Moving to
Louisiana
Most people who call me about relocating have already looked up the home prices. What they have not looked up is the insurance, and that is the number that changes the answer. Here is the whole picture: what it costs, where to land, and what the payment really looks like once it is all in there.
At A Glance
The Louisiana Numbers
Worth Knowing First
Six figures that decide whether a move here pencils out for you. Every one of them is a statewide average, so treat them as the starting point and not the answer.
Why Louisiana
What Actually Pulls
People Down Here
Ask ten people who moved here and you get roughly six answers. These are them.
Housing You Can Actually Buy
Housing runs about 17% under the national average. Median price is $253,100 against $368,581 nationally. Same income, bigger house, shorter loan if you want one.
Louisiana Home LoansLow Cost Of Living
Groceries run about 4% cheaper, utilities about 18% cheaper, and the property tax rate is 0.53%, one of the lowest in the country.
Run The NumbersCulture And Food
Jazz started here. So did Mardi Gras, Cajun cooking and Creole cooking. Louisiana is extra about everything and has its own name for most of it. You either love that or you do not.
New OrleansA Job Market That Grew
Louisiana passed 2 million jobs in 2025. Healthcare added more than 6,000. Manufacturing is top 20 nationally and digital media employment grew 51.8%.
Baton RougeOutdoors Almost Year Round
216 sunny days a year, mild winters, and fishing, hunting and Gulf beaches inside a couple hours of most of the state.
USDA LoansRetirement Income Mostly Exempt
The flat 3% income tax exempts most retirement income. That is a real difference for retirees and for anybody working remote off a pension or a distribution.
Talk It ThroughCost Of Living
Line By Line
Against The National Average
Here is where the money goes and how it compares. Read the housing row and the property tax row together, because those two are most of the reason people move here.
Louisiana vs The National Average
| Category | Louisiana | National Average | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| Housing | $253,100 median | $368,581 median | 17% lower |
| Rent, one bedroom | $906 per month | $1,200 per month | 25% lower |
| Groceries | 96 index | 100 index | 4% lower |
| Utilities | 82 index | 100 index | 18% lower |
| Property tax | 0.53% | 1.1% | 52% lower |
| Income tax | Flat 3% | 0% to 13% by state | Simple and low |
Statewide averages. Your actual numbers move with the city, the parish and the property.
The Row That Is Not On This Table
Homeowners insurance. It is the one category where Louisiana runs well above the national average, and it goes straight into your escrow, which means it goes straight into what you qualify for. A house that looks cheap on the listing can carry a payment that does not. I quote the insurance before we set your budget, not after.
Where To Land
Pick The City Before
You Pick The State
Louisiana is not one market. Cost of living, insurance, school districts and flood exposure change by an hour's drive. Each of these has its own relocation guide with local prices and what the payment looks like there.
Schools
Education Is Improving,
And It Is Still Local
Louisiana ranked 1st nationally in reading recovery and 2nd in math recovery on the 2024 Education Recovery Scorecard. Fourth graders led the country in reading growth two years running, and the statewide performance score hit 80.9, the fourth straight year of improvement. On the most recent assessments, 21% of schools earned an A and 31% earned a B.
Now do not hear what I am not saying. The overall national ranking is still 37th, and school quality swings hard from one district to the next. The trajectory is good. The average is not the point. The district is.
Zachary Community Schools
Year after year one of the highest rated districts in the state, just north of Baton Rouge.
ZacharyCentral Community Schools
Strong academic performance with newer facilities, and a market that has grown with it.
CentralSt. Tammany Parish
A large Northshore district with highly rated schools, and home prices that reflect it.
SlidellIf schools are the reason you are moving, choose the district first and then find the house inside it. Tell me the district and I will tell you what the payment looks like there.
Weather
Subtropical, Sunny,
And Genuinely Humid
Mild winters, hot summers. Average annual temperature runs 64°F in the north to 71°F in the south, with 216 sunny days a year. Rainfall lands between 45 and 56 inches, and summer humidity averages 79%. Snow outside the northern parishes is rare enough to shut a city down when it happens.
Hurricane Season Is Real
June through November, and August through October is the sharp end of it. Coastal and southern parishes carry the most exposure.
Lake CharlesInsurance Follows The Risk
Rebuilding after the last storms pushed premiums up statewide. Wind and named storm coverage is the biggest single payment variable in South Louisiana.
Quote My InsuranceFlood Zones Change By The Street
One side of a street can require flood coverage while the other side does not. We pull the FEMA panel before you go under contract, not after.
Check My AddressJobs And Economy
Where The Work Is
Louisiana passed 2 million jobs in 2025. Here is where those jobs sit, which matters if you are moving without one lined up.
Healthcare
More than 84,000 jobs and about $9 billion in economic impact. Ochsner Health is the largest private employer in the state, and the sector grew 16.2%.
Energy And Petrochemicals
A national leader in oil, gas and chemical manufacturing. BASF and Dow Chemical are among the major employers along the river and the coast.
Agriculture And Seafood
850 million pounds of seafood a year, second in the nation, plus sugar cane, rice and timber. Timber alone carries an $11 billion annual impact.
Ports And Logistics
About 550,000 jobs tie back to Louisiana's ports, including the Port of South Louisiana, the largest tonnage port in the Western Hemisphere.
Digital Media
Employment grew 51.8%, the fastest rate in the country, concentrated around New Orleans and Baton Rouge.
Military
Fort Johnson, formerly Fort Polk, and Barksdale Air Force Base anchor two regional economies. If you are PCSing here, the VA loan is $0 down.
VA LoansA lot of this work is contract, rotation or per diem, which does not fit neatly into a W-2 box. If that is your income, it is still fundable. It just needs a lender who counts it, and that is what non-QM and bank statement loans are for.
Buying Here
Buying A Home In Louisiana
Works A Little Differently
Louisiana uses parishes instead of counties, and some property law here follows the Napoleonic Code instead of English common law. That touches property rights, community property between spouses, and how title moves. None of it is a problem. All of it is a reason to use a lender and a closing attorney who do this every week instead of once a year.
The other difference is the one people feel: insurance drives the payment here, not taxes. That is backwards from most of the country, and it is why a relocating buyer's budget so often needs redoing after the first real quote comes back.
FHA Loan
3.5% down from a 580 score, and flexible on the older housing stock that is common here.
FHA LoansVA Loan
$0 down and no monthly mortgage insurance for eligible veterans and active duty. The strongest benefit on the board.
VA LoansUSDA Loan
$0 down on an eligible address, and Louisiana has more eligible ground than almost any state.
USDA LoansConventional Loan
From 3% down with mortgage insurance that comes off at 20% equity instead of riding the whole loan.
Conventional LoansCheck The USDA Map Before You Rule It Out
Rural and suburban ground across the state qualifies for $0 down, and plenty of it does not look rural when you are standing on it. Check the address here before you assume you need a down payment. If it is eligible and you qualify, that is usually the cheapest way into a house in this state, and I will tell you that even when a bigger loan would pay me more.
Honest Assessment
The Tradeoffs,
Both Directions
Every state has them. Anybody who tells you Louisiana has none is selling you something. Here is the list I would give a friend.
What You Get
- Housing about 17% below the national average
- Property taxes at 0.53%, roughly half the national rate
- A flat 3% income tax that exempts most retirement income
- Job growth in healthcare, energy, ports and digital media
- 216 sunny days and winters you can work outside in
- Wide USDA eligibility, which means $0 down is on the table
What You Sign Up For
- Hurricane season from June through November
- Property insurance well above the national average
- Summer humidity averaging 79%, and it is not a dry heat
- Employment concentrated in certain sectors and cities
- Infrastructure that lags in parts of the state
- Schools ranked 37th nationally, improving but not there yet
If the insurance line is what makes you hesitate, that is the right thing to hesitate about. It is also the thing I can put a real number on before you commit to anything.
Relocation FAQ
Questions From People
Moving Here
Still Deciding?
Get A Straight Answer On Your Own Numbers
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Before You Load The Truck
Real Closings
Real Clients.
Real Closings.
Real families we have helped get from pre-approval to keys in hand.
Find Out What The Payment
Actually Looks Like Here
Tell me the city you are looking at and roughly what you want to spend. I will come back with the real payment, insurance and parish taxes included, and tell you straight whether the timing is right. Free quote, no credit pull to start.
Get My Free QuoteMortgages by Channing · 337-476-2623 · Licensed across Louisiana · NMLS #1457759
