Best PlacesGold Dust, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Gold Dust, 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.
Gold Dust ranks 50,012th of 50,333 U.S. towns 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 Gold Dust
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.
Gold Dust's strengths and weaknesses
Where Gold Dust ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 82% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 75% of towns
- Cheap childcare$638 a month, better than 74% of towns
- Local economyBetter than 54% of towns
Where Gold Dust ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 2% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 4% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Gold Dust
A household needs to earn about $51,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Gold Dust home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $51,628, 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 Gold Dust's effective rate of 0.24%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Gold Dust
Gold Dust runs older than the country, 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 Gold Dust.
Who works in Gold Dust, and how
Work in Gold Dust centers on education and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 7%
Life in Gold Dust
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Gold Dust.
What the weather is like in Gold Dust, month by month
Gold Dust sees roughly 82 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 62, with lows near 42. The comfortable stretch runs February through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 62° | 50° | 42° |
| April | 78° | 67° | 58° |
| July | 91° | 81° | 73° |
| October | 82° | 69° | 59° |
Flying in and out of Gold Dust
The nearest airport, Alexandria International, is about 38 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 Gold Dust
Schools across Gold Dust average a D+, better than 13% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Palmetto Elementary SchoolB · 47% proficient
- James Stephens Montessori SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Bunkie Elementary SchoolD · 17% proficient
Top high schools
- Magnet Academy For Cultural ArtsB+ · 55% proficient
- Ville Platte High SchoolD · 21% proficient
- Bunkie Magnet High SchoolD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Gold Dust school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Gold Dust 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 Gold Dust against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Gold Dust
Is Gold Dust a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Gold Dust ranks 50,012th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on low property taxes, tree cover, 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 Gold Dust expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $209,330. The overall cost of living runs about 24% below the national average. Set against a $51,628 median income, cost of living beats 32% of towns.
Is Gold Dust safe?
Gold Dust is safer than 3% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $984 per resident a year.
Compare Gold Dust with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Gold Dust. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Gold Dust 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.
Gold Dust detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Gold Dust: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Gold Dust: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Gold Dust: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Gold Dust: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Gold Dust 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.