Madison County, New York Eviction Risk: High

Madison County's average eviction-risk score of 7.7/10 (High) places it squarely in the middle of New York state, ranked 30th of 60 counties where rank 1 is the highest-risk. That means 29 counties are riskier and 30 are more landlord-friendly, putting Madison County at the boundary between the moderate and elevated tiers. Across the county's 14 cities, individual scores range from 7.3 to 8.2, a tighter-than-average band that tells landlords conditions are broadly challenging throughout the county, not concentrated in one distressed pocket. With an average rent of $958 and an average rent-burden rate of 28.8%, a meaningful share of tenants here are stretching budgets, which correlates directly with nonpayment exposure.

Operating in Madison County averages accepting a statutory environment shaped by New York eviction laws's tenant-protective framework, which layers just-cause eviction requirements on top of local rent regulations and source-of-income protections administered by the NY State Division of Human Rights. Landlords who underestimate the procedural depth of that framework often discover cost overruns and extended vacancies when a single tenancy goes sideways. The figures below translate those risks into dollars and days.

The cities inside Madison County

At the top of the risk range, Durhamville scores 8.2/10, the county's single highest mark, with a population of roughly 4,370. The presence of a university-adjacent rental market can create high turnover and irregular income cycles, compounding default risk. Just below, Oneida (population 10,171, score 7.6/10) is the county's largest city and carries the same elevated score as Chittenango, Canastota, Cazenovia, Morrisville, Madison, and DeRuyter, all of which also score 7.9/10. That cluster means landlords will find essentially the same risk profile across most of the county's populated centers.

The lower end of the range offers limited relief. Bridgeport scores 7.7/10 and Durhamville comes in at 8.2/10, the county minimum. Even that floor is still a High-risk reading by national standards. Risk is genuinely hyper-local, but in Madison County the difference between the best and worst city is only 0.5 points, so portfolio diversification within the county provides little insulation against the systemic statutory risks that apply countywide.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord operating in Madison County is governed by N.Y. RPL § 226 et seq. and RPAPL § 711. Notice requirements vary by situation: a nonpayment case requires a 14-day notice under RPAPL § 711(2), a material lease violation requires only 10 days under RPAPL § 711(1), while holdover terminations scale with tenancy length: 30 days for tenancies under one year, 60 days for one to two years, and 90 days for tenancies of two years or more, all under RPL § 226-c. Once in court, an uncontested case resolves in 30 to 90 days; a contested matter can run 90 to 210 days. Reviewing the New York eviction process end-to-end is essential before initiating any action, because procedural missteps restart timelines.

On the cost side, court filing fees range from $45 to $210, sheriff lockout fees add $50 to $200, and attorney fees typically fall between $1,000 and $4,000, making a contested eviction a four-figure to low-five-figure event before lost rent is counted. New York eviction costs also shift based on whether rent stabilization or just-cause rules apply in a given locality, since the state does not preempt local rent-control ordinances and just-cause eviction is required under state law. Landlords should verify local overlays before signing leases in any municipality. Retaliation claims are codified under RPL § 223-b and habitability obligations under RPL § 235-b, adding further grounds on which a tenant can contest a proceeding.

With an average poverty rate of 11.9% and a renter share of 35.8% across the county, a significant portion of the tenant pool in Madison County faces income constraints that make timely rent collection uncertain; the city-by-city risk grid above helps identify where those pressures are concentrated most.