Anderson County, Texas Eviction Risk: Low
4 incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The county Eviction Risk Score is held aloft by the city of Palestine (2.8) and a small number of dense urban cores. Rent-control coverage varies by city.
Ranked #53 of 254 TX counties
22k residents · 4 cities · 12 tracts
Anderson County eviction risk score history
Key metrics
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Tenant beats landlord19.3%/ 100 outcomesIn court-decided eviction outcomes for Anderson County, TX, tenants prevail in roughly 19.3% of contested cases. A higher number means landlords face stronger tenant defenses and longer calendars.
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Timeline28dfiling → judgmentFrom the moment an unlawful-detainer notice is filed in Anderson County, TX until a money judgment is entered, a contested eviction takes about 28 days on average. Longer timelines mean more lost rent for landlords.
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Cost range$0.9–3.3klegal + lost rentA typical eviction in Anderson County, TX costs landlords $940 to $3,338 all-in, covering court filing fees, process-server costs, attorney time, and lost rent.
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Average rent$1,03136% stretched on rentAverage gross rent in Anderson County, TX is $1,031 per month per the U.S. Census American Community Survey. 36% of renter households here spend more than 30% of pre-tax income on rent.
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Renters43.5%of households43.5% of occupied housing units in Anderson County, TX are renter-occupied. A higher renter share usually correlates with more eviction filings and a more active rental market.
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Poverty17.2%7.2% unemp.17.2% of Anderson County, TX residents live below the federal poverty line, and unemployment runs at 7.2%. Both feed the economic-stress sub-score in our Eviction Risk Score model.
Scrub 50 years
Anderson County averages 1.9/10 (Low risk), ranging from 1.8 in Palestine to a high of 2.9 in Elkhart, the county's riskiest city. Ranked 117 of 254 Texas counties by eviction risk (rank 1 = highest risk), placing Anderson County in the middle third of the state.
How Anderson County ranks in Texas
Landlord guides for Texas
| City↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | % income on rent↕ | Average rent↕ | Lean↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Palestine | 19,136 | 2.6 | 37.8% | $1,062 | Rep |
| 002 | Elkhart | 1,701 | 2.8 | 30.3% | $756 | Rep |
| 003 | Frankston | 1,088 | 2.2 | 21.5% | $923 | Rep |
| 004 | Neches | 352 | 2.7 | 35.3% | $1,011 | Rep |
County heatmap
One county, multiple regulatory regimes.
Anderson County, Texas eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 1.9/10, placing it in the Low risk tier. Spread across 4 cities and a total population of roughly 22,277, the county sits at rank 117 of 254 Texas counties, meaning 116 counties are riskier and 137 are less risky, landing Anderson County squarely in the middle third of the state. For landlords, that translates to a market where structural risks, court backlogs, and tenant-protection exposure are all comparatively contained.
The county-wide average of 1.9/10 obscures meaningful local variation. Scores run from 1.8 to 2.9 depending on which community you operate in, a spread that matters when you are evaluating a specific acquisition. Average rent across Anderson County sits at $1,031, and renters carry an average rent burden of 36.4%, a figure that signals moderate payment-stress risk worth factoring into tenant-screening decisions.
The cities inside Anderson County
The highest-risk locations in the county are Elkhart and Frankston, each scoring 2.9/10. Elkhart has a population of 1,701 and Frankston roughly 1,088. Both sit at the top of the county's risk range, and while neither score is alarming in an absolute sense, they are 61% above the score of the county's dominant city. Neches comes in at 2/10 with a population of just 352, representing a thin rental pool with limited liquidity.
Palestine, with a population of 19,136, is by far the largest city and carries the lowest risk score in the county at 1.8/10. In practical terms, Palestine drives the county average and is where the bulk of landlord activity is concentrated. Risk is hyper-local inside Anderson County: the gap between Palestine at 1.8 and Elkhart or Frankston at 2.9 reflects meaningfully different operating environments even within the same county boundary.
State-level laws that apply here
Texas eviction laws eviction law under Tex. Prop. Code SS 91 and SS 92 is notably landlord-favorable. Notice periods are short: for non-payment of rent, lease violations, holdovers, and squatters, Texas eviction laws requires as few as 3 days notice, and unauthorized occupants can be addressed with no notice period at all under SB-38. No just-cause requirement exists for terminating tenancies, and Texas eviction laws state law preempts any local rent-control ordinance under TX Local Gov Code SS 214.902, so there is no patchwork of municipal rent caps to navigate anywhere in the state, including Anderson County. Understanding the full Texas eviction laws eviction process, from notice through lockout, is the foundation for containing carrying costs when a tenancy does go wrong.
On the cost side, the Texas eviction costs landlords should budget include court filing fees of $54 to $125, sheriff lockout fees of $50 to $175, and attorney fees ranging from $500 to $3,500 depending on whether the case is contested. An uncontested case typically resolves in 21 to 30 days; a contested matter can stretch 45 to 90 days. Source-of-income status is not a protected class under Texas state law, giving landlords full discretion on that screening criterion.
Anderson County's average poverty rate of 17.2% and a renter share of 43.5% of households suggest a tenant base that can be sensitive to income disruption; review the city grid above to identify which communities carry the most concentrated exposure before committing to a specific submarket.
Historical eviction filings in Anderson County
From 2000 to 2018, eviction filings in Anderson County increased 62%. The peak was 227 filings in 2015.1
- 1252000
- 227Peak (2015)
- 2032018
Data covers 2000–2018, the full span of the Princeton Eviction Lab's national county court-records dataset.
How Anderson County compares
Anderson County, TX scores 1.9/10 (Low), ranking 117 of 254 Texas eviction laws counties by eviction risk, where rank 1 is the highest-risk county. That positions Anderson County in the middle third of the state: 116 counties carry more risk and 137 are less risky. Among its closest peers, Kendall County scores 1.88/10, Wood County 1.95/10, Erath County 1.97/10, Gray County 1.98/10, and Randall County 1.99/10, making Anderson County slightly more favorable than four of its five comparison counties.