Franklin County, Texas Eviction Risk: Low

Franklin County sits in deep East Texas, anchored by the small town of Mount Vernon (population 2,548) and the unincorporated community of Miller's Cove. With a total renter population spread across roughly 2,619 residents, the county operates on a scale where every landlord-tenant dispute is handled in a single justice-of-the-peace court rather than a dedicated eviction docket. The county's eviction risk score is 2.5/10 (Low), placing it 82nd out of 254 Texas counties - squarely in the higher-risk of the state. That means 81 Texas counties carry higher risk and 172 carry lower risk, a position that reflects the county's modest renter population, low average rents, and minimal organized tenant-advocacy infrastructure.

The two tracked cities show a narrow spread between 2.5 and 2.9 out of 10. Mount Vernon, the county seat and only incorporated municipality with meaningful rental stock, scores 2.5/10 - effectively at the county floor. Miller's Cove, a small unincorporated pocket on the county's western edge, scores 2.9/10 at the high end of the local range. That gap reflects differences in housing age and poverty concentration rather than any formal policy divergence: both communities operate under identical Texas state law with no local overlays. The county-wide average rent runs $929 per month, and renters devote an average of 21.9% of income to housing costs - well below the 30% threshold commonly used to define rent burden. Just 32.1% of occupied units are renter-occupied, a share typical of rural East Texas counties where owner-occupancy is the predominant tenure form.

Texas landlord-tenant law under Tex. Prop. Code § 91 and § 92 governs all residential tenancies in Franklin County. The state preempts local rent control under TX Local Gov Code §214.902, meaning Mount Vernon and Franklin County cannot enact their own caps or just-cause eviction requirements. No just-cause protection exists for lease termination, and source-of-income discrimination is not a protected class under state law. Landlords initiating eviction must serve a 3-day written notice to vacate for non-payment of rent (both first-time and habitually delinquent tenants), lease violations, and end-of-term holdovers under Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005. Unauthorized occupants (squatters) may be removed without any advance notice under the 2023 SB-38 amendment at Tex. Prop. Code § 24.011. Court filing fees at the Franklin County JP court range from $54 to $125, and an uncontested case typically resolves in 21 to 30 days. Contested matters can extend to 45 to 90 days when tenants file a written answer and request a hearing. Sheriff lockout fees run $50 to $175 once a writ of possession issues.

Franklin County's Low eviction risk reflects the structural characteristics of a rural East Texas eviction laws market: a small and stable renter pool, below-burden average rents of $929, and a 14.4% poverty rate that, while notable, has not generated the tenant-advocacy infrastructure or court-volume pressure seen in urban Texas eviction laws counties. The score spread from 2.5 to 2.9 across the county's two cities is narrow, signaling broadly consistent conditions rather than pockets of concentrated distress.