Oconto County, Wisconsin Eviction Risk: Low

Oconto County sits firmly in the lower-risk of Wisconsin counties for eviction risk, earning a county-wide average of 3.5/10 (Low) and placing 49th out of 72 counties statewide - meaning 48 counties carry higher eviction pressure than Oconto. That standing reflects a rural northeast Wisconsin eviction laws rental market shaped by modest rents, a relatively contained renter population, and a state legal framework that keeps eviction timelines predictable rather than punishing. Average rent across the county sits at $757 per month, with renters spending roughly 25.6% of household income on housing - comfortably below the 30% threshold that defines cost burden under federal guidelines. The 32.3% renter share and 12.7% poverty rate track closely with comparable small Wisconsin counties, producing risk scores that cluster in a tight band rather than spiking at either extreme.

Scores across the county's 13 tracked communities span 3.1 to 4/10, a spread that reflects real differences in local renter demographics and housing stock rather than any dramatic legal variation. The county seat, Oconto, is also the largest rental market - home to 4,625 residents - and scores 3.5/10, landing at the lower end of the local range. Oconto Falls, the second-largest community with roughly 3,001 residents, comes in at 4/10, while Gillett scores 3.4/10 against its population of 1,209. On the higher end of the county's range, the small community of Lena scores 4/10 - the highest reading in the county and a figure driven primarily by the demographic concentration typical of very small rental pools, where a handful of cost-burdened households can shift aggregate scores noticeably. Mountain reaches 3.2/10 and Townsend scores 3.1/10, rounding out the upper tier. At the opposite end, Sobieski and Pound each score 3.2/10 and 3.2/10 respectively, reflecting some of the most landlord-favorable conditions in the county.

Wisconsin's landlord-tenant law under Wis. Stat. § 704 governs every community in Oconto County uniformly - there is no municipal rent control, no just-cause eviction requirement, and state law explicitly preempts any local attempt to enact rent caps. That legal posture keeps procedural risk low for landlords but also limits tenant protections to the baseline the statute provides. A landlord pursuing nonpayment must serve a 5-day notice before filing; lease-violation cure notices run 14 days and no-cause terminations require 30 days. Court filing fees fall between $95 and $175, and uncontested cases typically close in 21 to 45 days from filing - faster than most metro Wisconsin markets and well under the 45 to 120-day window for contested proceedings. Those timelines, combined with the county's position near the lower-risk end of the state distribution, make Oconto County one of the more operationally straightforward rental markets in northeast Wisconsin.

Oconto County's 3.5/10 average reflects a rental market where cost burdens remain manageable - 25.6% average rent-to-income ratio, $757 average monthly rent - and where Wisconsin eviction laws's uniform landlord-tenant statute under Wis. Stat. § 704 provides clear procedural rules without local rent caps or just-cause requirements layered on top. The 3.1-4 score spread across 13 communities indicates that local demographics, not legal variation, drive differences between individual cities and towns.