Best PlacesGaars Mill, LA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Gaars Mill, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Gaars Mill ranks 48,981st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.

#48,981
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 50,333 towns
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The best neighborhoods in Gaars Mill

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Gaars Mill area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

Gaars Mill's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Low property taxes
Top 10%Tree cover
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Gaars Mill with other towns.

Where Gaars Mill ranks high

  • Low property taxBetter than 98% of towns
  • Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 83% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$639 a month, better than 74% of towns
  • QuietBetter than 66% of towns

Where Gaars Mill ranks low

  • State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of towns
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of towns
  • Internet speedBetter than only 2% of towns
  • Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 3% of towns
  • Household income$34,678 median, better than only 3% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Gaars Mill

A household needs to earn about $25,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gaars Mill home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $34,678, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$25,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$595
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $106,224 home
Median rent
$795
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$542
Property tax$18
Homeowners insurance$35

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 Gaars Mill's effective rate of 0.20%, 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 4 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Gaars Mill

Gaars Mill runs younger than the country.

Median age
33
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
15%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.7
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1825%
18 to 3428%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6414%
65 and older15%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Gaars Mill.


Who works in Gaars Mill, and how

Work in Gaars Mill centers on finance & insurance and public administration. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
3%
below the national average
Unemployment
8.2%
above the national average
Job growth
−4.9%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Finance & insurance14%
Public administration13%
Health care & social12%
Transportation & warehousing12%
Manufacturing10%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 93%
  • Work from home 3%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 4%

Life in Gaars Mill

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Gaars Mill.


What the weather is like in Gaars Mill, month by month

Gaars Mill sees roughly 76 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January59°47°39°
April77°64°54°
July93°82°74°
October80°66°56°

Flying in and out of Gaars Mill

The nearest airport, Monroe Regional, is about 40 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 200 miles away.

Nearest airport
MLU
Monroe Regional, about 40 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
221st-busiest in the US, 5 nonstop destinations
Average drive
57 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Gaars Mill

Schools across Gaars Mill average a D, better than 5% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gaars Mill school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Gaars Mill 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 Gaars Mill against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Gaars Mill

Is Gaars Mill a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gaars Mill ranks 48,981st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, tree cover, and a stable housing market, 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 Gaars Mill expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $106,224. The overall cost of living runs about 24% below the national average. Set against a $34,678 median income, cost of living beats 3% of towns.

Is Gaars Mill safe?

Gaars Mill is safer than 25% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $506 per resident a year.


Compare Gaars Mill with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gaars Mill. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gaars Mill 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.

Gaars Mill detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Gaars Mill: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Gaars Mill: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Gaars Mill: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Gaars Mill: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Gaars Mill detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.