Union County, Mississippi Eviction Risk: Very Low

Union County, Mississippi eviction laws earns an average eviction-risk score of 3.3/10 (Low) across its 3 mapped cities, placing it in the lower-risk third of the state. With 66 of Mississippi's 82 counties scoring higher, landlords and investors here face a notably calmer operating environment than in the majority of comparable rural markets. The intra-county range is tight, running from 3.1 to 3.3, which signals broadly consistent conditions rather than sharp pockets of concentrated distress.

An average rent of $963 per month, a renter share of 39.5%, and a rent-burden rate of 30.6% round out the demand picture. The numbers suggest a lean but functional rental market, one where tenant financial stress is present but not at the levels that drive high eviction-filing rates in more distressed counties.

The cities inside Union County

New Albany, the county seat and by far the largest city at 7,663 residents, carries the top score in the county at 3.3/10. Myrtle, with a population of 771, also scores 3.3/10, matching New Albany eviction risk despite its much smaller rental pool. Both cities sit at the same risk level, so portfolio decisions between them come down to unit economics rather than meaningful risk differences.

Blue Springs, the smallest city in the county at 268 residents, comes in at 3.1/10, the lowest score in Union County. That gap, while modest in absolute terms, is real: investors targeting the least-friction environment within the county have a clear data-supported argument for Blue Springs. Risk is hyper-local, and even in a uniformly low-risk county like this one, city-level scores can shift the calculus.

State-level laws that apply here

Landlords operating in Union County operate under Mississippi state law, specifically Miss. Code § 89-8 (Landlord and Tenant). For non-payment of rent, the required notice period is 3 days. A lease violation or cure notice runs 14 days, and an end-of-term, no-cause notice requires 30 days. Mississippi imposes no just-cause requirement for terminations and preempts local rent-control ordinances statewide, so there is no layered local regulation to account for in Union County.

Understanding the Mississippi eviction process is essential before committing capital here. An uncontested eviction typically resolves in 30 to 60 days; contested matters extend to 60 to 120 days. Court filing fees range from $75 to $150, sheriff lockout fees run $30 to $120, and attorney fees typically fall between $500 and $2,500, depending on complexity. Landlords factoring total Mississippi eviction costs into their underwriting should treat $605 to $2,770 in direct out-of-pocket fees as a realistic planning range before accounting for lost rent during the vacancy. Mississippi security deposit limits and Mississippi tenant protections are covered in the statewide guides linked throughout this site.

With a poverty rate of 18.4% and renters making up 39.5% of the county's housing stock, Union County presents manageable, if not negligible, baseline risk. The city-level scores above break that picture down to the granularity where acquisition decisions actually get made.