Best PlacesHester, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hester, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Hester ranks 33,330th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on a strong job market by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Hester
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.
Hester's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hester ranks high
- Local economyBetter than 97% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than 96% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 93% of towns
- Household income$109,504 median, better than 90% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 84% of towns
Where Hester ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 5% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 10% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hester
A household needs to earn about $51,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hester home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $109,504, 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 Hester's effective rate of 0.48%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Who lives in Hester
Hester runs younger than the country, and households here run larger than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Hester.
Who works in Hester, and how
Work in Hester centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Hester
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Hester.
What the weather is like in Hester, month by month
Hester sees roughly 108 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 44. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 53° | 44° |
| April | 81° | 69° | 59° |
| July | 93° | 82° | 75° |
| October | 83° | 71° | 62° |
Flying in and out of Hester
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International sits about 30 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 Hester
Schools across Hester average a C+, better than 43% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Paulina Elementary SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top middle schools
- Sixth Ward Elementary SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Top high schools
- Lutcher High SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
- St. James High SchoolC− · 29% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hester school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hester 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 Hester against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hester
Is Hester a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hester ranks 33,330th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on a strong job market, cell coverage, and a stable housing market, and lowest on car insurance costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Hester expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $203,809. The overall cost of living runs about 1% below the national average. Set against a $109,504 median income, cost of living beats 84% of towns.
Is Hester safe?
Hester is safer than 30% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $465 per resident a year.
Compare Hester with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hester. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hester 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.
Hester detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hester: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hester: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hester: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hester: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hester 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.