Pulaski County, Virginia Eviction Risk: Moderate

Pulaski County, Virginia scores 5/10 (Moderate) for eviction risk, placing it in the higher-risk third of Virginia eviction laws's 132 counties, with 43 counties posing greater risk to landlords and 88 sitting in more landlord-friendly territory. For investors sizing up the market, that county average masks real variation: individual community scores stretch from 4.2 to 5.1 across the county's 7 tracked cities, meaning your specific acquisition address matters more than the headline figure. With an average rent of $894, a renter share of 39.7%, and a rent burden averaging 30% of income, the tenant pool here carries meaningful financial pressure that landlords should price into underwriting.

The county's moderate risk profile reflects a market that is neither a smooth operator nor a serial-eviction environment, but one that rewards disciplined tenant screening and lease management. Poverty runs at 18.2% on average, which competes with the modest rent base to keep collections risk elevated even in quieter stretches. Landlords operating in Virginia should treat those underlying numbers as a persistent structural condition, not a temporary cycle.

The cities inside Pulaski County

The highest-risk jurisdiction in the county is the town of Pulaski, which scores 5.1/10 and is home to roughly 8,893 residents, making it by far the county's largest population center. Dublin (5/10, pop. 2,671) and Fairlawn (5/10, pop. 2,488) share the same risk tier and together represent the bulk of the county's mid-size rental market. Parrott also scores 5/10. These four communities form a cluster where vacancy risk, income stress, and eviction probability all track at a meaningfully elevated level relative to the county's lower-end jurisdictions.

Risk drops noticeably toward the county's smaller communities. Draper scores 4.8/10, while Allisonia and Hiwassee come in at 4.3 and 4.2 respectively. That nearly one-full-point spread from Pulaski to Hiwassee underscores how hyper-local eviction risk is across even a single county, and why city-level data is the right unit of analysis for acquisitions here.

State-level laws that apply here

Every landlord in Pulaski County operates under the Virginia Residential Landlord and Tenant Act (Va. Code § 55.1-1200 et seq.). For nonpayment, the required notice is 5 days before filing; a material lease violation triggers a 21-day cure notice, and a material non-curable breach or end of a month-to-month tenancy each require 30 days. Once filed, an uncontested case typically resolves in 21 to 45 days, while a contested matter can run 45 to 120 days. Understanding the full Virginia eviction process before your first filing saves costly missteps.

Court filing fees run $58 to $90, sheriff lockout fees add $40 to $150, and attorney fees, if you engage counsel, range from $500 to $3,000. Reviewing Virginia eviction costs before building a unit-level cash-flow model is worth the time. On the regulatory side, Virginia does not require just cause for non-renewal and the state preempts any local rent-control ordinance, so there is no county or city-level rent cap to navigate here. Landlords must give 24 hours notice before entry under Va. Code § 55.1-1220.

With a poverty rate of 18.2% and nearly 39.7% of households renting, the county's underlying financial fragility is real, but the city grid above shows that risk concentrates in specific communities, giving selective investors workable options at the lower end of the range.