Dakota County, Minnesota Eviction Risk: Moderate

Dakota County carries an average eviction-risk score of 4.9/10 (Moderate) across its 18 cities, placing it 4th of 87 Minnesota counties for risk, meaning only 3 counties in the state present a harder operating environment for landlords. With a total population of 430,562 and an average rent of $1,571, the county is a significant rental market, but that Elevated rating signals real exposure. Landlords should go in clear-eyed: rent burden sits at an average of 30% of renter income, a level that correlates with tenants who are one paycheck away from a missed rent payment.

The intra-county spread is wide, from a low of 4.8/10 to a high of 6.9/10, so portfolio performance here varies sharply by ZIP code and city. Investors treating Dakota County as a monolithic market are making a mistake. Drilling down to the city level is essential before committing capital, and even within a single city the neighborhood composition can shift the calculus considerably.

The cities inside Dakota County

At the top of the risk table sits West St. Paul (population 74,354) with a score of 5.1/10, the highest in the county, followed closely by Burnsville (population 64,463) at 4.9/10. Both cities are large enough to support substantial rental inventory, which means landlords operating there face the county's most challenging conditions at scale. Apple Valley (population 55,679) comes in at 4.9/10, and Farmington at 4.8/10, keeping the upper tier of the county consistently in the Elevated range.

At the opposite end, Eagan (population 68,000) scores 4.8/10, the lowest of the county's largest cities, and Hastings comes in at 4.8/10. While no city in Dakota County falls into a low-risk category, the gap between a 4.8 and a 6.9 is operationally meaningful. A landlord selecting between Eagan eviction risk and Lakeville eviction risk is effectively choosing between two meaningfully different risk profiles within the same county border. Risk here is hyper-local, and the city-level data in the grid below is where the real decision-making happens.

State-level laws that apply here

Under Minnesota state law (Minn. Stat. § 504B), landlords must give 14 days written notice before filing for nonpayment of rent, and 30 days for a material lease violation or to end a month-to-month tenancy. Once filed, an uncontested case typically resolves in 30 to 60 days; a contested case can run 60 to 150 days. Understanding the full Minnesota eviction process before your first filing is not optional at these timelines. Court filing fees range from $310 to $410, sheriff lockout fees from $55 to $150, and attorney fees from $750 to $3,000, making the low-end cost floor roughly $1,115 in hard costs before any lost rent is counted. For a detailed breakdown, the Minnesota eviction costs guide covers each component.

Minnesota does not currently impose a statewide just-cause eviction requirement, and there is no active rent-cap formula in state statute. Source-of-income is a protected class under the Minnesota Department of Human Rights, which affects tenant screening practices. Landlords must give 24 hours notice before entry. These are baseline rules; no local overrides within Dakota County are reflected in this data, but landlords should verify city-level ordinances independently.

With an average poverty rate of 5.7% and 24.9% of households renting, Dakota County has a renter base that is comparatively modest in size but financially stretched enough to warrant careful tenant screening and cash-reserve planning. The city-by-city scores in the grid above are the sharpest tool for narrowing where to buy or stay out.