Cameron Parish

Cameron Parish scores an 82nd-percentile rank nationally (138th out of 1,000 counties) and 4th in Louisiana, driven almost entirely by an appreciation score of 80 and 10% year-over-year home price growth on a $240,485 median. The cash-flow score is 0, which tells you almost everything you need to know about the income side: the dataset carries no rent estimate, no cap rate, and no cash-on-cash return for this market. That absence is not a data error to be explained away, it reflects a parish so thinly populated (5,447 residents) and so lightly traded that reliable rent comps simply do not exist. Investors who require underwritten cash flow before committing capital should treat that zero as a red flag, not a placeholder.

The affordability index of 78 and a $240,485 median suggest pricing is not extreme in absolute terms, but with no gross rent multiplier or rent-to-price ratio to anchor the analysis, there is no way to confirm whether the market is cheap relative to income or just cheap relative to coastal benchmarks. What the appreciation score does support is that someone who bought here 12 months ago has seen 10% nominal price appreciation, which on a $240,485 purchase is roughly $24,000 in equity accretion before any leverage effect. That is the only return story the data can support, and it is a speculative one.

This market, as the numbers currently describe it, suits a single profile: the land or property appreciation buyer who is comfortable holding an asset with uncertain or negligible rental income in a parish with a tiny population base. It does not suit a cash-flow buyer. There is no rent data to model a DSCR, no cap rate to compare against a hurdle rate, and a 6.85% interest rate environment that makes negative leverage a near-certainty on any leveraged purchase without strong rental income. A value-add operator faces the same constraint: you can force appreciation through renovation, but the exit depends on finding a buyer or a tenant pool that the population of 5,447 may not support at scale.

On carry costs, the tax picture is actually a tailwind. Louisiana's state-average effective property tax rate is 0.55%, flagged here as low, which on a $240,485 purchase produces $1,323 annually in property tax. Combined with $1,587 in estimated annual insurance, the monthly tax-and-insurance load is $243. That is a meaningful cost advantage compared to markets where tax rates run above 1.5%, and it softens the carry burden during any hold period. The caveat worth repeating is that 0.55% is a state-average estimate per Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual Cameron Parish rates may differ. The insurance figure at 0.66% of value annually ($132/month) deserves attention given the parish's Gulf Coast exposure, and investors should get a current binding quote rather than relying on any modeled estimate before closing.

The concentration and demographic risk here is straightforward: a county of 5,447 people has an extraordinarily thin demand base. A single large employer adding or shedding jobs, a single storm season, or a small demographic shift can move the local housing market in ways that a more populated market would absorb without notice. Cameron Parish sits on the Louisiana Gulf Coast and has a documented history of hurricane exposure, most notably from Rita, Ike, and Laura. That physical risk is not captured in a price-appreciation trend line, but it is directly relevant to insurance availability, insurance cost trajectory, and the resilience of any rental income stream. No vacancy or crime statistics are available in the provided data, but the combination of coastal exposure and a very small population base is itself a concentration risk that belongs on any investor's risk register.

Against its Louisiana neighbors, Cameron Parish's appreciation story looks credible but its cash-flow story looks weak. Calcasieu Parish, the most directly adjacent market, has a $193,360 median, a rent-to-price ratio of 6.59%, and an overall score of 70, one point below Cameron. Iberia Parish offers the most attractive rent-to-price ratio in the comparison set at 10.63% on a $134,124 median, meaning gross annual rent covers more than 10 cents per dollar of purchase price, a level that can actually support levered cash flow at current rates. Livingston Parish, at a $246,195 median and 7.78% rent-to-price, is priced comparably to Cameron but comes with a real rent comp and a functioning tenant market. Caldwell Parish at $127,430 has the lowest entry price of any neighbor shown. Choose Cameron Parish over these neighbors only if your thesis is purely price appreciation and you are prepared to hold with minimal or no rental income, can self-fund carry costs, and have done independent diligence on storm risk and insurance availability. If cash flow or tenant demand is any part of the underwrite, Iberia or Livingston are better starting points with the data available.