Pierce County, Nebraska Eviction Risk: Low
8 incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The county Eviction Risk Score is held aloft by the city of Pierce (3.1) and a small number of dense urban cores. Rent-control coverage varies by city.
Ranked #31 of 93 NE counties
5k residents · 8 cities · 2 tracts
Pierce County eviction risk score history
Key metrics
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Tenant beats landlord17.2%/ 100 outcomesIn court-decided eviction outcomes for Pierce County, NE, tenants prevail in roughly 17.2% of contested cases. A higher number means landlords face stronger tenant defenses and longer calendars.
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Timeline31dfiling → judgmentFrom the moment an unlawful-detainer notice is filed in Pierce County, NE until a money judgment is entered, a contested eviction takes about 31 days on average. Longer timelines mean more lost rent for landlords.
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Cost range$1.0–3.1klegal + lost rentA typical eviction in Pierce County, NE costs landlords $1,047 to $3,120 all-in, covering court filing fees, process-server costs, attorney time, and lost rent.
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Average rent$98730% stretched on rentAverage gross rent in Pierce County, NE is $987 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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Renters23.7%of households23.7% of occupied housing units in Pierce 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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Poverty8.4%4.3% unemp.8.4% of Pierce County, NE residents live below the federal poverty line, and unemployment runs at 4.3%. Both feed the economic-stress sub-score in our Eviction Risk Score model.
Scrub 50 years
Pierce County's 2.7/10 (Low) reflects a low-regulation rural rental market governed by Nebraska's statewide URLTA. City scores range from 2.3 to 3.1/10 across the county's eight communities. Ranked 31st of 93 Nebraska counties -- 30 counties carry higher risk scores, 62 carry lower.
How Pierce County ranks in Nebraska
Landlord guides for Nebraska
| City↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | % income on rent↕ | Average rent↕ | Lean↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Pierce | 1,956 | 2.5 | 31.7% | $1,274 | Rep |
| 002 | Plainview | 1,281 | 3.1 | 28.6% | $816 | Rep |
| 003 | Wausa | 698 | 2.8 | 36.2% | $763 | Rep |
| 004 | Osmond | 647 | 2.3 | 23.0% | $688 | Rep |
| 005 | Hadar | 264 | 2.5 | 22.0% | $1,017 | Rep |
| 006 | McLean | 86 | 2.3 | 29.8% | $987 | Rep |
| 007 | Magnet | 61 | 2.4 | 29.8% | $987 | Rep |
| 008 | Foster | 50 | 2.4 | 29.8% | $987 | Rep |
County heatmap
One county, multiple regulatory regimes.
Pierce County sits in northeastern Nebraska with a population of roughly 5,043 spread across eight incorporated communities. The county carries an eviction risk score of 2.7/10 (Low), placing it 31st of 93 Nebraska counties -- putting it in the higher-risk of the state, with 30 counties scoring higher and 62 scoring lower. Scores across the county's cities run from 2.3 to 3.1/10, a spread that reflects the modest variation typical of rural Nebraska markets where renter populations are small and regulatory exposure is low statewide.
The county seat of Pierce (population 1,956) scores 2.5/10 and serves as the commercial and agricultural hub of the area. Plainview, with 1,281 residents, is the highest-risk city in the county at 3.1/10 -- driven by a comparatively higher renter share and tighter rental vacancy conditions relative to county peers. Wausa (population 698) scores 2.8/10, sitting in the middle of the county range. Osmond (647 residents) and McLean (86 residents) both come in at the low end of the scale at 2.3/10 and 2.3/10 respectively. Smaller communities including Hadar (2.5/10), Magnet (2.4/10), and Foster (2.4/10) round out the county's rental landscape, each with fewer than 265 residents and correspondingly thin rental markets.
Nebraska governs landlord-tenant relationships statewide through the Uniform Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (Neb. Rev. Stat. § 76-1401 et seq.), which applies uniformly across Pierce County. Landlords must give 24 hours notice before entering a unit under non-emergency conditions. For nonpayment of rent, a 7-day pay-or-quit notice is required; lease violations that can be corrected trigger a 14-day cure notice; and no-cause terminations at end of term require 30 days notice. Nebraska preempts local rent control ordinances, so no city within Pierce County can impose rent caps or rent stabilization measures -- a consistent condition across the state that simplifies portfolio management for landlords operating across multiple Nebraska markets. Average rent in Pierce County runs $987/month, with an average rent burden of 29.8% of household income. The renter share of occupied housing is 23.7%, and the average poverty rate sits at 8.4% -- all figures that support the county's low aggregate risk rating relative to the Nebraska average of 2.9/10.
Pierce County's 2.7/10 score and 31st-of-93 rank reflect a rural landlord environment shaped by stable agricultural employment, low regulatory overhead under Nebraska eviction laws's statewide URLTA framework, and a relatively small renter population. The county's score spread of 2.3 to 3.1 across its eight cities is narrow, indicating that risk exposure is broadly consistent regardless of which community a landlord operates in.
Historical eviction filings in Pierce County
From 2000 to 2016, eviction filings in Pierce County increased. The peak was 18 filings in 2004.1
- 02000
- 18Peak (2004)
- 22016
Data covers 2000–2018, the full span of the Princeton Eviction Lab's national county court-records dataset.
How Pierce County compares
Pierce County's 2.7/10 score (Low, ranked 31st of 93) sits close to several neighboring rural counties in northeastern Nebraska eviction laws -- Burt, Knox, Dawes, Butler, and Richardson counties all score within a very narrow band of each other, reflecting the broadly similar landlord-tenant conditions across Nebraska eviction laws's agricultural interior. The county scores near the Nebraska statewide average of 2.9/10. Among peer counties, risk differences are largely qualitative rather than material -- landlords in any of these markets face the same statewide URLTA framework, the same absence of local rent control, and comparable renter populations and income profiles.