Marshall County, South Dakota Eviction Risk: Very Low
9 incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The county Eviction Risk Score is held aloft by the city of Britton (2.1) and a small number of dense urban cores. Rent-control coverage varies by city.
Ranked #53 of 66 SD counties
2k residents · 9 cities · 1 tracts
Marshall County eviction risk score history
Key metrics
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Tenant beats landlord10.7%/ 100 outcomesIn court-decided eviction outcomes for Marshall County, SD, tenants prevail in roughly 10.7% of contested cases. A higher number means landlords face stronger tenant defenses and longer calendars.
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Timeline19dfiling → judgmentFrom the moment an unlawful-detainer notice is filed in Marshall County, SD until a money judgment is entered, a contested eviction takes about 19 days on average. Longer timelines mean more lost rent for landlords.
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Cost range$0.8–2.3klegal + lost rentA typical eviction in Marshall County, SD costs landlords $790 to $2,263 all-in, covering court filing fees, process-server costs, attorney time, and lost rent.
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Average rent$75020% stretched on rentAverage gross rent in Marshall County, SD is $750 per month per the U.S. Census American Community Survey. 20% of renter households here spend more than 30% of pre-tax income on rent.
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Renters25.1%of households25.1% of occupied housing units in Marshall County, SD are renter-occupied. A higher renter share usually correlates with more eviction filings and a more active rental market.
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Poverty12.7%1.2% unemp.12.7% of Marshall County, SD residents live below the federal poverty line, and unemployment runs at 1.2%. Both feed the economic-stress sub-score in our Eviction Risk Score model.
Scrub 50 years
How Marshall County ranks in South Dakota
Landlord guides for South Dakota
| City↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | % income on rent↕ | Average rent↕ | Lean↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Britton | 988 | 1.8 | 28.9% | $798 | Rep |
| 002 | Langford | 481 | 1.4 | 9.0% | $688 | Rep |
| 003 | Veblen | 455 | 1.7 | 13.9% | $713 | Rep |
| 004 | Eden | 221 | 1.5 | 17.5% | $775 | Rep |
| 005 | Newport Colony | 114 | 2.1 | 19.5% | $719 | Rep |
| 006 | Sunset Colony | 68 | 1.9 | 19.5% | $719 | Rep |
| 007 | Lake City | 40 | 2.1 | 19.5% | $719 | Rep |
| 008 | Westwood Colony | 8 | 2.1 | 19.5% | $719 | Rep |
| 009 | Kidder | 8 | 1.6 | 19.5% | $719 | Rep |
County heatmap
One county, multiple regulatory regimes.
Marshall County, South Dakota eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 1.3/10 (Low), placing it in the middle third of the state at rank 38 of 66 counties, with 37 South Dakota counties scoring higher and 28 scoring lower. For landlords and investors, that overall average signals a market where tenant-side legal exposure is modest, courts resolve uncontested cases without unusual delay, and the regulatory environment imposes few additional burdens beyond state law. The county's total population of 2,383 and an average rent of $750 define a tight, rural rental market rather than a high-volume one.
The intra-county range runs from 0.9/10 at the low end to 1.5/10 at the high end, a 0.6-point spread across 9 cities. That spread is meaningful at this scale: a score of 1.5 still falls in the Low tier, but a landlord operating in the county's riskiest pocket faces materially different conditions than one in its most stable corner. Average rent burden sits at 20%, suggesting most renters here are not financially stretched, which tends to hold default rates low.
The cities inside Marshall County
Veblen leads the county in risk at 1.5/10, with a population of 455. Its score sits a full 0.3 points above the county average, making it the location where landlords should perform the tightest tenant screening and maintain the most detailed documentation. Britton, the county seat and largest city with a population of 988, follows at 1.4/10. Britton's size means it accounts for the largest share of the county's rental stock, so its above-average score carries more practical weight for portfolio operators than the small-town figures alone suggest.
Langford (population 481, score 1.2/10) and Eden (population 221, score 1.2/10) sit just below the county average, offering somewhat lower exposure. Newport Colony scores the lowest in the county at 0.9/10 with a population of 114. The pattern reinforces a core principle: risk in Marshall County is hyper-local, and a single county-level score should not substitute for city-level analysis before committing capital.
State-level laws that apply here
Every landlord in Marshall County operates under South Dakota eviction laws state law, specifically SDCL § 43-32 (Lease of Real Property). For non-payment of rent or a curable lease violation, the required notice period is just 3 days. End-of-term or no-cause terminations require 30 days notice. South Dakota eviction laws does not require just cause for eviction and expressly preempts local rent control, so no city within Marshall County can impose rent caps or additional just-cause requirements above the state baseline. Understanding the South Dakota eviction laws eviction process from notice through judgment is straightforward relative to many states: uncontested cases typically resolve in 21 to 40 days, contested cases in 45 to 100 days.
South Dakota eviction costs run from a court filing fee of $95 to $180, a sheriff lockout fee of $40 to $150, and attorney fees of $500 to $2,500 if counsel is retained. South Dakota security deposit limits and South Dakota tenant protections are defined at the state level with no local overlays in this county, keeping the compliance picture clean for landlords operating across multiple properties here.
With an average poverty rate of 12.7% and a renter share of 25.1%, Marshall County's rental pool is relatively small, so vacancy risk and tenant quality matter more than eviction-law complexity here; review the city grid above to identify which of the 9 cities best fits your risk tolerance.
Historical eviction filings in Marshall County
From 2010 to 2016, eviction filings in Marshall County increased. The peak was 1 filings in 2012.1
- 02010
- 1Peak (2012)
- 02016
Data covers 2000–2018, the full span of the Princeton Eviction Lab's national county court-records dataset.