Morehouse Parish

Morehouse Parish sits at the extreme affordability end of the buy-and-hold spectrum. At a median home price of $96,954 with 2.37% year-over-year appreciation, this is one of the cheapest entry points in Louisiana and ranks in the 91st percentile nationally out of 1,000 counties scored. The affordability index hits 100, the ceiling, which tells you purchasing power relative to local income is as favorable as it gets. The appreciation score of 74 is respectable, though at $96,954 the absolute dollar gains will be modest even if percentage growth holds. The cash flow score registers zero in the model, which is the critical tension here: the data does not support a modeled positive cash flow position at current rents and prices, so investors cannot rely on this parish to pencil as a cash-flow play without doing granular local rent research.

The investor profile this market suits most is the low-capital appreciation buyer or the value-add operator who can acquire at a sub-$100k basis and manufacture returns through renovation or operational improvement. A $96,954 purchase requires only $19,391 down at 20%, which limits initial exposure. If you can acquire below median, force appreciation through improvements, and push rents above what the median currently implies, the math can work. This is not a market for a passive investor expecting immediate positive cash flow out of a turnkey acquisition. The zero cash flow score signals that at median price and prevailing rents, the spread is too thin to bank on without hands-on management and selective deal sourcing.

On carry costs, the tax and insurance picture is genuinely favorable. Louisiana's state-average effective property tax rate of 0.55% is flagged as low, and at that rate a $96,954 purchase generates roughly $533 in annual property tax. Insurance runs approximately $640 annually, putting combined monthly tax and insurance at $98. That is a meaningful tailwind. In a market where cash flow is already tight, a $98 monthly carry on taxes and insurance, rather than the $250 to $350 you'd see in high-tax states on a comparable asset, preserves more of your gross rent. Caveat worth keeping: that 0.55% is a state-average estimate from Tax Foundation 2024 data, and your actual county and township assessment could differ, so pull the Morehouse Parish assessor's rolls before you close.

Concentration and demographic risk deserve a direct look here. Morehouse Parish has a population of 25,438, which is small. Small population markets carry real concentration risk: a single employer contraction, a population decline of even a few percentage points, or a shift in the local renter pool can move vacancy meaningfully. The stability score of 50 out of 100 reflects this. No economic anchor data was provided for this parish, which means this analysis cannot point to a specific employer base or institutional demand driver underwriting rental demand. Before committing capital, you need to do that work independently, identifying what employs renters in Bastrop and whether those employers are growing or contracting.

Compared to the neighboring parishes in the dataset, Morehouse Parish is the clear affordability outlier. Assumption Parish checks in at $171,822, Caldwell at $127,430, Calcasieu at $193,360, Sabine at $186,542, and Iberia at $134,124. Every comparable is at least 31% more expensive, with Calcasieu and Sabine running nearly double the Morehouse median. Calcasieu shows a rent-to-price ratio of 6.59% and Iberia a notably higher 10.63%, both with actual rent data. Iberia's 10.63% gross yield is the number that should get an investor's attention: at $134,124 median price and $1,188 monthly rent, Iberia presents a cash-flow case Morehouse cannot currently match on modeled metrics. Choose Morehouse over its neighbors specifically when your primary constraint is acquisition capital, when you are executing a value-add strategy at sub-$80k price points, or when you want the lowest-risk entry into the Louisiana market from a dollar-exposure standpoint. Choose Iberia or Calcasieu when you need a modeled cash-flow story with verifiable rent data behind it.