Cheapest Places To Live In Louisiana For 2020

The 10 Cheapest Places To Live In Louisiana For 2020

1. Abbeville

If you're looking for the most affordable place to live in Louisiana, look no further than Abbeville, a city just 20 miles south of Lafayette. Homes in Abbeville go for a median price of $86,800 and residents earn a median income of $36,696, giving Abbeville the fourth best home price to income ratio in Louisiana.

We already named Abbeville as one of the best places to raise a family in Louisiana thanks to its low crime, good schools, and access to kid-friendly amenities like Palmetto Island State Park. The fact that you can have all this for the lowest price in the state seems too good to be true.

The median household income in Abbeville comes in at $36,696 and the median home value is $86,800 for 2020. The unemployment rate sits at 12.3%.

2. Oakdale

Oakdale ranks as the second cheapest city in Louisiana thanks to its rock-bottom housing prices for both renters and buyers. The median rent in Oakdale is an absurdly low $488/month, which is less than half the average rent in Louisiana. On top of that, Oakdale has the third cheapest homes for sale in the state, with a median home price of $67,800. Regardless of your living situation, paying the housing bills in Oakdale is more of a minor inconvenience than a bank-breaker.

The median household income in Oakdale comes in at $25,550 and the median home value is $67,800 for 2020. The unemployment rate sits at 8.0%.

3. Patterson

Located in the southern part of the state about an hour and a half from New Orleans and Baton Rouge, Patterson clocks in as the third least expensive place in Louisiana.

If you fancy being able to go on a swamp tour with gators, bears, and eagles anytime you like, Patterson is the place for you. We didn't name it one of

the best places to live in Louisiana without good reason reason after all. Patterson has the fifth best home price to income ratio in the state, thanks to a low median home price of $111,800 and a relatively high median income of $45,631.

The median household income in Patterson comes in at $45,631 and the median home value is $111,800 for 2020. The unemployment rate sits at 2.7%.

4. Sulphur

With a population of 20241, Sulphur is the biggest city to make this list, proving that you don't need to be teeny to be affordable. At first glance at the housing prices (a median rent of $835 and a median home price of $138,800), you may think we made a mistake putting Sulphur so high up on this list. But when you remember that Sulphur is also among richest places in Louisiana and things start to make sense. With a median income of $53,522, Sulphur is safely in the top ten statewide for both housing to income ratio, regardless of if you're buying or renting. It's also home to top-notch hiking trails like the Creole Nature Trail.

Sulphur is located in the southwestern part of Louisiana, near Lake Charles.

The median household income in Sulphur comes in at $53,522 and the median home value is $138,800 for 2020. The unemployment rate sits at 4.5%.

5. Franklin

You'll have no trouble believing that you're living in one of the cheapest states in America when you move to Franklin. Thanks to relatively high incomes and low home prices, Franklin has the second best home price to income ratio in Louisiana. That leaves plenty of money leftover to go shopping in Franklin's historic district (or just take in the opulent turn-of-the-century architecture).

Franklin is located 45 miles southeast of Lafayette.

The median household income in Franklin comes in at $35,852 and the median home value is $78,000 for 2020. The unemployment rate sits at 12.0%.

6. Tallulah

Ranking as the sixth most inexpensive place in Louisiana is Tallulah, a city in the northeastern part of the state near the Mississippi border. Tallulah has the second cheapest homes for sale in the state, with a median price tag of $60,100. On the flip side, the poverty rate in Tallulah is over 40%, so coming into the city with a job lined up and some savings will really make Tallulah's affordability stand out. As a bonus, Tallulah is one of the safest places in Louisiana, so you can be sure the city hasn't skimped on security.

The median household income in Tallulah comes in at $26,385 and the median home value is $60,100 for 2020. The unemployment rate sits at 8.6%.

7. Scott

A suburb of Lafayette, Scott is the seventh most affordable city in Louisiana. Scott's median income of $51,213 is quite high, which helps offset the slightly higher home prices ($138,900) and rent ($854). Buying or renting, Scott is in or around the top ten statewide in terms of housing costs to income ratio. And with across the board 7/10+ in our Snackability categories for safety, education, jobs, and housing, you can be sure that moving to Scott is a good investment for your future.

The median household income in Scott comes in at $51,213 and the median home value is $138,900 for 2020. The unemployment rate sits at 4.5%.

8. Rayne

Located just 15 miles west of Lafayette, Rayne ranks as the eighth cheapest place to live in Louisiana. With a median rent of just $556, Rayne is well below the average price of rent in Louisiana, a state already known for having some of the the lowest rents in America. Taken as a proportion of income, Rayne is one of the most economical places in Louisiana to be a renter. In other words, Rayne is a great place to give Louisiana a chance to wow you before you commit to a mortgage.

The median household income in Rayne comes in at $34,670 and the median home value is $107,100 for 2020. The unemployment rate sits at 11.2%.

9. Richwood

If we didn't take the cost of rent into consideration, Richwood would easily top this list. That's because the town has the cheapest homes for sale at $47,200 and the best home price to income ratio in Louisiana. However, like Tallulah, poverty rates in Richwood are incredibly high, so not everything is hunky dory. Richwood is also the least economical place to rent on this list, so keep that in mind if you're not ready to move here permanently just yet.

Richwood is located in the northern part of the state, just south of Monroe.

The median household income in Richwood comes in at $22,991 and the median home value is $47,200 for 2020. The unemployment rate sits at 11.1%.

10. Denham Springs

Rounding out our list of cheapest places to live in Louisiana is Denham Springs, a city just 25 minutes east of Baton Rouge. Whether you'd prefer spending your weekends tubing down the Amite River or shopping at the Antique Village, Denham Springs has something for everyone. And with an excellent housing to income ratio for both renters and home-buyers, there's something for every budget as well.

The median home price in Denham Springs is $148,100, the highest you'll see on this list. But with residents earning a median income of $52,212, the mortgage on your Denham Springs home will be paid off before the new paint can dry.

The median household income in Denham Springs comes in at $52,212 and the median home value is $148,100 for 2020. The unemployment rate sits at 5.4%.

How We Determined The Most Affordable Places To Live In The Pelican State For 2020

The two most important things to think about when it comes to being able to afford if you can live comes down to:

1. How much do money do I make?
2. How much do I have spend to live there?

You need to understand your costs in the context of how much money you make.

For example, if the median household earns $100,000 and spends $40,000 on housing it's actually cheaper to live there than a place with a median income of $50,000 and housing costs of $21,000. You might spend more on housing, but you have more money overall to play with.

With that example in mind, we derived several statistics from the latest Census American Community Survey 2014-2018 around incomes and costs. They are:

• Median Home Price / Median Income (lower is better)
• Median Income / Median Rent (Higher is better)
• Median Home Price

We added simply median home price because high home prices generally correlate with higher expenses for all costs related to homes (heating, electricity, etc).

You can then compare these metrics in each of the places in Louisiana to figure out which is the least expensive.

What you are left with is a "Cost of Living Index" by taking the average rank of each of these metrics for each city.

So we used that cost of living index in order to rank all of the 62 places in Louisiana that have more than 5,000 people.

The place with the lowest cost of living in Louisiana according to the data is Abbeville. You can download the data here.