Dimmit County, Texas Eviction Risk: Low

Dimmit County sits in the brush country of southwest Texas along the Nueces River, anchored by the county seat of Carrizo Springs and spanning roughly 1,330 square miles of ranch land, oil fields, and small farming communities. With a total population of about 7,175 - one of the smallest county populations in the state - the rental market here is tight and deeply local: only about 33% of households rent, and the average asking rent of $648 per month reflects a market shaped more by oil-field worker housing cycles and agricultural labor than by urban demand. Eviction risk across the county averages 3.7/10 (Low), placing Dimmit 75th out of 254 Texas counties - firmly in the higher-risk third of the state, with 69 counties carrying greater risk and 184 carrying less.

City-level scores spread from 3.2 to 4, and that range captures real differences across the county's communities. Asherton (4/10) and Big Wells (3.4/10) sit at the upper end of the county range - both are small towns of roughly 540-544 residents where a poverty rate exceeding 50% and very limited rental stock mean a single filing can significantly affect local housing stability. The county seat, Carrizo Springs (3.8/10), is the largest community at 4,723 residents and carries the most eviction activity in absolute terms; it accounts for the bulk of justice-of-the-peace filings at the Dimmit County courthouse. Smaller communities like Carrizo Hill (3.6/10) and Catarina (3.7/10) post lower scores, in part because their thinner rental markets generate fewer filings and less volatility in the underlying signals. Brundage (3.2/10) is the county's smallest named community with just 12 residents and limited rental exposure.

The macro picture for landlords is genuinely mixed. Texas law (Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005) requires only a 3-day written notice before filing - one of the shorter timelines nationally - and the state preempts local rent control entirely under TX Local Gov Code §214.902, so no Dimmit County jurisdiction can impose rent caps or just-cause eviction requirements. Court filing fees run $54 to $125 and an uncontested case resolves in 21 to 30 days under normal conditions. Those procedural advantages are real. At the same time, 50.7% average poverty and a rent burden averaging 27.6% of household income create the underlying fragility that drives risk scores upward - tenants here are close to the financial edge, and a single income disruption often cascades into a missed rent payment. Landlords operating in Dimmit County should budget for that reality even when the procedural path to eviction remains straightforward.

Dimmit County's 3.7/10 average reflects a combination of structural poverty, limited rental supply, and a lean county courthouse process. Scores within the county range from 3.2 in the smallest communities to 4 in towns where concentrated poverty and oil-field population swings push risk higher. The county's higher-risk positioning among Texas eviction laws counties is consistent with other rural, high-poverty counties along the Rio Grande Plain where tenant financial resilience is thin even when formal tenant protections are minimal.