Loving County, Texas Eviction Risk: Very Low
1 incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The county Eviction Risk Score is held aloft by the city of Mentone (1.8) and a small number of dense urban cores. Rent-control coverage varies by city.
Ranked #254 of 254 TX counties
0k residents · 1 cities · 1 tracts
Loving County eviction risk score history
Key metrics
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Tenant beats landlord14.5%/ 100 outcomesIn court-decided eviction outcomes for Loving County, TX, tenants prevail in roughly 14.5% of contested cases. A higher number means landlords face stronger tenant defenses and longer calendars.
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Timeline25dfiling → judgmentFrom the moment an unlawful-detainer notice is filed in Loving County, TX until a money judgment is entered, a contested eviction takes about 25 days on average. Longer timelines mean more lost rent for landlords.
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Cost range$0.9–3.0klegal + lost rentA typical eviction in Loving County, TX costs landlords $872 to $2,986 all-in, covering court filing fees, process-server costs, attorney time, and lost rent.
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Average rent$1,43431% stretched on rentAverage gross rent in Loving County, TX is $1,434 per month per the U.S. Census American Community Survey. 31% of renter households here spend more than 30% of pre-tax income on rent.
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Renters25.0%of households25.0% of occupied housing units in Loving 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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Poverty9.3%5.3% unemp.9.3% of Loving County, TX residents live below the federal poverty line, and unemployment runs at 5.3%. Both feed the economic-stress sub-score in our Eviction Risk Score model.
Scrub 50 years
Loving County's eviction risk score of 1.8/10 reflects Texas's landlord-friendly baseline statute with no local tenant protections. The county's single city, Mentone, scores 1.8/10 - identical to the county average because it is the only data point. Ranked 254th of 254 Texas counties, Loving County is the lowest-risk county in the state. 253 counties carry higher eviction risk scores; 0 are lower.
How Loving County ranks in Texas
Landlord guides for Texas
| City↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | % income on rent↕ | Average rent↕ | Lean↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Mentone | 10 | 1.8 | 31.3% | $1,434 | Rep |
County heatmap
One county, multiple regulatory regimes.
Loving County, Texas eviction laws registers an eviction risk score of 1.8/10 (Very Low), ranking 254th of 254 counties statewide. With 253 Texas eviction laws counties carrying higher scores and none lower, Loving County sits at the very bottom of the state's risk distribution - the least tenant-protective jurisdiction in Texas eviction laws by this measure. That reflects the convergence of Texas eviction laws's landlord-friendly statutory framework and a local rental market so small it generates almost no regulatory friction at all.
The county's sole incorporated place is Mentone, the county seat, with a recorded population of just 10 residents and an eviction risk score of 1.8/10. Loving County is the least populous county in the United States, and its rental housing stock is correspondingly thin: roughly 25% of the county's households rent, at an average monthly rent of $1,434 and a rent burden of 31.3%. Poverty sits at 9.3% of residents. These numbers are drawn from Census estimates and should be read in the context of margins of error that are wide at this population scale - a single household moving in or out can shift percentages dramatically. What they do confirm is that landlord-tenant disputes in Loving County are rare events in absolute terms, and no local ordinance overlays the state's baseline rules.
Texas eviction laws law governs the entire landlord-tenant relationship here without any local modification. The state prohibits municipalities and counties from enacting rent control under TX Local Gov Code §214.902, which means neither Mentone nor Loving County has any mechanism to limit rent increases - nor are they likely to develop one. There is no just-cause eviction requirement anywhere in Texas eviction laws, so a landlord may terminate a month-to-month tenancy with the standard 3-day notice under Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005(b) without providing a reason. Non-payment of rent, lease violations, and holdover situations all require the same 3-day written notice before a landlord may file in justice court. The single exception is squatters and unauthorized occupants, where SB-38 (Tex. Prop. Code § 24.011) allows immediate filing with no notice period. Court filing fees range from $54 to $125, sheriff lockout fees from $50 to $175, and an uncontested eviction typically resolves in 21 to 30 days - among the faster timelines in the country.
Loving County's 1.8/10 score places it in the lower-risk of Texas eviction laws counties by eviction risk. With scores running from 1.8 to 1.8 across the county's single city, there is essentially no intra-county variation - the local risk picture is uniform and determined almost entirely by state statute rather than local policy.
Historical eviction filings in Loving County
From 2000 to 2018, eviction filings in Loving County increased. The peak was 2 filings in 2014.1
- 02000
- 2Peak (2014)
- 02018
Data covers 2000–2018, the full span of the Princeton Eviction Lab's national county court-records dataset.
How Loving County compares
Loving County scores 1.8/10 (Very Low) against a Texas eviction laws statewide average of 2.6/10, putting the county well below the state norm for eviction risk. Nearby low-population rural counties such as Kenedy County, Roberts County, Borden County, and McMullen County all cluster in a similarly low range - none carry the kind of tenant-protection overlays that push urban Texas eviction laws counties higher. King County, another sparsely populated West Texas jurisdiction, is modestly higher than Loving but still well within the low tier. The difference between these peers is narrow and largely driven by minor variation in rental market conditions rather than any legal distinction, since all operate under the same Texas eviction laws statutory floor with no local modifications.