McKean County, Pennsylvania Eviction Risk: Moderate

McKean County, Pennsylvania eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 4/10 (Moderate) across its 10 tracked cities, placing it at rank 43 of 67 Pennsylvania counties, meaning 42 counties in the state are riskier for landlords and 24 are less risky. That mid-table position reflects genuine balance: the county is neither a landlord-friendly haven nor a high-friction market, but conditions shift materially from one municipality to the next. With an average rent of $803 and an average rent burden of 25.6%, most tenants are not severely cost-pressed by statewide standards, which moderates default risk at the aggregate level.

The intra-county spread tells a more nuanced story. Individual city scores range from 3.4 to 5.4, a full two-point gap that puts some McKean locations in clearly investor-friendly territory and others at the elevated end of moderate risk. A county average of 4/10 therefore masks very different operating environments that landlords need to evaluate at the city level before committing capital.

The cities inside McKean County

Bradford is the county seat and by far its largest city at 7,683 residents, and it carries the highest risk score in the county at 5.4/10. A poverty rate that tilts higher than surrounding communities and a renter share that concentrates economic stress make Bradford the most challenging submarket for landlords within McKean. University of Pittsburgh Bradford scores 4.4/10, reflecting the tenant-turnover and income-variability dynamics common to student-adjacent rental markets. Mount Jewett comes in at 4.3/10, modest in population at 674 but worth watching for investors targeting small-town rentals.

On the other end of the range, Lewis Run scores just 3.4/10, the lowest in the county, making it the most landlord-favorable location in McKean. Kane (3.5/10, population 3,537) and Smethport (3.7/10, population 1,462) also sit well below the county average. Port Allegany scores an even 4/10. The takeaway for investors is that risk in McKean County is genuinely hyper-local: two cities separated by a short drive can differ by more than two full points on the risk scale.

State-level laws that apply here

All landlords in McKean County operate under the Pennsylvania eviction laws Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 (68 P.S. § 250.101 et seq.). For nonpayment of rent, Pennsylvania eviction laws law requires a 10-day notice before filing. Material-breach notices are 15 days for tenancies under one year and 30 days for tenancies of one year or more. No notice is required at the end of a lease term. Understanding the full Pennsylvania eviction laws eviction process matters here because an uncontested case typically takes 30 to 60 days from filing to resolution; contested cases can stretch to 60 to 150 days. Court filing fees run $130 to $250, sheriff lockout fees add $50 to $150, and attorney fees range from $500 to $3,000, so landlords should budget those components carefully when projecting Pennsylvania eviction costs.

Pennsylvania eviction laws has no statewide rent control and does not require just cause for non-renewal, and state law explicitly preempts local rent-control ordinances, so McKean County municipalities cannot impose rent caps independently. Source-of-income is not a protected class under state law, though landlords should verify any applicable local ordinances. Retaliation protections for tenants are codified at 68 P.S. § 250.205.

With an average poverty rate of 18.8% and roughly 34.9% of residents renting, McKean County's risk profile is driven heavily by economic stress concentrated in its largest city; the city grid above breaks down each location's individual score so landlords can identify the pockets of lower risk that the county average obscures.