Harrison County, West Virginia Eviction Risk: Low

Harrison County carries an average eviction-risk score of 2.8/10 (Low), placing it 35th of 55 West Virginia counties, where rank 1 is the highest risk. That position means 34 counties are riskier for landlords, and 20 present a more landlord-friendly environment, putting Harrison in the middle third of the state. Across the county's 19 incorporated places, average rent runs $868 per month, the renter share sits at 31.8% of households, and rent burden averages 29.9% of renter income. For investors evaluating West Virginia markets, those numbers paint a county that is generally manageable but not uniformly low-pressure.

The wider intra-county spread, from 2.1/10 at the low end to 4.6/10 at the high end, is the detail that matters most for site selection. A 2.5-point gap across a single county averages that choosing the wrong pocket of Harrison County can put you in conditions that rival some of the riskier counties in the state, while choosing well can mean operating in one of the most stable micro-markets in the region. Block-level underwriting, not county-level averages, should drive acquisition decisions here.

The cities inside Harrison County

The highest-risk corner of the county is anchored by Anmoore at 4.6/10 and Despard at 4.5/10 (population 972). Shinnston (4.3/10, population 2,352) and East View (4.3/10) follow closely. Bridgeport (4.2/10, population 9,252) and Nutter Fort (4.2/10, population 2,075) round out the upper tier. These communities share above-average scores in multiple risk dimensions and warrant tighter screening standards and stronger lease terms than their county-average peers.

The lower-risk anchor is Clarksburg, the county seat, which scores 2.1/10 and is home to 15,549 residents. Enterprise (2.4/10, population 1,087) and Stonewood (2.8/10, population 2,212) also sit comfortably below the county average. Clarksburg in particular offers landlords the combination of a larger renter pool, a relatively low risk score, and the legal and commercial infrastructure of a county seat. The data make clear that risk in Harrison County is hyper-local, and the spread between the best and worst cities here is wide enough to produce materially different operating outcomes.

State-level laws that apply here

All Harrison County landlords operate under West Virginia state law, specifically W. Va. Code § 37-6 (Landlord and Tenant). For non-payment of rent, no advance notice period is required before filing, which is one of the more landlord-favorable provisions in the region. A lease-violation or cure notice requires 14 days, and a no-cause end-of-term notice requires 30 days. Understanding the full West Virginia eviction process matters here because timelines can stretch from 21 to 45 days for uncontested cases and from 45 to 100 days when a tenant contests the action. West Virginia eviction costs add up quickly as well: court filing fees run $75 to $150, sheriff lockout fees add another $30 to $125, and attorney fees typically range from $500 to $2,500 depending on complexity. West Virginia eviction laws imposes no rent cap and no just-cause eviction requirement, and state law preempts any local rent-control ordinance, so investors face a consistent, predictable regulatory floor across every city in the county.

With a poverty rate of 14.9% across Harrison County, tenant financial stress is a real underwriting variable; review the city-level risk scores in the grid above to identify which specific communities carry the most concentrated exposure before committing capital.