Calhoun County, South Carolina Eviction Risk: Low

Calhoun County sits near the geographic center of South Carolina, a rural county of roughly 2,072 renters spread across St. Matthews and Cameron. Its eviction-risk score is 3.5/10 (Low), placing it 45th out of 46 counties in the state -- solidly in the lower-risk of South Carolina's risk distribution. With 34 counties scoring higher and 11 scoring lower, Calhoun represents one of the more landlord-accessible environments in a state that already leans toward property owners on most procedural questions. Scores within the county run from 3.2 to 3.5, a narrow spread that reflects the limited number of tracked localities here.

St. Matthews, the county seat and largest community with about 1,645 residents, carries the county's lower end at 3.2/10. Cameron, a smaller community of 427, comes in at the higher end of the local range at 3.5/10 -- still well below the South Carolina average of 3.8/10. Neither city has local tenant-protection ordinances of its own; both operate entirely under state law, which means the same notice timelines and cost structures apply throughout the county. Landlords with units in multiple Calhoun communities face essentially uniform procedural requirements from one ZIP code to the next.

The county's rental market is modest but not trivial: average rent runs $983 per month, and renters make up about 29.2% of occupied housing units. Rent burden -- the share of renter households paying 30% or more of income toward housing -- sits at 46.3%, well above what housing economists consider healthy. Poverty touches 15.7% of residents. Those two figures together suggest a tenant base under genuine financial pressure, which historically correlates with a higher proportion of eviction filings initiated from the landlord side rather than disputed by tenants with resources to fight back. Understanding that dynamic is part of reading a low risk score accurately: the number reflects the legal and regulatory environment, not necessarily the frequency of filings.

Calhoun County's Low rating (3.3/10) reflects South Carolina eviction laws's landlord-oriented statutory framework: no rent control, no just-cause requirement for termination, and among the shorter notice periods in the region. Landlords here operate under S.C. Code § 27-40, which sets a 5-day notice for nonpayment, a 14-day notice-to-cure for other lease violations, and a 30-day no-cause notice at end of term. Court filing fees range from $110 to $200, and uncontested matters typically resolve in 21 to 45 days -- faster than most comparable jurisdictions. Contested cases extend to 45-100 days, consistent with South Carolina's docket norms for rural magistrate courts.