Dimmit County, Texas Eviction Risk: Low
6 incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The county Eviction Risk Score is held aloft by the city of Carrizo Springs (2.9) and a small number of dense urban cores. Rent-control coverage varies by city.
Ranked #70 of 254 TX counties
7k residents · 6 cities · 3 tracts
Dimmit County eviction risk score history
Key metrics
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Tenant beats landlord12.7%/ 100 outcomesIn court-decided eviction outcomes for Dimmit County, TX, tenants prevail in roughly 12.7% of contested cases. A higher number means landlords face stronger tenant defenses and longer calendars.
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Timeline24dfiling → judgmentFrom the moment an unlawful-detainer notice is filed in Dimmit County, TX until a money judgment is entered, a contested eviction takes about 24 days on average. Longer timelines mean more lost rent for landlords.
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Cost range$1.0–3.4klegal + lost rentA typical eviction in Dimmit County, TX costs landlords $1,009 to $3,397 all-in, covering court filing fees, process-server costs, attorney time, and lost rent.
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Average rent$64828% stretched on rentAverage gross rent in Dimmit County, TX is $648 per month per the U.S. Census American Community Survey. 28% of renter households here spend more than 30% of pre-tax income on rent.
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Renters33.0%of households33.0% of occupied housing units in Dimmit 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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Poverty50.7%10.5% unemp.50.7% of Dimmit County, TX residents live below the federal poverty line, and unemployment runs at 10.5%. Both feed the economic-stress sub-score in our Eviction Risk Score model.
Scrub 50 years
Dimmit County averages 2.5/10 (Low risk), with city scores spanning 1.8 to 2.9. The county's 50.7% poverty rate and $648 average rent point to thin tenant financial margins despite a landlord-favorable procedural environment. Ranked 70th of 254 Texas counties - in the higher-risk by eviction risk, with 69 counties carrying greater risk.
How Dimmit County ranks in Texas
Landlord guides for Texas
| City↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | % income on rent↕ | Average rent↕ | Lean↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Carrizo Springs | 4,723 | 2.6 | 25.9% | $516 | Dem |
| 002 | Carrizo Hill | 1,198 | 2.1 | 33.3% | $1,236 | Dem |
| 003 | Big Wells | 544 | 2.8 | 23.3% | $613 | Dem |
| 004 | Asherton | 543 | 2.9 | 36.1% | $545 | Dem |
| 005 | Catarina | 155 | 1.8 | 23.3% | $613 | Dem |
| 006 | Brundage | 12 | 2.3 | 23.3% | $613 | Dem |
County heatmap
One county, multiple regulatory regimes.
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 2.5/10 (Low), placing Dimmit 70th 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 1.8 to 2.9, and that range captures real differences across the county's communities. Asherton (2.9/10) and Big Wells (2.8/10) 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 (2.6/10), 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 (2.1/10) and Catarina (1.8/10) post lower scores, in part because their thinner rental markets generate fewer filings and less volatility in the underlying signals. Brundage (2.3/10) 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 2.5/10 average reflects a combination of structural poverty, limited rental supply, and a lean county courthouse process. Scores within the county range from 1.8 in the smallest communities to 2.9 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.
Historical eviction filings in Dimmit County
From 2000 to 2018, eviction filings in Dimmit County increased 200%. The peak was 18 filings in 2018.1
- 62000
- 18Peak (2018)
- 182018
Data covers 2000–2018, the full span of the Princeton Eviction Lab's national county court-records dataset.
How Dimmit County compares
Dimmit County's 2.5/10 average sits slightly above the Texas statewide average of 2.6/10, consistent with the county's higher-risk placement in the state distribution. Nearby peer counties with similar score profiles - Leon, Comanche, Terry, Houston eviction risk, and Swisher - all cluster in the same general range, sharing Dimmit's combination of rural isolation, limited rental stock, and high poverty. None of those peers have meaningfully stronger tenant protections; the differentiation between them is driven primarily by the depth of local poverty and the frequency of oil-field or agricultural employment cycles that affect payment stability. Within that peer group, Dimmit's poverty rate of 50.7% is among the highest, which pushes its risk reading toward the upper end of what comparable rural Texas counties show.