Barry County, Missouri Eviction Risk: Low

Barry County, Missouri scores 3.8/10 on the eviction-risk index, placing it in the Low risk tier and ranking 47th of 115 Missouri counties, where rank 1 is the highest-risk. That position puts 46 counties above it in risk and 68 below, landing Barry County squarely in the middle third of the state. For landlords, the practical read is a market that is generally operable: average rent runs $832, rent burden sits at 28.2%, and renter share is 38.9% of households, all figures that suggest modest but real rental demand without the acute financial stress that produces chronic nonpayment.

The county-wide average, though, compresses a meaningful spread. Scores across the 13 cities inside Barry County range from 3.1 to 4, a full 1.1-point band that makes city selection as important as the county headline. An investor treating the whole county as uniform will miss the difference in operating conditions between its quietest and most active markets.

The cities inside Barry County

Monett is the county seat and its highest-risk city, scoring 4/10 with a population of 3,202. That score still falls in the Low tier but stands at the top of the county range, reflecting relatively higher exposure to the conditions, such as poverty concentration and eviction activity, that the index measures. Wheaton follows at 3.7/10, and Monett, the county's largest city at 9,873 residents, comes in at 4/10, matching the county average. Shell Knob also sits at 3.4/10.

At the lower end of the risk range, Seligman scores 4/10 and Exeter scores 3.5/10, both well below the county average. Purdy and Washburn each score 3.4/10. The gap between Cassville at 3 and Seligman at 1.9 underscores that eviction risk in this corner of Missouri is hyper-local; portfolio decisions should be made at the city level, not the county level.

State-level laws that apply here

Missouri state law governs every landlord-tenant relationship in Barry County under RSMo § 441 (Landlord and Tenant). For nonpayment of rent, state law requires no advance notice before filing a rent-and-possession action under RSMo § 535.010, a meaningful procedural advantage compared with many other states. A material lease violation triggers a 10-day notice to cure or quit under RSMo § 441.060, while terminating a month-to-month tenancy requires 30 days notice under the same statute. Understanding the full Missouri eviction process, including those notice triggers and their sequencing, is essential before taking any action.

Once a case is filed, court filing fees run $70 to $180, sheriff lockout fees add $40 to $150, and attorney fees, if counsel is retained, range from $500 to $3,000. An uncontested case resolves in 21 to 45 days; a contested matter stretches to 45 to 120 days. Missouri imposes no just-cause requirement for eviction and no rent cap, and state law preempts any local attempt at rent control. For a full breakdown of what landlords can expect to spend, see Missouri eviction costs. Missouri security deposit limits and Missouri tenant protections are defined at the state level and apply uniformly across Barry County.

Barry County carries a 21.1% poverty rate, a figure that informs the income stability of the renter pool across all 13 cities in the grid above, and one worth weighing against any city-level score before committing capital.