Union County, Pennsylvania Eviction Risk: Low

Union County carries an average eviction-risk score of 4.4/10, placing it in the Moderate tier and ranking 45th of 67 Pennsylvania eviction laws counties, meaning 44 counties statewide are riskier and only 22 are more landlord-friendly. For an investor surveying rural central Pennsylvania, that translates to operating conditions that are neither particularly hostile nor particularly forgiving: renter households represent about 39.9% of the county's roughly 15,294 residents, average rent sits at $1,008, and rent burden averages 28.1% of income, a level that keeps collections manageable but leaves meaningful exposure if local employment softens.

What the county average does not reveal is how sharply conditions vary across its 13 municipalities. Scores span from 3.1 to 5.7, a range of 2.6 full points, wide enough that two properties in the same county can face meaningfully different default and collection environments. Landlords operating across multiple Union County addresses should treat each location on its own merits rather than relying on the countywide headline.

The cities inside Union County

Mifflinburg is the clear outlier at the high-risk end, scoring 5.7/10 against a population of 3,473. That score sits well above the county average and signals above-average vacancy pressure, collection difficulty, or both relative to neighboring communities. Lewisburg, the county's largest city at 5,257 residents, scores 4.3/10, as does Linntown at 4.3/10. Both sit right at the county midpoint and represent the baseline experience most Union County landlords encounter.

At the lower-risk end, Rauchtown scores 3.1/10, the most landlord-favorable reading in the county. West Milton (3.5/10), New Berlin (3.6/10), and New Columbia (3.8/10) round out the lower tier. The gap between Mifflinburg and Rauchtown underscores how hyper-local eviction risk can be: two communities fewer than 20 miles apart carry scores that would place them in meaningfully different risk categories if evaluated independently.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord in Union County operates under the Pennsylvania eviction laws Landlord and Tenant Act of 1951 (68 P.S. § 250.101 et seq.). Notice requirements depend on the reason for eviction: nonpayment of rent requires a 10-day notice; a material breach by a tenant in a tenancy shorter than one year requires 15 days; a material breach in a tenancy of one year or more requires 30 days; and expiration of the lease term carries no notice requirement. Pennsylvania eviction laws does not require just cause to terminate a tenancy, and state law preempts any local rent-control ordinance, so landlords face no local rent caps. Understanding the full Pennsylvania eviction laws eviction process, from notice through possession, is essential before filing, because an uncontested case typically resolves in 30 to 60 days while a contested case can run 60 to 150 days.

On the cost side, Pennsylvania eviction costs include a court filing fee of $130 to $250, a sheriff or constable lockout fee of $50 to $150, and attorney fees that typically range from $500 to $3,000 depending on case complexity. Pennsylvania security deposit limits and tenant protection rules are also governed at the state level, without local variation in Union County, so investors can apply a single compliance framework across all 13 municipalities.

With an average poverty rate of 11% and roughly 39.9% of households renting, Union County's risk profile is shaped by a modest but real base of financially stressed tenants; the city-level scores in the grid above identify exactly where that pressure is concentrated.