Morgan County, West Virginia Eviction Risk: Low

Morgan County carries an average eviction-risk score of 3.8/10 (Low), placing it 12th of 55 counties in West Virginia eviction laws, meaning 11 counties are riskier and 43 are more landlord-friendly. That puts the county in the higher-risk third of the state, a detail worth weighting when underwriting a deal here. Across the county's 3 scored cities, scores range from 2.2 to 4.5, which is a meaningful spread for a small county with a combined tracked population of roughly 2,021 renters and owners.

The broader operating picture is mixed. Average rent runs $831 per month, and the average rent-burden rate sits at 32.4%, meaning a meaningful share of renters are already stretched. A 47.2% renter share is relatively high for a rural West Virginia county, which keeps demand for rentals real but also concentrates exposure to financial stress among tenants. Landlords and investors considering Morgan County should treat these numbers as context for collection and vacancy risk, not just a market-size figure.

The cities inside Morgan County

The highest-risk cities in the county are Bath (Berkeley Springs) and Paw Paw, both scoring 4.5/10. Bath (Berkeley Springs) is the largest city tracked here, with a population of 975, making it the dominant rental market in the county. Paw Paw, with a population of 459, scores equally high despite its smaller size. At the other end of the range, Great Cacapon scores just 2.2/10 with a population of 587, making it the lowest-risk city in Morgan County by a wide margin.

That gap, 2.3 points between Great Cacapon and the two higher-risk cities, illustrates that risk is genuinely hyper-local here. A landlord operating in Bath (Berkeley Springs) faces a materially different environment than one operating across the county in Great Cacapon, even though both sit within the same Morgan County jurisdiction and the same state-level legal framework.

State-level laws that apply here

Under West Virginia eviction laws state law, the notice requirements depend on the grounds for eviction. Non-payment of rent requires no advance notice before filing under W. Va. Code § 37-6 (Landlord and Tenant). A lease-violation or cure notice requires 14 days, while a no-cause end-of-term termination requires 30 days. West Virginia eviction laws does not require just cause for eviction and state law preempts any local rent-control ordinances, so no county or city in West Virginia eviction laws, including Morgan County, can impose rent caps. Understanding the full West Virginia eviction laws eviction process is important because even an uncontested case takes 21 to 45 days, and a contested matter can run 45 to 100 days.

On the cost side, West Virginia eviction costs add up quickly. Court filing fees run $75 to $150, sheriff lockout fees range from $30 to $125, and attorney fees typically fall between $500 and $2,500, depending on complexity. Reviewing West Virginia security deposit limits and West Virginia tenant protections before signing new leases can help landlords avoid disputes that escalate to contested proceedings at the higher end of those attorney-fee ranges.

With a 19.5% poverty rate and nearly half of tracked residents renting, the financial fragility of Morgan County's tenant base is real, and the city-by-city scores in the grid above show exactly where that risk concentrates most.