Best PlacesAlexandria, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Alexandria metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Robinaire, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Alexandria ranks 381st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on state infrastructure and car insurance costs. It does better on a stable housing market, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Alexandria metro
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Alexandria
The towns and districts of the Alexandria metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Ball & Pollock
Tree cover is thicker, crime runs lower, and prices have run up less.
Downtown Alexandria
More adults hold degrees, though fewer households have young kids.
Simms
Heat risk is lower and incomes run higher.
Pineville
Advertised internet is faster and fewer homes sit empty.
Glenmora
It is quieter, though commutes are longer.
Colfax
Homes cost less.
Scores across Alexandria run from about the 1st to the 79th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Alexandria's strengths and weaknesses
Alexandria ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. A stable housing market is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Tree cover and low property taxes follow.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: state infrastructure, car insurance costs, and health outcomes all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Alexandria ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 94% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 77% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$718 a month, better than 76% of metro areas
Where Alexandria ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Low vacancyBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 5% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Alexandria
A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Alexandria home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $63,600, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Alexandria's effective rate of 0.42%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Alexandria
Alexandria's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Alexandria.
Who works in Alexandria, and how
Work in Alexandria centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 87%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Alexandria
Alexandria has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Alexandria and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Alexandria growing, and who is moving in?
Alexandria has lost about 4% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New Orleans, LA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Alexandria go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Alexandria, month by month
Alexandria sees roughly 84 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 40. The comfortable stretch runs February through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 49° | 40° |
| April | 79° | 67° | 57° |
| July | 94° | 82° | 74° |
| October | 83° | 69° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Alexandria
The nearest airport, Alexandria International, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 159 miles away.
The best schools in and around Alexandria
Schools across Alexandria average a C, better than 19% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Phoenix Magnet Elementary SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Caroline Dormon Junior High SchoolA · 65% proficient
- Peabody Montessori Elementary SchoolA− · 56% proficient
Top middle schools
- Pineville Junior High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- Scott M. Brame Middle SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Alexandria Middle Magnet SchoolD · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Alexandria Senior High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Pineville High SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
- Tioga High SchoolC · 34% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Alexandria school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Alexandria measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Alexandria against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Alexandria suits
Common questions about living in Alexandria
Is Alexandria a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Alexandria ranks 381st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a stable housing market, tree cover, and low property taxes, and lowest on state infrastructure and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Alexandria expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $183,627. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $63,600 median income, cost of living beats 8% of metro areas.
Is Alexandria safe?
Alexandria is safer than 10% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $623 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Alexandria?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 40. That works out to about 84 pleasant days a year, more than 45% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Alexandria?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Ball & Pollock, Downtown Alexandria, and Simms. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Alexandria good for families?
Schools beat 19% of metro areas, crime safety beats 10%, and childcare runs $718 a month.
Is Alexandria good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 8% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 23% of metro areas. About 6% of workers already work from home.
Compare Alexandria with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Alexandria. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Alexandria represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Alexandria detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Alexandria: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Alexandria: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Alexandria: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Alexandria: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Alexandria detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.