Brown County, Texas Eviction Risk: Low

Brown County, Texas eviction laws carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.5/10, placing it in the Low-risk tier, but that headline number deserves context. The county ranks 37 of 254 Texas eviction laws counties, meaning 36 counties are riskier and only 217 are more landlord-friendly. That puts Brown County in the higher-risk third of the state, a meaningful distinction for investors accustomed to treating "Low" as a green light without qualification. Across 8 municipalities and a total population of roughly 26,681, scores range from 2 to 2.7, a span that matters when individual city conditions vary this much within the same county.

The average rent in Brown County sits at $939, and 40.3% of residents are renters. A poverty rate of 17% adds to the picture: a meaningful share of the tenant pool operates on tight budgets, which raises collection sensitivity when income disruptions occur. Landlords in this market should price for that reality and maintain lean operations, since rent-burden pressure at 35.2% of income means many tenants are already stretched.

The cities inside Brown County

Risk within Brown County is genuinely hyper-local. Zephyr tops the county at 2.7/10 despite a population of only 244, and Bangs follows at 2.6/10 with 1,633 residents. These smaller communities carry outsized risk relative to the county average. Brownwood, the county seat and by far the largest city at 18,777 residents, sits at exactly the county average of 2.5/10, which makes it the center of gravity for any portfolio analysis here.

On the lower end, May scores 2/10 and Thunderbird Bay comes in at 2.1/10. Early and Blanket each land at 2.3/10. Lake Brownwood, a smaller lakeside community of 1,544, scores 2.4/10. Investors targeting the safest operating environment within the county should look first at May and Thunderbird Bay, while anyone eyeing Zephyr or Bangs should build in additional credit-screening rigor to offset the elevated risk scores there.

State-level laws that apply here

Texas eviction laws state law governs every landlord-tenant relationship in Brown County under the Texas eviction laws eviction process defined by Tex. Prop. Code § 91 and § 92. Notice periods here are among the shortest in the country: non-payment of rent, lease violations, end-of-lease holdovers, and habitually delinquent tenants all require only a 3-day notice before filing. Squatters or unauthorized occupants can be removed with no prior notice under Tex. Prop. Code § 24.011, as added by SB-38. An uncontested case resolves in 21 to 30 days; contested matters run 45 to 90 days.

Texas eviction costs run from a court filing fee of $54 to $125, a sheriff lockout fee of $50 to $175, and attorney fees of $500 to $3,500, depending on complexity. Texas eviction laws imposes no just-cause requirement for eviction and, critically, the state preempts all local rent control under TX Local Gov Code §214.902, so no city in Brown County can cap rents independently. Source-of-income protections are not required under Texas law. Landlords researching Texas security deposit limits and Texas tenant protections will find both addressed in the statewide guides linked throughout this site.

With a poverty rate of 17% and 40.3% of residents renting, Brown County's risk profile is shaped as much by tenant economics as by local law, and those pressures are not uniform across the 8 cities shown in the grid above.