Leon County, Texas Eviction Risk: Low

Leon County sits in East Central Texas along the Old San Antonio Road corridor, a thinly populated county of roughly 5,589 renter-occupied households spread across seven incorporated places. The county carries a composite eviction risk of 3.5/10 (Low), placing it 133rd out of 254 Texas counties by risk -- in the middle of the state. That ranking means 75 Texas counties carry higher eviction pressure than Leon, while 178 are less risky by the same measure. City-level scores within the county span from 3.1 to 4/10, a modest spread that reflects the uniformly limited renter protections that apply under Texas state law throughout the county.

The largest place in the county is Buffalo (population 1,652), the county's commercial anchor on U.S. 79, which scores 3.4/10. Jewett, the second-largest city with 1,075 residents and the county seat area's neighbor, registers the highest city-level risk at 4/10 -- the sole city nudging toward the upper end of the county's score range. Centerville, the actual county seat with 1,053 residents, comes in at 3.7/10, matching the county average. Smaller communities trend lower: Hilltop Lakes (797 residents, a private lake community) and Oakwood (570 residents) both score 3.1/10 and 3.4/10 respectively, while Leona (244 residents) posts the county's lowest mark at 3.1/10. Marquez, the smallest incorporated place at 198 residents, scores 3.2/10 -- the second-highest in the county -- reflecting the dynamic in small Texas towns where limited rental housing stock and fewer institutional landlords can create outsized pressure on individual renters when disputes arise.

Renter households make up 33.6% of Leon County's occupied housing units, a figure meaningfully below the Texas statewide average and consistent with the rural homeownership pattern common to East Texas counties. Average gross rent runs $825 per month -- well below the statewide average -- yet the average rent burden still reaches 29.5% of household income, which lands just below the conventional 30% cost-burden threshold. With a poverty rate of 17.4%, a notable share of the county's renter population is one unexpected expense away from delinquency. Under Texas law (Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005), a landlord may serve a 3-day notice to vacate for non-payment the very first time a tenant is late, and there is no statewide grace period requirement. Leon County's risk profile is low in absolute terms, but the thin margin between rent payments and household income means the 3-day clock -- if it starts running -- leaves little room for a renter to catch up before an eviction case is filed in the Leon County Justice of the Peace court.

Leon County's 3.5/10 risk rating reflects the baseline tenant-protection environment common to rural Texas eviction laws: no local rent control (preempted by TX Local Gov Code §214.902), no just-cause eviction requirement, no source-of-income protections, and a 3-day statutory notice period that is among the shortest in the country. The county's low absolute score comes primarily from low absolute rents and limited institutional landlord activity, not from any protective ordinance or policy advantage for renters.