should review Kentucky eviction costs and Kentucky security deposit limits before signing leases in this market, as both topics carry practical dollar implications that vary by lease structure.

With a poverty rate of 21.7% and a renter share of 33.9%, Hopkins County's risk profile is driven more by tenant income stress than by hostile local law; city-by-city scores in the grid above show where that stress is most concentrated.