Scott County, Mississippi Eviction Risk: Very Low

Scott County, Mississippi eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 3.7/10 (Low) across its 6 cities, placing it at rank 50 of 82 Mississippi counties. That ranking means 49 counties in the state carry higher risk, and 32 are more landlord-friendly, putting Scott County squarely in the middle third. For landlords, that translates to a market where tenant-default pressure exists but is not extreme, average rent runs $892 per month, and the renter share of households sits at 44.8%, a sizable rental pool for a county with a total population of roughly 10,938.

The county average, however, masks real variation on the ground. Individual city scores range from 2.6 to 3.9, a spread wide enough to matter when you are deciding between acquiring a rental in the county seat versus a smaller outlying community. Investors evaluating Scott County should treat that 1.3-point range as a signal that hyperlocal underwriting is worth the effort, not a footnote.

The cities inside Scott County

Forest, the county's largest city at 5,357 residents, posts the highest risk score at 3.9/10. It is the commercial hub of the county, which gives it a larger renter base but also concentrates the stress factors, such as a rent-burden average of 31.1% countywide, that push scores upward. Morton, with 3,656 residents, and Lake both score 3.7/10, right at the county average, while Sebastopol comes in at 3.6/10.

On the lower end, Harperville scores 2.8/10 and Hillsboro posts the county's lowest score at 2.6/10. Hillsboro's score represents a materially different operating environment compared to Forest, and landlords who concentrate portfolios in the smaller, lower-score communities may find collections and vacancy dynamics noticeably calmer. Risk truly is hyper-local inside Scott County, and no single county-level figure captures the full picture.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord operating in Scott County works under Mississippi eviction laws state law, specifically Miss. Code § 89-8 (Landlord and Tenant). For non-payment of rent, state law requires only a 3-day notice before filing, one of the shorter notice windows in the South. A lease-violation cure notice requires 14 days, and a no-cause end-of-term termination requires 30 days. Once filed, an uncontested eviction typically resolves in 30 to 60 days; a contested case can run 60 to 120 days. Understanding the full Mississippi eviction laws eviction process, including those timelines and the procedural steps between notice and writ, is essential before placing tenants. Court filing fees run $75 to $150, sheriff lockout fees run $30 to $120, and attorney fees commonly range from $500 to $2,500, so landlords should budget for total out-of-pocket costs in the range of those components when a case is contested.

Mississippi eviction laws imposes no statewide rent control, no just-cause eviction requirement, and the state actively preempts local rent-control ordinances, meaning no municipality in Scott County can cap rent increases or restrict lease non-renewals beyond what state law allows. For a full breakdown of what landlords owe and what tenants can claim, review the statewide guides on Mississippi eviction costs and Mississippi tenant protections before executing leases in this market.

With a 25.1% average poverty rate across Scott County, the financial fragility of the renter pool is real, and that figure underlies much of the risk spread seen across the six cities listed above.