Best PlacesDonner, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Donner, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Donner ranks 48,946th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and health outcomes rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Donner
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.
Donner's strengths and weaknesses
Where Donner ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 98% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 96% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 88% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 82% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 117 pleasant days a year, better than 78% of towns
Where Donner ranks low
- Health outlookBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 3% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Donner
A household needs to earn about $23,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Donner home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $56,234, 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 Donner'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 3 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Donner
Donner runs younger than the country, though it still carries a larger-than-average share of residents over 65, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Donner.
Who works in Donner, and how
Work in Donner centers on construction and health care & social. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 96%
- Work from home 3%
- Transit, walk, or bike 1%
Life in Donner
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Donner.
What the weather is like in Donner, month by month
Donner sees roughly 117 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 54° | 45° |
| April | 78° | 69° | 61° |
| July | 90° | 82° | 75° |
| October | 82° | 72° | 63° |
Flying in and out of Donner
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International sits about 49 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 6.2 million passengers in 2025, with 112 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Donner
Schools across Donner average a C, better than 28% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Bayou Community Academy Charter SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Stephensville Elementary SchoolB · 48% proficient
- Gibson Elementary SchoolC− · 27% proficient
Top middle schools
- Evergreen Junior High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- West Thibodaux Middle SchoolD · 21% proficient
Top high schools
- Thibodaux High SchoolC · 35% proficient
- H. L. Bourgeois High SchoolC · 32% proficient
- Morgan City High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Donner school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Donner 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 Donner against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Donner
Is Donner a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Donner ranks 48,946th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, a stable housing market, and tree cover, and lowest on health outcomes and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Donner expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $94,752. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $56,234 median income, cost of living beats 22% of towns.
Is Donner safe?
Donner is safer than 29% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $475 per resident a year.
Compare Donner with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Donner. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Donner 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.
Donner detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Donner: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Donner: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Donner: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Donner: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Donner 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.
- 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.