Best PlacesHardwood, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hardwood, 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.
Hardwood ranks 27,967th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. Car insurance costs pulls hardest against it, while it scores best on tree cover.
The best neighborhoods in Hardwood
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.
Hardwood's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hardwood ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 87% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 86% of towns
- Internet speedBetter than 86% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 85% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 78% of towns
Where Hardwood ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 10% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 12% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 18% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hardwood
A household needs to earn about $131,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hardwood home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $76,117, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Hardwood's effective rate of 0.49%, 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 Hardwood
Hardwood runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Hardwood.
Who works in Hardwood, and how
Work in Hardwood centers on manufacturing and education. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Hardwood
Hardwood has more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Hardwood and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Hardwood, month by month
Hardwood sees roughly 93 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 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 | 90° | 80° | 73° |
| October | 81° | 69° | 59° |
Flying in and out of Hardwood
The nearest airport, Baton Rouge Metro, Ryan Field, is about 21 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 85 miles away.
The best schools in and around Hardwood
Schools across Hardwood average a B, better than 69% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Rosenwald Elementary SchoolD · 19% proficient
Top middle schools
- West Feliciana Middle SchoolB+ · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- West Feliciana High SchoolB · 47% proficient
- Livonia High SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hardwood school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hardwood 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 Hardwood against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hardwood
Is Hardwood a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hardwood ranks 27,967th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, an educated workforce, and fast internet, 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 Hardwood expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $522,238. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $76,117 median income, cost of living beats 58% of towns.
Is Hardwood safe?
Hardwood is safer than 21% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $548 per resident a year.
Compare Hardwood with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hardwood. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hardwood 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.
Hardwood detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hardwood: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hardwood: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hardwood: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hardwood: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hardwood 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.