Terrell County, Texas Eviction Risk: Very Low
1 incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The county Eviction Risk Score is held aloft by the city of Sanderson (2) and a small number of dense urban cores. Rent-control coverage varies by city.
Ranked #243 of 254 TX counties
1k residents · 1 cities · 1 tracts
Terrell County eviction risk score history
Key metrics
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Tenant beats landlord12.3%/ 100 outcomesIn court-decided eviction outcomes for Terrell County, TX, tenants prevail in roughly 12.3% 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 Terrell 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$0.9–3.1klegal + lost rentA typical eviction in Terrell County, TX costs landlords $864 to $3,059 all-in, covering court filing fees, process-server costs, attorney time, and lost rent.
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Average rent$1,43412% stretched on rentAverage gross rent in Terrell County, TX is $1,434 per month per the U.S. Census American Community Survey. 12% of renter households here spend more than 30% of pre-tax income on rent.
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Renters8.7%of households8.7% of occupied housing units in Terrell 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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Poverty10.3%5.3% unemp.10.3% of Terrell 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
Terrell County's 2/10 score (Very Low risk) reflects a thin renter market with just 8.7% renter occupancy and 11.8% rent burden -- factors that keep landlord-tenant conflict volume very low under Texas's fast 3-day notice framework. Ranked 243rd of 254 Texas counties, with 242 counties carrying higher risk and only 11 carrying lower risk.
How Terrell County ranks in Texas
Landlord guides for Texas
| City↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | % income on rent↕ | Average rent↕ | Lean↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Sanderson | 643 | 2.0 | 11.8% | $1,434 | Rep |
County heatmap
One county, multiple regulatory regimes.
Terrell County, located in the remote Trans-Pecos region of far southwest Texas eviction laws, records an eviction risk score of 2/10 (Very Low) -- placing it 243rd of 254 Texas counties, where rank 1 represents the highest risk. With 242 Texas counties scoring higher and only 11 scoring lower, Terrell sits firmly in the lower-risk third of the state. The county's single incorporated place, Sanderson, carries the same score of 2/10, reflecting a rental market that is small, stable, and operating under Texas's strongly landlord-permissive legal framework.
The rental landscape here is unusually compact. The county's total population is just 643, and the renter share of occupied housing is approximately 8.7% -- one of the thinnest rental markets of any Texas county. Average asking rent runs around $1,434 per month, while rent burden sits at a notably low 11.8% of household income, well below the 30% threshold that researchers use to define cost-pressure stress. The poverty rate of 10.3% is modest relative to many rural Texas counties. These figures combine to produce a risk profile in which tenant-side financial stress is limited and the overall volume of landlord-tenant disputes is correspondingly low. The score range across the county spans from 2 to 2, leaving almost no internal variation.
Texas state law is the dominant force shaping landlord risk here and throughout the state. Under Tex. Prop. Code § 24.005, landlords can serve a 3-day notice to vacate for non-payment of rent, lease violations, end of term, or holdover tenancy -- one of the shortest statutory notice windows in the country. For unauthorized occupants, Tex. Prop. Code § 24.011 (as amended by SB-38) permits immediate action with no advance notice period at all. Texas also requires no just cause for eviction and prohibits local governments from enacting rent control ordinances under TX Local Gov Code §214.902, meaning no city or county anywhere in Texas can cap rent increases. For Terrell County landlords, that statewide uniformity means the legal environment is as predictable as it gets: fast notice timelines, no local ordinance overrides, and a straightforward justice court process that typically resolves uncontested cases within 21 to 30 days.
Terrell County's Very Low risk score of 2/10 reflects a combination of minimal renter-market scale, low rent burden at 11.8% of household income, and the absence of any protective local ordinances -- all operating under Texas eviction laws's uniformly landlord-permissive statute. The score range of 2 to 2 across the county signals virtually no internal divergence in risk exposure.
Historical eviction filings in Terrell County
From 2000 to 2018, eviction filings in Terrell County increased. The peak was 2 filings in 2015.1
- 02000
- 2Peak (2015)
- 02018
Data covers 2000–2018, the full span of the Princeton Eviction Lab's national county court-records dataset.
How Terrell County compares
At 2/10, Terrell County sits well below the Texas eviction laws statewide average of 2.6/10, ranking 243rd of 254 counties -- meaning nearly all of Texas eviction laws carries meaningfully higher landlord risk. Its nearest peer counties -- Edwards, McMullen, Motley, Foard, and Irion -- all cluster at similarly low ends of the risk scale, reflecting the shared characteristics of far west and south Texas eviction laws ranch country: sparse renter populations, low rent burden, and full exposure to state law with no local regulatory overlay. The county's lower-risk positioning in the state underscores how little risk pressure exists here relative to Texas's urban and suburban markets.