Montgomery County, Texas Eviction Risk: Very Low
17 incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The county Eviction Risk Score is held aloft by the city of The Woodlands (2.9) and a small number of dense urban cores. Rent-control coverage varies by city.
Ranked #155 of 254 TX counties
258k residents · 17 cities · 133 tracts
Montgomery County eviction risk score history
Key metrics
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Tenant beats landlord17.5%/ 100 outcomesIn court-decided eviction outcomes for Montgomery County, TX, tenants prevail in roughly 17.5% of contested cases. A higher number means landlords face stronger tenant defenses and longer calendars.
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Timeline28dfiling → judgmentFrom the moment an unlawful-detainer notice is filed in Montgomery County, TX until a money judgment is entered, a contested eviction takes about 28 days on average. Longer timelines mean more lost rent for landlords.
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Cost range$1.1–3.7klegal + lost rentA typical eviction in Montgomery County, TX costs landlords $1,061 to $3,700 all-in, covering court filing fees, process-server costs, attorney time, and lost rent.
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Average rent$1,59130% stretched on rentAverage gross rent in Montgomery County, TX is $1,591 per month per the U.S. Census American Community Survey. 30% of renter households here spend more than 30% of pre-tax income on rent.
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Renters34.6%of households34.6% of occupied housing units in Montgomery 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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Poverty8.6%4.3% unemp.8.6% of Montgomery County, TX residents live below the federal poverty line, and unemployment runs at 4.3%. Both feed the economic-stress sub-score in our Eviction Risk Score model.
Scrub 50 years
Montgomery County averages 2.3/10 across 17 cities, spanning from 1.8 in the lowest-risk submarkets to 3.2 in Magnolia, the county's highest-risk city. Ranked 60th of 254 Texas counties by eviction risk (rank 1 = highest risk), placing it in the higher-risk third of the state.
How Montgomery County ranks in Texas
Landlord guides for Texas
| City↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | % income on rent↕ | Average rent↕ | Lean↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | The Woodlands | 121,002 | 2.3 | 28.4% | $1,822 | Rep |
| 002 | Conroe | 102,360 | 2.3 | 31.9% | $1,393 | Rep |
| 003 | Willis | 6,878 | 2.9 | 34.3% | $1,268 | Rep |
| 004 | Magnolia | 4,068 | 2.0 | 30.5% | $1,121 | Rep |
| 005 | Shenandoah | 3,705 | 2.2 | 42.6% | $1,418 | Rep |
| 006 | Oak Ridge North | 3,034 | 2.3 | 29.9% | $2,315 | Rep |
| 007 | Panorama Village | 2,525 | 2.3 | 24.5% | $1,494 | Rep |
| 008 | Montgomery | 2,489 | 2.5 | 39.0% | $1,417 | Rep |
| 009 | Deerwood | 2,366 | 1.8 | 8.2% | $884 | Rep |
| 010 | Roman Forest | 2,336 | 2.3 | 32.9% | $1,750 | Rep |
| 011 | Splendora | 2,131 | 2.2 | 25.1% | $1,190 | Rep |
| 012 | Woodbranch | 1,719 | 2.4 | 22.5% | $1,438 | Rep |
| 013 | Porter Heights | 987 | 2.2 | 15.8% | $1,074 | Rep |
| 014 | Grangerland | 920 | 2.2 | 33.5% | $1,119 | Rep |
| 015 | Cut and Shoot | 864 | 2.4 | 36.8% | $1,134 | Rep |
| 016 | Stagecoach | 637 | 2.1 | 19.9% | $623 | Rep |
| 017 | Woodloch | 381 | 2.0 | 26.6% | $1,585 | Rep |
County heatmap
Neighborhoods in Montgomery County
Top 4 neighborhoods by population. Click for a pop-weighted risk score and the constituent census tracts.
One county, multiple regulatory regimes.
Montgomery County carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.3/10 (Low), placing it 60th out of 254 counties in Texas, where rank 1 is the highest-risk. That means 59 counties post a worse landlord environment and 194 are calmer, putting Montgomery County in the higher-risk third of the state, a positioning that deserves attention from anyone deploying capital here. Spanning 17 cities and roughly 258,402 residents, the county draws a renter share of 34.6% and an average rent of $1,591 per month, numbers that point to a meaningful tenant base but also a market where rent-burden and collection stress are real operating considerations.
The intra-county range runs from 1.8/10 to 3.2/10, a spread wide enough that two properties a few miles apart can face noticeably different risk profiles. Landlords who treat the county average as a proxy for any individual address will consistently misprice that risk. The average rent-burden sits at 30% of income, which is right at the conventional stress threshold and underscores why cash-flow interruptions happen even in a relatively low-risk county like this one.
The cities inside Montgomery County
At the top of the risk table sit Magnolia at 3.2/10 and the city of Montgomery at 3.1/10, followed by Willis at 3.0/10. Conroe, the county's second-largest city with a population of 102,360, scores 2.7/10, meaning even the county seat carries elevated risk relative to the overall county average. Splendora and Woodloch each come in at 2.8/10, while Roman Forest registers 2.5/10.
The contrast with the county's anchor city is striking. The Woodlands, home to 121,002 residents, scores just 1.8/10, tied for the lowest reading in the county alongside Panorama Village. Shenandoah posts a 2.1/10 and Oak Ridge North a 2.2/10. These numbers confirm that risk in Montgomery County is highly localized, and a city-level score, not the county average, is the appropriate benchmark for any individual acquisition or lease-up decision.
State-level laws that apply here
Every landlord operating in Montgomery County works under Texas eviction laws state law, specifically Tex. Prop. Code sections 91 and 92 (Residential Tenancies). The notice period for non-payment of rent is 3 days under Tex. Prop. Code section 24.005(a-1) for a first-time delinquent tenant and the same 3 days for a habitually delinquent tenant or a lease violation. Holdover tenants and squatters are also addressed by statute, with squatters eligible for immediate removal under Tex. Prop. Code section 24.011 as added by SB-38. Texas eviction laws requires no just cause for non-renewal, and state law actively preempts any local rent-control ordinance under TX Local Government Code section 214.902, so there is no patchwork of municipal caps to track here.
For the Texas eviction laws eviction process, court filing fees run $54 to $125, sheriff lockout fees add another $50 to $175, and attorney fees typically fall in the $500 to $3,500 range, producing total out-of-pocket costs that can reach into the thousands on a contested case. An uncontested eviction resolves in 21 to 30 days; a contested matter can stretch to 45 to 90 days. Understanding Texas eviction costs upfront is how landlords here budget accurately and avoid surprises when a tenancy goes sideways.
With a poverty rate of 8.6% and renters making up 34.6% of households, collection risk is uneven across the county; the city-level scores in the grid above are the most precise signal available for pinpointing where that risk concentrates.
Historical eviction filings in Montgomery County
From 2000 to 2018, eviction filings in Montgomery County increased 167%. The peak was 3,762 filings in 2018.1
- 1,4092000
- 3,762Peak (2018)
- 3,7622018
Data covers 2000–2018, the full span of the Princeton Eviction Lab's national county court-records dataset.
How Montgomery County compares
Montgomery County scores 2.3/10 (Low risk), closely matching a cluster of Texas peer counties: Brazoria County at 2.22/10, Brazos County at 2.28/10, Starr County at 2.32/10, and Nueces County at 2.33/10. The county's intra-county spread from 1.8 (The Woodlands, Panorama Village) to 3.2 (Magnolia) is notable and wider than its peer-county score spread, meaning submarket selection within Montgomery County matters more than county selection alone.
Within Texas, Montgomery County ranks 60th of 254 counties on eviction risk, where rank 1 is the highest-risk, least landlord-friendly county. That position puts 59 counties at higher risk and 194 at lower risk, placing Montgomery County in the higher-risk third of the state, but well below the most distressed markets in Texas.