Brooke County, West Virginia Eviction Risk: Low

Brooke County, West Virginia scores 3.4/10 on the eviction-risk index, placing it in the Low risk tier and squarely in the middle of the state at rank 25 of 55 counties. That means 24 West Virginia eviction laws counties carry higher risk for landlords, and 30 are less risky, so the county sits neither at the top nor the bottom of the landlord-friendliness spectrum. With only 6 cities spread across a total mapped population of roughly 8,649 residents, this is a small, contained rental market where county-level averages carry real weight.

The rental market here is modest: average rent runs $667 per month, average rent burden sits at 21.8% of income, and renters make up about 28.9% of households. Those figures point to a market where tenants are generally not over-stretched on housing costs, which tends to correlate with fewer payment-related eviction filings. Still, the intra-county range of 2.7 to 3.8 is wide enough that the specific city you invest in matters considerably.

The cities inside Brooke County

The highest-risk location in the county is Hooverson Heights, which scores 3.8/10 with a population of 2,090. Wellsburg follows at 3.7/10 and is the second-largest community at 2,203 residents. Those two cities together account for a substantial share of the county's renter base, and their scores sit noticeably above the county average, so landlords concentrating holdings there should price in somewhat higher operational friction.

On the other end of the scale, Colliers scores 2.7/10 and Beech Bottom scores 2.8/10, representing the most landlord-favorable conditions in the county. Follansbee, the most populous city at 2,757 residents, lands at 3.1/10, well below the county average, making it a relatively steady operating environment. Bethany scores 3.2/10. The spread from Colliers to Hooverson Heights reinforces that risk inside Brooke County is hyper-local, not uniform.

State-level laws that apply here

Under West Virginia state law (W. Va. Code § 37-6), landlords face a notice period of 0 days for non-payment of rent, meaning a pay-or-quit demand can be immediate. A lease-violation cure notice requires 14 days, and a no-cause end-of-term termination requires 30 days. West Virginia eviction laws does not require just cause for eviction and, notably, preempts local rent-control ordinances statewide, so no jurisdiction inside Brooke County can impose additional rent caps or just-cause mandates beyond state law. The West Virginia eviction process, once filed, runs 21 to 45 days for uncontested cases and 45 to 100 days if contested.

Landlords should budget for court filing fees of $75 to $150, sheriff lockout fees of $30 to $125, and attorney fees ranging from $500 to $2,500 depending on case complexity. Reviewing the full West Virginia eviction costs breakdown before your first filing will help avoid surprises. For a full picture of tenant rights, renter protections, and deposit rules under state law, the West Virginia tenant protections guide covers those topics in detail.

With an average poverty rate of 12.9% and renters representing just under 29% of households, Brooke County's risk profile is shaped by a small, relatively stable tenant base, though the city-level scores in the grid above show that conditions shift meaningfully from one community to the next.