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There's a the age old question everyone thinks about when they decide to move to a city in Louisiana:
Should I buy a place or rent? Well, we aren't here today to solve that problem for you exactly. We are just assuming you'll do the right thing and a buy a place. And while we are happy to tell you the best place to live in Louisiana, this analysis is going to tackle the question of the best place to buy a house as an investor. That is we are going to try and determine the up and coming cities in the Pelican State.
To do that we are going to look at places in Louisiana that are growing faster than average, but where home prices are below average. In every day terms, the "deals". The best deal in Louisiana at the moment? That would be Richwood according to our analysis.
Here's a look at the top ten places to buy a home in louisiana for 2020:
- Richwood (Homes For Sale)
- Port Allen (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Grambling (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Jeanerette (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Marksville (Homes For Sale)
- Patterson (Homes For Sale)
- St. Martinville (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Leesville (Photos | Homes For Sale)
- Walker (Homes For Sale)
- Plaquemine (Photos | Homes For Sale)
What's the best place to buy a home in Louisiana for 2020? According to our analysis, would the the ideal place to buy a home looking into the future.
The methodology that wen't into this can be a bit complicated, so we'll break it down for you in as much detail as we can below. If you're not worried about finding a deal on good places to live, check out the most expensive places to live in louisiana and, for those of you on a budget, the cheapest places to live in louisiana.
For more Louisiana reading, check out:
- These Are The 10 Best Counties To Live In Louisiana
- 10 Best Places To Raise A Family In Louisiana
- These Are The 10 Best Places To Retire In Louisiana
The 10 Best Cities To Buy A House In Louisiana For 2020
/10
Population: 5,013
Median Home Price: $47,200
Population Change: -6.0%
Home Price Change: 3.1%
More on Richwood: Homes For Sale | Data
/10
Population: 5,051
Median Home Price: $119,500
Population Change: -0.7%
Home Price Change: -0.2%
More on Port Allen: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data
/10
Population: 5,187
Median Home Price: $109,700
Population Change: 0.1%
Home Price Change: 21.6%
More on Grambling: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data
/10
Population: 5,410
Median Home Price: $84,700
Population Change: -1.0%
Home Price Change: 15.9%
More on Jeanerette: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data
In the 18th century, the land on which Jeanerette now lies was originally procured from the Spanish government by Pierre Zerangue. Zerangue received an -order of survey and settlement- from Spain for 1,052 acres. Under Spanish law, if a person occupied a piece of property for two years, they could apply for title to the land under an -order of survey settlement.- Nicholas Provost secured the property from the present-day experimental farm to the St. Mary Parish line. He engaged in sugar cultivation, based on slave labor, until his death in 1816.
/10
Population: 5,476
Median Home Price: $102,000
Population Change: -0.8%
Home Price Change: 3.1%
More on Marksville: Homes For Sale | Data
Marksville is named after Marc Eliche, a Jewish-Italian immigrant who established a trading post after his wagon broke down in this area. He was a Sephardic Jewish trader believed to be from Venice. His Italian name was recorded by a Spanish priest as Marco Litche; French priests, who were with colonists, recorded his name as Marc Eliche or Mark Elich after his trading post was established about 1794. Marksville was noted on Louisiana maps as early as 1809, after the United States acquired the territory in the Louisiana Purchase of 1803. Eliche later donated the land that became the Courthouse Square. It is still the center of Marksville, the county seat.
/10
Population: 6,012
Median Home Price: $111,800
Population Change: -0.9%
Home Price Change: 11.2%
More on Patterson: Homes For Sale | Data
During the early 19th century, a group of Pennsylvania Dutchmen boarded a sailing vessel in New Orleans and ventured into the Bayou Teche. One of them, Hans Knight, decided to settle his family in what is now Patterson. The community was originally called Dutch Settlement, Dutch Prairie, and Dutch Town.
/10
Population: 6,014
Median Home Price: $89,800
Population Change: -0.7%
Home Price Change: 4.4%
More on St. Martinville: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data
In the 16th century, the area between the Atchafalaya River, in Louisiana, the Gulf of Mexico and Trinity River, in Texas, was occupied by numerous Indians tribes or subdivisions of the Attakapan people. The Indian Territory was not closed to outsiders, and several traders roamed through it on business. Europeans did not begin to settle there until French explorers claimed and "founded" Louisiana in 1699. They referred to the territory between the Atchafalaya River and Bayou Nezpique, where the Eastern Atakapa lived, as the Attakapas Territory, adopting the name from the Choctaw language term for this people. The French colonial government gave land away to soldiers and settlers.
/10
Population: 6,055
Median Home Price: $90,700
Population Change: -4.4%
Home Price Change: -5.2%
More on Leesville: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data
/10
Population: 6,250
Median Home Price: $161,700
Population Change: -0.3%
Home Price Change: 1.5%
More on Walker: Homes For Sale | Data
The area now known as Walker was founded by Michael Milton, a veteran of the War of 1812, and his wife, Martha, in 1853. The Miltons were a pioneering family from North Carolina that settled an area in Alabama, before clearing 400 acres in the piney woods east of the Amite River and Denham Springs The Federal government recognized the growth of the settlement and opened a post officer as Milton Old Field in 1856. Michael Milton was appointed as postmaster in 1858. In 1890 the post office was renamed after Dr. William Elliott Walker, M.D., a legislator from nearby Springfield, who had, also, served as a Lt. Col. in the Confederate States of America.
/10
Population: 6,726
Median Home Price: $156,300
Population Change: -1.3%
Home Price Change: 7.5%
More on Plaquemine: Photos | Homes For Sale | Data
Early inhabitants of the area were Chitimacha Indians. Pierre Le Moyne d'Iberville claimed all of Louisiana in 1699 for King Louis XIV of France. Plaquemine was settled by 1775 and named for the Indian word Plakemine, which means persimmon.
How do you determine the best places to buy a home in louisiana for 2020?
We were in real estate for almost five years and have been working on this site for another three. Suffice is to say, we've put a lot of thought into what goes into finding a good place to buy a home.
So all that thinking has come to this moment where we get to spell out how we'd approach finding an up-and-coming place to live in Louisiana. Put differently, the analysis will try to find places in Louisiana with undervalued homes relative to pent up demand.
To do that we looked at the most recent American Community Survey Census data for 2014-2018 and compared it to the previous vintage (2012-2016). Specifically, we used the following criteria:
- Y-o-Y Change In Population (People want to live here)
- Y-o-Y Change In Median Home Prices (People are willing to pay for it)
- Home Prices Relative To The State Average (It's still kinda cheap)
We want places that are growing, have seen home prices increase in recent years, and are still "cheap" for Louisiana with the following caveats:
- Home prices had to be within 20% of the state average (Much lower than that and you get to some of the more dangerous places)
- Home prices increased in the last year, and
- Above 5,000 people (Bigger cities have more data points)
So of the 0 cities and towns in Louisiana, only 62 places made it through our initial filters to even be considered.
We then ranked each place from 1 to 62 for the criteria mentioned above with 1 being the best for that criteria. We averaged the rankings to create a "best place to buy" index with the place having the lowest index being the best. You can download the data here.
Turns out that Richwood is the best potential gem in the not-so-rough in the Pelican State.
Read on for more on these places.
There You Have It - The Best Places To Purchase A House In louisiana for 2020
There's our analysis of the best places to buy a house in Louisiana. And, to be clear, we aren't necessarily saying these places are the best places to live, just that it looks like they might be in a couple of years based on the data.
In fact, every place in the following table meets our criteria, so even though it may not look super long, remember we started off with all 0 places in the state.
So if we'd could rent or buy in these cities, we'd definitely buy.
For more louisiana reading, check out:
Detailed List Of The Best Places To Buy A Home In Louisiana
City | Rank |
---|---|
Richwood | 1 |
Port Allen | 2 |
Grambling | 3 |
Jeanerette | 4 |
Marksville | 5 |
Patterson | 6 |
St. Martinville | 7 |
Leesville | 8 |
Walker | 9 |
Plaquemine | 10 |
Tallulah | 11 |
Franklin | 12 |
Ponchatoula | 13 |
Ville Platte | 14 |
St. Gabriel | 15 |
Oakdale | 16 |
Rayne | 17 |
Donaldsonville | 18 |
Breaux Bridge | 19 |
Westwego | 20 |
Scott | 21 |
Carencro | 22 |
Harahan | 23 |
Denham Springs | 24 |
Jennings | 25 |
Covington | 26 |
Eunice | 27 |
Bastrop | 28 |
Gonzales | 29 |
Deridder | 30 |
Broussard | 31 |
Morgan City | 32 |
Bogalusa | 33 |
Mandeville | 34 |
Abbeville | 35 |
Minden | 36 |
Youngsville | 37 |
West Monroe | 38 |
Crowley | 39 |
Baker | 40 |
Pineville | 41 |
Thibodaux | 42 |
Opelousas | 43 |
Zachary | 44 |
Gretna | 45 |
Natchitoches | 46 |
Sulphur | 47 |
Hammond | 48 |
Ruston | 49 |
Slidell | 50 |
Central | 51 |
New Iberia | 52 |
Houma | 53 |
Alexandria | 54 |
Monroe | 55 |
Kenner | 56 |
Bossier City | 57 |
Lake Charles | 58 |
Lafayette | 59 |
Shreveport | 60 |
Baton Rouge | 61 |
New Orleans | 62 |