Iberia Parish

Iberia Parish sits at the extreme cash-flow end of the spectrum. A 10.61% gross rent-to-price ratio on a $145,862 median home price is among the highest you will find anywhere in the country, and the tool's rankings confirm it: first out of 1,000 counties nationally and first out of 64 Louisiana parishes. The 6.9% cap rate at current financing is meaningful at a time when many markets produce sub-5% cap rates on conventionally financed deals. Price appreciation is real but modest, 2.71% year-over-year, so this is not a market you buy expecting equity compounding to do the heavy lifting. You buy it to get paid monthly.

The investment math at the median looks like this: $145,862 purchase, $29,172 down, $765 monthly mortgage at 6.85%, $451 in estimated expenses, and roughly $74 in monthly cash flow after all of that. That $74 figure is thin in absolute dollars, and a serious investor should treat it as a floor rather than a target. Buying below median, managing expenses tightly, or putting slightly more down all move the needle quickly when your basis is this low. The 2.65% cash-on-cash return at the modeled numbers is modest, but the 6.9% cap rate means unlevered yield is already beating a lot of bond alternatives, and selective deal sourcing in a $145K median market gives you more room to improve on the model than you get in a $400K market.

The tax and insurance picture is a genuine tailwind on the cost side. Louisiana's state-average effective property tax rate is 0.55%, flagged as low, which translates to roughly $802 annually on a median-priced asset. Insurance runs an estimated $963 per year. Combined, those two line items come to about $147 per month. That is low enough to be a competitive advantage versus higher-tax states, and it is one reason the expense ratio stays manageable even on a property this inexpensive. The caveat worth repeating: 0.55% is a state-average estimate from Tax Foundation 2024 data, and your actual rate will depend on the specific parish and taxing district. Confirm before you close, but the directional read here favors the buyer.

Iberia Parish's economy is centered on the Acadiana region of south Louisiana. The parish seat is New Iberia, and the area has historically carried exposure to the oil and gas sector alongside agriculture, specifically sugar cane. That energy linkage is the primary stability risk embedded in the data: the stability score is 50 out of 100, the lowest sub-score in the profile by a meaningful margin. A parish with a 100 cash-flow score and a 50 stability score is telling you something specific: the income is there when the economy is moving, but cyclical employment tied to energy prices can create vacancy pressure during downturns. An investor running this market needs to underwrite conservatively on occupancy, not assume the rent-to-price ratio translates cleanly to full-year cash flow in a soft cycle.

Comparing Iberia to its neighbors makes the cash-flow case clearer. Calcasieu Parish, the largest market in the comparison set at $193,360 median, shows a 6.59% gross rent-to-price ratio against Iberia's 10.61%. Livingston Parish at $246,195 median produces a 7.78% ratio, better than Calcasieu but still well below Iberia. Both of those parishes carry higher overall scores than the neighbors, 70 and 69 respectively, but both require substantially more capital deployed per door and produce lower gross yields. Assumption Parish at $171,822 and an overall score of 74, and Caldwell Parish at $127,430 with a 73 overall score, offer cheaper or comparably priced entry points but trail Iberia's 82 overall score. Livingston Parish, as a bedroom community with stronger appreciation characteristics and a $246K price point, suits a buyer prioritizing equity growth over current income. Iberia is the right choice when the mandate is maximizing yield per dollar of capital deployed and the investor can manage through the cyclicality that the 50 stability score signals.