Saint Landry Parish

Saint Landry Parish sits at the affordable end of the Louisiana market with a median home price of $135,021 and median rent of $857.50, producing a rent-to-price ratio of 7.62%. That ratio is a reasonable headline number, but the modeled underwrite tells a more complicated story: at 6.85% financing with 20% down, the monthly mortgage alone runs $708, and once you stack $300 in estimated expenses plus $136 in combined monthly taxes and insurance, total carry exceeds gross rent by enough to produce negative $150 in monthly cash flow and a cash-on-cash return of -5.8%. The cap rate of 4.95% is the more useful figure here, reflecting what the asset yields on an unlevered basis, and it lands in the range that works only if financing costs compress or a buyer brings more equity to the table. Year-over-year home price growth of 0.78% tells you this is not an appreciation market. The affordability index of 100 is the ceiling, meaning prices are at the outer edge of what local incomes can support, which both constrains further price growth and keeps a natural floor under rental demand.

The overall score of 70 out of 100, with a cash flow subscore of 76 and an appreciation subscore of 58, puts this squarely in the cash-flow-oriented bucket, though the actual modeled cash flow is negative under standard leverage assumptions. That apparent contradiction is worth sitting with. The 76 cash flow score reflects how favorably the market's price-to-rent ratio compares nationally, ranking 149th out of 1,000 counties and landing in the 81st percentile. The practical implication is that an investor buying below median, paying cash or putting more than 20% down, or acquiring a value-add property with rent upside below $857.50 could close the gap. At $135,021 median prices, even modest rent improvements, say getting a renovated unit to $950 to $1,000, change the math meaningfully. Appreciation-driven buyers have little reason to be here given the 0.78% price growth. The stability score of 50 is the one that warrants honest weight in your underwriting.

The data does not include economic anchor or employer information for Saint Landry Parish, so no claims about specific employers or job drivers are made here. What the numbers do reflect is a population of 82,574 and a market priced at levels that suggest limited in-migration and constrained income growth. A stability score of 50 out of 100 is a real flag, not a minor footnote. It means the market has meaningful exposure to whatever economic softness or demographic attrition the underlying data captures, and a buy-and-hold investor should stress-test vacancy assumptions accordingly rather than assume consistent rent collection.

On carry costs, the property tax picture is actually a tailwind. Louisiana's state-average effective rate of 0.55% is low enough to be a genuine line-item advantage, and at an estimated $743 annually, property tax alone is not the drag it would be in a high-tax state. Insurance, however, runs $891 annually, reflecting Louisiana's coastal and storm-exposure risk profile, and the combined $136 per month in taxes and insurance is a meaningful piece of the total cost stack on a $135,021 asset. The tax rate is a state-average estimate per Tax Foundation 2024 data, and actual rates at the county or township level may differ, so underwrite with local assessor data once you have a specific address. Even so, the low tax rate is a real structural advantage compared to markets in the Midwest or Northeast at similar price points.

Compared to neighboring parishes, Saint Landry is the lowest-priced option but not the highest-yielding on rent-to-price. Iberia Parish stands out immediately at a 10.63% rent-to-price ratio against a nearly identical median home price of $134,124. If raw yield ratio is your primary screen, Iberia outperforms Saint Landry by a wide margin at comparable entry prices, though Iberia's overall score of 69 versus Saint Landry's 70 suggests similar underlying profile. Livingston Parish at $246,195 median and Jefferson Parish at $261,373 are higher-cost markets with rent-to-price ratios of 7.78% and 7.11%, respectively, offering marginal yield differences at roughly double the capital commitment. Calcasieu Parish at $193,360 median and 6.59% rent-to-price is more expensive and lower-yielding. The case for Saint Landry over its neighbors comes down to lowest entry price if you are running a volume strategy or testing the market with limited capital, but an investor who can underwrite Iberia Parish should look hard at those numbers first. Saint Landry makes the most sense for a buyer who needs the lowest possible acquisition cost and can operate the asset efficiently enough to offset the negative leveraged cash flow through below-median purchase prices or above-median rents.