Waller County, Texas Eviction Risk: Low

Waller County, Texas eviction laws posts a county-wide average eviction-risk score of 2.5/10 (Low) across its 8 cities, but that headline number deserves a closer look before landlords treat it as a green light. The intra-county range runs from 2/10 to 3.2/10, meaning the most and least risky communities inside the same county are separated by more than a full point on the scale. With a total county population of roughly 25,949 and an average rent of $1,131, the market is modestly sized, and operating conditions vary considerably depending on which city you invest in.

At rank 21 of 254 Texas counties, Waller County sits in a more complicated position than its Low label might suggest. Only 20 Texas counties carry higher risk scores, placing Waller in the higher-risk third of the state. Landlords accustomed to comparing this county against suburban metros should weigh that context carefully: a 2.5/10 average still puts Waller County ahead of more than two-thirds of the state on the risk scale.

The cities inside Waller County

The highest-risk community in the county is Brookshire, which scores 3.2/10 with a population of 5,495. Hempstead, the county seat, follows at 3.0/10 with 6,137 residents. Both cities sit meaningfully above the county average and represent the portion of the county where tenant-side pressures, average rent burden, and poverty rates bear down most on landlord operations. Investors buying in either market should underwrite accordingly.

At the other end of the spectrum, Brazos Country scores 2/10 and Todd Mission scores 2.1/10, though both are very small communities. The city of Waller scores 2.4/10 with a population of 3,108, and Prairie View scores 2.7/10 with 8,431 residents, making it the largest city in the county by population. Risk is hyper-local here: a landlord owning in Brazos Country faces a very different operating environment than one holding units in Brookshire, even though both properties fall under county-level statistics.

State-level laws that apply here

Under the Texas eviction process, landlords benefit from some of the most landlord-favorable notice rules in the country. For non-payment of rent, lease violations, and even holdover tenants, state law requires only a 3-day notice before filing, governed by Tex. Prop. Code SS 24.005. Squatters and unauthorized occupants can be addressed with a 0-day notice under Tex. Prop. Code SS 24.011. Just cause for termination is not required in Texas, and state law expressly preempts any local rent control under TX Local Gov Code SS 214.902, so no city within Waller County can impose a rent cap.

That landlord-friendly statutory framework does come with real dollar costs. Texas eviction costs include court filing fees of $54 to $125, sheriff lockout fees of $50 to $175, and attorney fees that typically range from $500 to $3,500 depending on whether the case is contested. An uncontested case resolves in roughly 21 to 30 days; a contested one can stretch to 45 to 90 days. Landlords reviewing Texas security deposit limits and Texas tenant protections will find that the state sets the floor, but local enforcement intensity and tenant demographics inside a specific city, like Hempstead or Brookshire, determine how often those timelines actually get tested.

Waller County carries an average poverty rate of 23% and an average renter share of 59.6% of households, both figures that underscore why individual city scores in the grid above matter more than the county average alone when sizing up a specific acquisition.