Carbon County, Pennsylvania Eviction Risk: Moderate

Carbon County carries an average eviction-risk score of 4.2/10 (Moderate) across its 19 cities, placing it at rank 22 of 67 Pennsylvania counties, meaning 21 counties in the state are riskier and 45 are less so. That puts Carbon firmly in the higher-risk third of Pennsylvania, a signal landlords and investors should take seriously before committing capital here. The county's 40,875 residents support an average rent of $1,042 per month, and with a rent-burden rate of 28.6%, tenants are paying a meaningful share of their income on housing, which can translate to payment stress during economic downturns.

The intra-county spread tells an equally important story: individual city scores range from 4.1 to 4.2/10, a nearly two-point gap that makes blanket assumptions about Carbon County unreliable. An investor who chooses one community over another based on hyper-local conditions could be looking at meaningfully different default and eviction exposure within the same county boundary.

The cities inside Carbon County

Lansford is the highest-risk city in the county at 5.7/10, with a population of 4,156, and sits at the top of the riskiest-cities list. Nesquehoning (4.6/10, population 3,344) and Bowmanstown (also 4.1/10) follow closely. Palmerton, the county's largest city at 5,622 residents, scores 4/10, placing it solidly in the elevated-risk tier. Indian Mountain Lake and Holiday Pocono share that same 3.2/10 mark. These communities cluster in the northern and eastern parts of the county and share economic characteristics, including higher poverty rates, that push their scores above the county average.

The picture improves toward the lower end of the range. Summit Hill stands out with a score of 3.8/10 and a population of 3,137, making it among the more landlord-favorable markets in the county. Jim Thorpe, at 3.6/10 and 4,540 residents, also sits below the county average. The spread underscores that eviction risk in Carbon County is genuinely hyper-local, and due diligence at the city level is essential before acquiring rental property here.

State-level laws that apply here

All Carbon County landlords operate under the Pennsylvania Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 (68 P.S. § 250.101 et seq.). Notice requirements are tiered by reason: nonpayment of rent requires a 10-day notice under 68 P.S. § 250.501(b); a material breach for a tenancy under one year requires 15 days; a breach for a tenancy of one year or more requires 30 days; and a straightforward end-of-lease termination requires no advance notice period. Understanding the Pennsylvania eviction process matters because an uncontested case still takes 30 to 60 days, and a contested case can run 60 to 150 days. Court filing fees run $130 to $250, sheriff lockout fees add another $50 to $150, and attorney fees commonly range from $500 to $3,000, making Pennsylvania eviction costs a real line item in any landlord's underwriting. Pennsylvania does not require just cause to terminate a tenancy, and state law preempts any local rent-control ordinance, so there is no patchwork of local rent caps to track in Carbon County.

With a poverty rate of 14.7% and a renter share of 31% of households, Carbon County's tenant pool carries meaningful financial fragility, a backdrop worth weighing alongside the city-by-city risk grid above when selecting specific submarkets.