Dundy County, Nebraska Eviction Risk: Very Low
4 incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The county Eviction Risk Score is held aloft by the city of Benkelman (2.5) and a small number of dense urban cores. Rent-control coverage varies by city.
Ranked #77 of 93 NE counties
1k residents · 4 cities · 1 tracts
Dundy County eviction risk score history
Key metrics
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Tenant beats landlord14.4%/ 100 outcomesIn court-decided eviction outcomes for Dundy County, NE, tenants prevail in roughly 14.4% of contested cases. A higher number means landlords face stronger tenant defenses and longer calendars.
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Timeline29dfiling → judgmentFrom the moment an unlawful-detainer notice is filed in Dundy County, NE until a money judgment is entered, a contested eviction takes about 29 days on average. Longer timelines mean more lost rent for landlords.
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Cost range$0.9–3.2klegal + lost rentA typical eviction in Dundy County, NE costs landlords $937 to $3,194 all-in, covering court filing fees, process-server costs, attorney time, and lost rent.
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Average rent$72130% stretched on rentAverage gross rent in Dundy County, NE is $721 per month per the U.S. Census American Community Survey. 30% of renter households here spend more than 30% of pre-tax income on rent.
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Renters25.8%of households25.8% of occupied housing units in Dundy County, NE are renter-occupied. A higher renter share usually correlates with more eviction filings and a more active rental market.
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Poverty18.1%3.4% unemp.18.1% of Dundy County, NE residents live below the federal poverty line, and unemployment runs at 3.4%. Both feed the economic-stress sub-score in our Eviction Risk Score model.
Scrub 50 years
Dundy County scores 2.4/10 (Very Low), with individual cities ranging from 2.3 to 2.5/10 -- a tight band that reflects a consistent, low-friction landlord environment across all four incorporated places. Ranked 77th of 93 Nebraska counties, Dundy falls in the lower-risk statewide, with 76 counties carrying higher risk and 16 scoring lower.
How Dundy County ranks in Nebraska
Landlord guides for Nebraska
| City↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | % income on rent↕ | Average rent↕ | Lean↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Benkelman | 905 | 2.4 | 29.4% | $700 | Rep |
| 002 | Haigler | 195 | 2.5 | 31.6% | $821 | Rep |
| 003 | Max | 27 | 2.3 | 29.8% | $721 | Rep |
| 004 | Parks | 10 | 2.3 | 29.8% | $721 | Rep |
County heatmap
One county, multiple regulatory regimes.
Dundy County sits in the far southwestern corner of Nebraska eviction laws, along the Colorado eviction laws and Kansas eviction laws borders, and it operates as one of the most landlord-favorable rental markets in the state. The county carries an eviction risk score of 2.4/10 (Very Low), ranking it 77th of 93 Nebraska counties -- placing it firmly in the lower-risk of the state by risk. Only 16 counties statewide show a lower score, while 76 rank riskier than Dundy. The score spread across the county's four incorporated places is tight, running from 2.3 to 2.5/10, which tells you the landlord environment is consistent regardless of which town a rental sits in.
The county seat, Benkelman, is by far the largest community, with roughly 905 residents and a score of 2.4/10. It functions as the local economic anchor -- home to the Dundy County courthouse where any eviction action would be filed. Haigler, the next largest at about 195 residents, comes in at 2.5/10, making it the highest-scoring (most tenant-protective, in relative terms) community in the county, though that distinction is narrow in a county this uniformly low-risk. The small unincorporated hamlets of Max and Parks each score 2.3/10 and 2.3/10, respectively, with single-digit populations that mean rental inventory there is essentially nonexistent. In practice, the Dundy County rental market is Benkelman's rental market: the town accounts for the overwhelming share of the county's roughly 1,137 residents and its 25.8% renter share translates to a few hundred households -- a tight pool where vacancies move quickly and landlord-tenant disputes are handled personally and locally rather than through the kind of advocacy infrastructure you find in Omaha eviction risk or Lincoln eviction risk.
The economic backdrop matters for landlords evaluating rent collection risk. Average gross rent in Dundy County is approximately $721 per month, which is well below the Nebraska eviction laws statewide average and reflects the rural wage base. The rent burden -- the share of renter income going to housing costs -- sits at 29.8%, close to the conventional 30% affordability threshold. A poverty rate of 18.1% is meaningfully above the state average, which is a genuine signal that a portion of renters operate with little financial cushion. That said, this is not a market with activist tenant organizations, local rent-control ordinances (Nebraska eviction laws state law preempts them statewide under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1401 et seq.), or legal aid offices with eviction defense units. Landlords who follow the statutory notice timelines and maintain habitable conditions under Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1419 face a process that, when uncontested, typically resolves in 21 to 45 days at a court filing cost of $85 to $200. The overall low-risk score reflects this structural reality: sparse population, limited tenant legal infrastructure, and a state framework that requires no just-cause justification to terminate a month-to-month tenancy.
Dundy County's 2.4/10 score reflects a rural rental market with minimal regulatory friction. Nebraska eviction laws's statewide preemption of local rent control, a 7-day pay-or-quit notice standard for non-payment, and the absence of just-cause eviction requirements all keep the procedural environment straightforward. With fewer than 1,200 total residents across the county, the rental pool is small and dispute resolution is typically handled without the legal defense resources available in larger Nebraska eviction laws cities.
Historical eviction filings in Dundy County
From 2000 to 2016, eviction filings in Dundy County increased. The peak was 3 filings in 2015.1
- 12000
- 3Peak (2015)
- 12016
Data covers 2000–2018, the full span of the Princeton Eviction Lab's national county court-records dataset.
How Dundy County compares
Dundy County's 2.4/10 sits below the 2.9 statewide average, consistent with its position in the lower-risk of Nebraska counties by risk. Peer counties in the western Nebraska eviction laws plains -- Boyd, Gosper, Logan, Perkins, and Hitchcock -- cluster at similar low-risk levels, all reflecting the same combination of sparse population, minimal tenant legal infrastructure, and a state preemption framework that keeps local ordinances off the table. None of those peer counties offer materially different landlord-tenant dynamics; the regulatory environment is set in Lincoln eviction risk, not in any individual county courthouse.