Best PlacesAvoyelles Parish, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Avoyelles Parish, 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.
Avoyelles Parish ranks 3,112th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Avoyelles Parish
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 Avoyelles Parish
The parts of Avoyelles Parish, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Hessmer
Fewer homes sit empty, local pay stretches further, and incomes run higher.
Plaucheville
It is quieter, though commutes are longer.
Marksville
More households have young kids, though heat risk is higher.
Mansura
Crime runs higher and tree cover is thinner.
Cottonport
Bunkie
Health care is harder to reach and prices have run up more.
Scores across Avoyelles Parish run from about the 1st to the 38th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Avoyelles Parish's strengths and weaknesses
Where Avoyelles Parish ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 99% of counties
- QuietBetter than 78% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 72% of counties
- Cheap childcare$639 a month, better than 68% of counties
- Air qualityBetter than 52% of counties
Where Avoyelles Parish ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 2% of counties
- Health outlookBetter than only 2% of counties
- Short commute36.3 minutes each way, better than only 2% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Avoyelles Parish
A household needs to earn about $31,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Avoyelles Parish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $44,892, 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 Avoyelles Parish's effective rate of 0.22%, 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 Avoyelles Parish
Avoyelles Parish'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 Avoyelles Parish.
Who works in Avoyelles Parish, and how
Work in Avoyelles Parish centers on health care & social and construction. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Avoyelles Parish
Avoyelles Parish has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most counties. That concentrates in some parts of Avoyelles Parish and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Avoyelles Parish growing, and who is moving in?
Avoyelles Parish has lost about 7% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Alexandria, LA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Avoyelles Parish go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Avoyelles Parish, month by month
Avoyelles Parish sees roughly 85 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 62, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs February through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 62° | 49° | 39° |
| April | 79° | 66° | 55° |
| July | 94° | 82° | 73° |
| October | 83° | 67° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Avoyelles Parish
The nearest airport, Alexandria International, is about 34 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 130 miles away.
The best schools in and around Avoyelles Parish
Schools across Avoyelles Parish average a D, better than 6% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Lafargue Elementary SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Plaucheville Elementary SchoolC− · 26% proficient
- Marksville Elementary SchoolD · 18% proficient
Top high schools
- La School For Ag ScienceC+ · 40% proficient
- Avoyelles High SchoolD · 20% proficient
- Bunkie Magnet High SchoolD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Avoyelles Parish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Avoyelles Parish 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 Avoyelles Parish against the other 3,143 counties.
Who Avoyelles Parish suits
Common questions about living in Avoyelles Parish
Is Avoyelles Parish a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Avoyelles Parish ranks 3,112th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low property taxes, quiet, and a stable housing market, and lowest on car insurance costs and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Avoyelles Parish expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $129,487. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $44,892 median income, cost of living beats 4% of counties.
Is Avoyelles Parish safe?
Avoyelles Parish is safer than 10% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $705 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Avoyelles Parish?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 62 with lows near 39. That works out to about 85 pleasant days a year, more than 45% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in Avoyelles Parish?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Hessmer, Plaucheville, and Marksville. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare Avoyelles Parish with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Avoyelles Parish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Avoyelles Parish 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.
Avoyelles Parish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Avoyelles Parish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Avoyelles Parish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Avoyelles Parish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Avoyelles Parish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Avoyelles Parish 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.