Lawrence County, Missouri Eviction Risk: Very Low

Lawrence County carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.4/10 (Very Low) across its 11 incorporated cities, but that headline number warrants some scrutiny before you treat it as a green light. At rank 37 of 115 Missouri counties, 36 counties in the state are riskier and 78 are less risky, placing Lawrence County in the higher-risk third statewide. For landlords evaluating southwest Missouri, that positioning means operating conditions here are meaningfully more demanding than the majority of the state, even if the absolute score reads low.

The intra-county spread reinforces that point. Scores range from 1.8 to 3, a full 1.1-point gap across communities that sit just miles apart. An average rent of $805 and a renter burden of 27% suggest moderate affordability pressure, but a renter share of 36.7% means more than one in three occupied households is a rental, giving landlords a substantial pool to draw from while also concentrating the risk of tenant financial strain in a market where 18.8% of residents live in poverty.

The cities inside Lawrence County

The highest-risk city is Halltown at 3/10, home to roughly 2,785 residents. Mount Vernon, the county's second-largest city with a population of 4,563, scores 3.1/10, as does Halltown. Aurora, the largest city at 7,397 residents, lands at 2.4/10. These four cities alone account for a disproportionate share of county rental stock, and their scores clustering at the top of the county range means landlords concentrated in those markets should plan for more contested situations than the county average implies.

The lower-risk end of the spectrum looks materially different. Verona and Stotts City both score 2.1/10, and Pierce City comes in at 2.2/10 with a population of 1,477. Miller scores 2.6/10. Risk is genuinely hyper-local here: a landlord operating in Verona faces conditions that are roughly 1.1 points more favorable than one in Marionville, despite the two communities existing in the same county. Investors assembling a portfolio across Lawrence County should treat each city's score as its own underwriting input.

State-level laws that apply here

All Lawrence County landlords operate under Missouri state law, specifically RSMo § 441 (Landlord and Tenant). For nonpayment of rent, the Missouri eviction process requires no advance notice before filing a rent-and-possession action under RSMo § 535.010; a landlord may proceed directly to court the day rent is overdue. A material lease violation triggers a 10-day notice to cure or quit under RSMo § 441.060, and ending a month-to-month tenancy requires 30 days notice under that same section. Uncontested cases typically resolve in 21 to 45 days; contested matters can run 45 to 120 days.

The direct cost of an eviction action ranges from $70 to $180 in court filing fees plus $40 to $150 for the sheriff lockout, before attorney fees of $500 to $3,000. Missouri eviction costs are therefore not trivial even in an uncontested case. Missouri has no rent control, no just-cause requirement for terminating a tenancy, and state law preempts any local attempt to impose rent caps. Those are meaningful structural advantages. For a full breakdown of tenant rights and remedies that could affect how disputes play out, the Missouri tenant protections guide covers the retaliation statute at RSMo § 441.020 and the habitability requirements at RSMo § 441.500.

With a poverty rate of 18.8% and a renter share of 36.7%, the financial vulnerability of tenants varies considerably across Lawrence County's 11 cities, making the individual city scores in the grid above the most actionable starting point for site-specific due diligence.