Young County, Texas Eviction Risk: Very Low
4 incorporated cities and unincorporated areas. The county Eviction Risk Score is held aloft by the city of Graham (2.5) and a small number of dense urban cores. Rent-control coverage varies by city.
Ranked #145 of 254 TX counties
13k residents · 4 cities · 5 tracts
Young County eviction risk score history
Key metrics
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Tenant beats landlord14.8%/ 100 outcomesIn court-decided eviction outcomes for Young County, TX, tenants prevail in roughly 14.8% of contested cases. A higher number means landlords face stronger tenant defenses and longer calendars.
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Timeline26dfiling → judgmentFrom the moment an unlawful-detainer notice is filed in Young County, TX until a money judgment is entered, a contested eviction takes about 26 days on average. Longer timelines mean more lost rent for landlords.
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Cost range$1.1–3.2klegal + lost rentA typical eviction in Young County, TX costs landlords $1,056 to $3,224 all-in, covering court filing fees, process-server costs, attorney time, and lost rent.
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Average rent$81830% stretched on rentAverage gross rent in Young County, TX is $818 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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Renters33.6%of households33.6% of occupied housing units in Young 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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Poverty19.6%3.4% unemp.19.6% of Young County, TX residents live below the federal poverty line, and unemployment runs at 3.4%. Both feed the economic-stress sub-score in our Eviction Risk Score model.
Scrub 50 years
Young County's average eviction-risk score of 1.7/10 spans a range from 1.1/10 (Loving) to 1.9/10 (Olney), the county's highest-risk city. Ranked 157 of 254 Texas counties, where rank 1 is the highest-risk county.
How Young County ranks in Texas
Landlord guides for Texas
| City↕ | Population↕ | Risk↕ | % income on rent↕ | Average rent↕ | Lean↕ | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 001 | Graham | 8,792 | 2.3 | 31.1% | $967 | Rep |
| 002 | Olney | 3,015 | 2.5 | 26.3% | $439 | Rep |
| 003 | Newcastle | 716 | 2.3 | 26.0% | $586 | Rep |
| 004 | Loving | 87 | 2.0 | 29.7% | $818 | Rep |
County heatmap
One county, multiple regulatory regimes.
Young County, Texas eviction laws comes in with a county-wide average eviction-risk score of 1.7/10, placing it in the Low risk tier across its 4 cities. With 156 Texas counties registering higher risk and 97 sitting lower, Young County lands in the middle third of the state, a position that still represents a genuinely low-pressure operating environment for landlords and investors. Renter share averages 33.6% of households, average rent runs $818 per month, and the average rent burden sits at 29.7% of income, modest figures that point to a stable, small-market tenant base rather than a compressed, high-demand environment prone to payment stress.
Intra-county scores span a tight band from 1.1 to 1.9, which means even the riskiest corner of Young County remains well inside the Low tier. For an investor deciding where to allocate capital in rural North Texas, that consistency matters: there are no hidden high-risk pockets that could ambush a portfolio concentrated in one submarket.
The cities inside Young County
Graham, the county seat and largest city with a population of 8,792, scores 1.6/10, the second-lowest in the county. It anchors the bulk of the rental market and offers the most predictable operating conditions. At the other end of the spectrum, Olney (population 3,015) carries the county's highest score at 1.9/10, meaning landlords there face the most friction relative to local peers, though that figure still reflects a low-risk environment by any statewide comparison. Newcastle scores 1.8/10, while the small community of Loving scores 1.1/10, the county's floor. The spread is real, and risk is genuinely hyper-local: two properties ten miles apart can sit a full 0.8 points apart on the risk scale.
State-level laws that apply here
All landlords in Young County operate under Texas state law, specifically Tex. Prop. Code § 91 and § 92 (Residential Tenancies). Texas requires only a 3-day notice before filing for eviction in virtually every standard scenario, whether the issue is non-payment of rent (first-time or habitual), a lease violation, or a holdover at end of term. Squatters and unauthorized occupants can be addressed under Tex. Prop. Code § 24.011 with no notice period required. An uncontested eviction typically resolves in 21 to 30 days; a contested case can stretch to 45 to 90 days. Court filing fees run $54 to $125, sheriff lockout fees run $50 to $175, and attorney fees commonly range from $500 to $3,500 depending on complexity. Understanding the full Texas eviction process is essential before placing a tenant, and landlords should also budget carefully after reviewing Texas eviction costs so that a single contested filing does not erode a year of net income on a low-rent asset.
Texas requires no just cause to terminate a tenancy and preempts local rent-control ordinances statewide under TX Local Gov Code § 214.902, so Young County landlords face no local rent caps or cause-based restrictions layered on top of state law. Source-of-income is not a protected class under Texas state fair housing rules, and retaliation protections for tenants are codified at Tex. Prop. Code § 92.331.
With an average poverty rate of 19.6% and roughly one in three households renting, Young County's tenant pool is price-sensitive; the city-level scores in the grid above show exactly where that sensitivity concentrates, letting landlords calibrate screening and reserve requirements before committing to a specific submarket.
Historical eviction filings in Young County
From 2000 to 2018, eviction filings in Young County increased 18%. The peak was 63 filings in 2003.1
- 342000
- 63Peak (2003)
- 402018
Data covers 2000–2018, the full span of the Princeton Eviction Lab's national county court-records dataset.
How Young County compares
Young County's average eviction-risk score of 1.7/10 sits precisely in line with peer counties Fayette County (1.71/10) and Pecos County (1.7/10), and slightly above Gillespie County (1.61/10) and Lavaca County (1.6/10). Zapata County (1.8/10) is the only peer that ranks marginally riskier. All peers share the Low-risk designation.
Within Texas, Young County ranks 157 of 254 counties (rank 1 being the highest-risk), meaning 156 Texas eviction laws counties carry more tenant-side risk and only 97 are lower-risk than Young County. The county sits squarely in the middle third of the state, making it a reasonable but not standout landlord market compared to the most favorable Texas eviction laws counties.