La Salle County, Texas Eviction Risk: Very Low

La Salle County sits in deep South Texas along the Nueces River corridor, roughly halfway between San Antonio and Laredo. It is one of the more sparsely populated counties in the state - about 4,962 residents spread across roughly 1,490 square miles of mesquite brush and oil-patch terrain. Renters make up only 25.8% of occupied housing units, and the county's average asking rent of $819 per month produces a rent burden of 24.9%, well under the 30% threshold that signals household stress. Those structural conditions are reflected directly in the eviction risk score: 2.3/10 (Very Low), placing La Salle County at 174th of 254 Texas counties when ordered from highest to lowest risk. With 173 counties registering higher risk, this is firmly lower-risk territory in the state.

The county's two incorporated places are Cotulla and Encinal, and they account for essentially the entire county population. Cotulla - the county seat with about 3,664 residents - scores 2.3/10, and it is the commercial and administrative hub for oil and gas activity in the Eagle Ford Shale. Encinal, a smaller community of roughly 1,298, scores 2.2/10. The spread between the county's lowest and highest city scores runs just 2.2 to 2.3, a narrow band that reflects how uniform conditions are across this lightly populated jurisdiction. Landlords operating in either place face essentially the same legal and economic environment. Poverty sits at 26.1% countywide - elevated relative to Texas as a whole - but high poverty in a low-renter-share county does not automatically translate into higher eviction filing rates; tenants here are fewer in number, and the local court docket reflects that scale.

Texas state law (Tex. Prop. Code § 91 and § 92) is uniformly applied across all 254 counties with no local rent control permitted under TX Local Gov Code §214.902. A landlord in La Salle County serves a 3-day notice to vacate for non-payment under Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005(a), files in the justice court for $54 to $125, and typically reaches an uncontested judgment in 21 to 30 days. Contested cases extend to 45 to 90 days. Sheriff lockout fees run $50 to $175. The county scores below the Texas statewide average of 2.6, putting it among the minority of Texas counties that present genuinely low operating risk for residential landlords.

La Salle County's 2.3/10 score reflects a combination of thin renter density, a moderate poverty rate that has not historically driven high filing volumes, and a state legal framework that is explicitly landlord-oriented. No local tenant protections layer on top of state law here, and source-of-income discrimination is not prohibited under Texas eviction laws statute.