Lynn County, Texas Eviction Risk: Low
4 incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The county Eviction Risk Score is held aloft by the city of Tahoka (2.6) and a small number of dense urban cores. Rent-control coverage varies by city.
Ranked #105 of 254 TX counties
4k residents · 4 cities · 3 tracts
Lynn County eviction risk score history
Key metrics
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Tenant beats landlord10.2%/ 100 outcomesIn court-decided eviction outcomes for Lynn County, TX, tenants prevail in roughly 10.2% 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 Lynn 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$0.9–3.2klegal + lost rentA typical eviction in Lynn County, TX costs landlords $873 to $3,178 all-in, covering court filing fees, process-server costs, attorney time, and lost rent.
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Average rent$91926% stretched on rentAverage gross rent in Lynn County, TX is $919 per month per the U.S. Census American Community Survey. 26% of renter households here spend more than 30% of pre-tax income on rent.
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Renters27.2%of households27.2% of occupied housing units in Lynn 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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Poverty20.9%5.7% unemp.20.9% of Lynn County, TX residents live below the federal poverty line, and unemployment runs at 5.7%. Both feed the economic-stress sub-score in our Eviction Risk Score model.
Scrub 50 years
Lynn County's 2.5/10 (Low) reflects the statewide Texas baseline with no local tenant protections; city scores range from 1.8 to 2.6/10 across four small communities. Ranked 105th of 254 Texas counties - middle of the state distribution, with 104 counties carrying higher eviction risk.
How Lynn County ranks in Texas
Landlord guides for Texas
| City↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | % income on rent↕ | Average rent↕ | Lean↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Tahoka | 2,424 | 2.6 | 32.8% | $978 | Rep |
| 002 | O'Donnell | 533 | 1.8 | 9.0% | $646 | Rep |
| 003 | Wilson | 449 | 2.4 | 21.3% | $925 | Rep |
| 004 | New Home | 267 | 2.6 | 9.0% | $919 | Rep |
County heatmap
One county, multiple regulatory regimes.
Lynn County sits in the South Plains of West Texas eviction laws, a sparse agricultural county of roughly 3,673 residents where the rental market is modest in size but shaped by the same statewide rules that govern every Texas eviction laws landlord-tenant relationship. The county carries an overall eviction risk score of 2.5/10 (Low), placing it 105th of 254 Texas eviction laws counties when ranked from highest to lowest eviction difficulty - putting it squarely in the middle of the state. With 104 counties registering higher risk and 149 registering lower risk, Lynn County sits near the center of Texas eviction laws's distribution, neither among the state's most tenant-favorable jurisdictions nor its most landlord-friendly.
Scores across the county's four incorporated places span from 1.8 to 2.6/10, a relatively tight band that reflects the county's uniform exposure to Texas property law with little local variation. Tahoka, the county seat and largest community with a population of 2,424, scores 2.6/10 - the upper end of the local range and the county's highest-risk city alongside New Home, which also scores 2.6/10 despite serving only about 267 residents. Wilson, a small community of 449, comes in at 2.4/10. O'Donnell stands out as the county's lowest-risk city at 1.8/10, nearly a full point below Tahoka - a meaningful gap in a county where the overall average is 2.5/10. Compared to the Texas eviction laws statewide average of 2.6/10, Lynn County as a whole runs below that figure, consistent with its rural, low-density character and the absence of any local tenant protection ordinances.
Several structural factors shape Lynn County's risk profile. About 27.2% of residents rent rather than own, a below-average renter share that limits the political weight of tenant interests in local policy. Average asking rent runs around $919 per month - modest by Texas eviction laws standards - but rent burden still touches 26.2% of renter income, and the county's poverty rate of 20.9% means a meaningful share of tenants operate with thin financial cushion. Texas law under Tex. Prop. Code § 92 imposes no rent control and requires no just cause for non-renewal - rights the state legislature has reinforced by preempting any local rent ordinance under TX Local Gov Code §214.902. A landlord serving a non-payment notice needs only 3 days under Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005, and an uncontested eviction can complete in as few as 21 to 30 days from filing. Court filing fees range from $54 to $125, keeping the cost of initiating a case low. There is no source-of-income protection under Texas law. For renters in Lynn County - where incomes are lower than in urban Texas and alternative housing is limited - these timelines and the absence of local safety nets make the Texas framework feel more acute than the county's middling numerical score might suggest.
Lynn County's 2.5/10 average reflects a rural West Texas eviction laws market where statewide statutes set the ceiling and floor for tenant protections, local incomes are under pressure at a 20.9% poverty rate, and the county seat of Tahoka anchors risk at 2.6/10 while O'Donnell's 1.8/10 represents the county's most landlord-friendly corner.
Historical eviction filings in Lynn County
From 2000 to 2018, eviction filings in Lynn County increased. The peak was 11 filings in 2017.1
- 02000
- 11Peak (2017)
- 72018
Data covers 2000–2018, the full span of the Princeton Eviction Lab's national county court-records dataset.
How Lynn County compares
At 2.5/10, Lynn County sits just below the Texas eviction laws statewide average of 2.6/10, consistent with a rural county where renter share is low and no local ordinances add tenant protections beyond the state baseline. Peer counties in the same risk band - including Haskell, Crosby, and Hansford - are similarly situated, all clustering in a narrow range that mirrors Lynn County's own score, reflecting the broad uniformity of Texas property law across the South Plains region.