Best PlacesHickory, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Hickory, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The coast is close, and the measures below put a number on how close. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Hickory ranks 33,650th 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 Hickory
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.
Hickory's strengths and weaknesses
Where Hickory ranks high
- Tree shadeBetter than 81% of towns
- Nice weatherabout 114 pleasant days a year, better than 76% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 76% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than 71% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 68% of towns
Where Hickory ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 7% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 10% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Hickory
A household needs to earn about $46,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Hickory home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $72,426, 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 Hickory's effective rate of 0.58%, 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 Hickory
Hickory runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Hickory.
Who works in Hickory, and how
Work in Hickory centers on education and construction. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 93%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 0%
Life in Hickory
The coast is about 40 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Hickory, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Hickory, month by month
Hickory sees roughly 114 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 52° | 43° |
| April | 79° | 68° | 58° |
| July | 92° | 82° | 75° |
| October | 83° | 70° | 60° |
Flying in and out of Hickory
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International sits about 41 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 Hickory
Schools across Hickory average a C, better than 31% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Sixth Ward Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Creekside Junior HighD+ · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- Pearl River High SchoolD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Hickory school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Hickory 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 Hickory against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Hickory
Is Hickory a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Hickory ranks 33,650th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, the weather, and health care access, 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 Hickory expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $181,188. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $72,426 median income, cost of living beats 52% of towns.
Is Hickory safe?
Yes, Hickory is safer than 62% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $328 per resident a year.
Compare Hickory with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Hickory. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Hickory 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.
Hickory detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Hickory: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Hickory: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Hickory: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Hickory: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Hickory 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.