Forrest County, Mississippi Eviction Risk: Low

Forrest County, Mississippi scores 2.7/10 on the eviction-risk scale, a Low designation that places it among the more landlord-friendly markets in the state. At rank 61 of 82 Mississippi counties, 60 counties carry higher risk, and only 21 are considered less risky, putting Forrest County solidly in the lower-risk third of the state. For a county of 63,354 residents with an average rent of $1,020 and a renter share of 54.9%, that relatively calm posture is meaningful for investors sizing up the market.

That said, a county average can obscure real variation on the ground. Scores across Forrest County's 5 cities range from 2.1 to 2.8, a full 1.1-point spread that makes neighborhood-level diligence essential. The county average tells you where most of the risk mass sits, not where every individual asset will land.

The cities inside Forrest County

Hattiesburg anchors the county with a score of 2.8/10 and a population of 48,619, making it by far the largest city and the one driving the favorable county average down. Its low score reflects conditions that, on balance, favor landlords, though a poverty rate of 27.1% across the county is a reminder that tenant financial stress remains a real underwriting variable even in lower-risk markets.

At the other end of the spectrum, Petal (pop. 11,294) and Glendale both score 2.1/10, and Arnold Line comes in at 2.5/10. Runnelstown rounds out the picture at 2.1/10. These smaller communities carry measurably higher risk than Hattiesburg, and landlords holding assets there should not assume the county-wide Low label applies equally to their specific location. Risk is hyper-local, and a single block can cross a meaningful threshold.

State-level laws that apply here

Every property in Forrest County operates under Mississippi state law. Under Miss. Code § 89-8 (Landlord and Tenant), non-payment of rent triggers a 3-day notice, a lease violation carries a 14-day cure notice, and a no-cause end-of-term termination requires 30 days. Uncontested evictions typically resolve in 30 to 60 days; contested cases can stretch to 60 to 120 days. The Mississippi eviction process is worth reviewing in full before you place a tenant, because the timeline differences between uncontested and contested proceedings significantly affect carrying costs. Court filing fees run $75 to $150, sheriff lockout fees $30 to $120, and attorney fees $500 to $2,500 depending on complexity.

Mississippi imposes no rent control and does not require just cause for non-renewal, and the state preempts any local jurisdiction from enacting its own rent caps, which is a meaningful structural advantage for buy-and-hold operators. Source-of-income is not a protected class under state law. Reviewing Mississippi eviction costs in detail before acquisition will help you model worst-case holding periods accurately.

With a poverty rate of 27.1% and more than half of residents renting (54.9%), tenant financial pressure is real in Forrest County even as the county-level risk score stays low; the city grid above breaks out exactly where that pressure concentrates most.