Best PlacesHouma, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Houma metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Distance to the water drives a lot of the difference between one part and the next. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Pacolawrence, CC BY-SA 4.0, via wiki
Houma ranks 371st of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Its strengths are a stable housing market and low property taxes. The cost shows up in state infrastructure, disaster risk, and health outcomes.
The best neighborhoods in the Houma metro
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.
The best areas in Houma
The towns and districts of the Houma metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Downtown Houma
Streets are more walkable, commutes are shorter, and biking is better.
Lockport & Larose
It is quieter, though fewer households have young kids.
Thibodaux
Fewer homes sit empty and more adults hold degrees.
Raceland
Local pay stretches further, though crime runs higher.
Cut Off, Chauvin & Galliano
Homes cost less and prices have run up less.
Scores across Houma run from about the 1st to the 77th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Houma's strengths and weaknesses
Houma ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. A stable housing market is the standout, in the top 1% of metro areas. Low property taxes and quiet follow.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: state infrastructure, disaster risk, and health outcomes all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Houma ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 96% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 92% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$699 a month, better than 80% of metro areas
Where Houma ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 5% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Houma
A household needs to earn about $50,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Houma home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $69,191, 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 Houma's effective rate of 0.39%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Houma
Houma's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Houma.
Who works in Houma, and how
Work in Houma centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Houma
Houma has less parkland per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. The coast is about 69 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Houma and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Houma growing, and who is moving in?
Houma has lost about 6% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New Orleans, LA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Houma go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Houma, month by month
Houma sees roughly 115 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 90 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 54° | 45° |
| April | 78° | 69° | 61° |
| July | 90° | 82° | 75° |
| October | 82° | 72° | 63° |
Flying in and out of Houma
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International sits about 39 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 Houma
Schools across Houma average a C+, better than 38% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Mulberry Elementary SchoolA− · 58% proficient
- Dularge Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Upper Little Caillou Elementary SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Houma Junior High SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Bayou Blue Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Lacache Middle SchoolC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Central Lafourche High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- South Terrebonne High SchoolC+ · 39% proficient
- Terrebonne High SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Houma school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Houma 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 Houma against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Houma suits
Retirees
The weather beats 70% of metro areas and it is quieter than 92%.
Common questions about living in Houma
Is Houma a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Houma ranks 371st of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a stable housing market, low property taxes, and quiet, and lowest on state infrastructure and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Houma expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $202,070. The overall cost of living runs about 16% below the national average. Set against a $69,191 median income, cost of living beats 30% of metro areas.
Is Houma safe?
Houma is safer than 25% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $529 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Houma?
July highs average about 90 degrees, and January highs near 64 with lows near 45. That works out to about 115 pleasant days a year, more than 70% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Houma?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Downtown Houma, Lockport & Larose, and Thibodaux. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Houma good for families?
Schools beat 38% of metro areas, crime safety beats 25%, and childcare runs $699 a month.
Is Houma good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 30% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 45% of metro areas. About 5% of workers already work from home.
Compare Houma with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Houma. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Houma 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.
Houma detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Houma: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Houma: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Houma: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Houma: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Houma 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.