Best PlacesLafayette, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Lafayette metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by TheLionHasSeen, CC BY-SA 4.0, via commons
Lafayette ranks 366th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on state infrastructure and car insurance costs. It does better on a stable housing market, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Lafayette 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 Lafayette
The towns and districts of the Lafayette 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.
Youngsville & St. Martinville
Heat risk is lower, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Downtown Lafayette
More adults hold degrees, though fewer households have young kids.
Abbeville, Maurice & Erath
Crime runs lower.
Broussard
Commutes are shorter, though prices have run up more.
Rayne, Church Point & Iota
Disaster risk is lower, though health outcomes score lower.
Kaplan & Gueydan
It is quieter and homes cost less.
Carencro & Scott
Health care is harder to reach and fewer residents vote.
Breaux Bridge
More homes sit empty and schools score lower.
Crowley
Scores across Lafayette run from about the 1st to the 90th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Lafayette's strengths and weaknesses
Lafayette 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. Fast internet and low property taxes follow.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: state infrastructure, car insurance costs, and disaster risk all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Lafayette ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 99% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 91% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 90% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$721 a month, better than 75% of metro areas
Where Lafayette ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 4% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 11% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Lafayette
A household needs to earn about $57,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lafayette home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $73,462, 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 Lafayette's effective rate of 0.46%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Lafayette
Lafayette'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 Lafayette.
Who works in Lafayette, and how
Work in Lafayette centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Lafayette
Lafayette has less parkland per resident than most metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Lafayette and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Lafayette growing, and who is moving in?
Lafayette has grown about 2% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New Orleans, LA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Lafayette go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Lafayette, month by month
Lafayette sees roughly 111 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 41. The comfortable stretch runs March through November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 61° | 51° | 41° |
| April | 75° | 60° | 48° |
| July | 92° | 72° | 58° |
| October | 82° | 65° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Lafayette
The nearest airport, Lafayette Regional/Paul Fournet Field, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 107 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lafayette
Schools across Lafayette average a C, better than 27% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Broadmoor Elementary SchoolA− · 59% proficient
- Cecil Picard Elementary School At MauriceA− · 57% proficient
- Myrtle Place Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Erath Middle SchoolA− · 54% proficient
- L.j. Alleman Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
- North Vermilion Middle SchoolB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Early College AcademyA+ · 87% proficient
- North Vermilion High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- David Thibodaux Stem Magnet AcademyB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lafayette school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lafayette 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 Lafayette against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Lafayette suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 68% of metro areas and it is quieter than 90%.
Common questions about living in Lafayette
Is Lafayette a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lafayette ranks 366th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on a stable housing market, fast internet, and low property taxes, and lowest on state infrastructure and car insurance costs. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lafayette expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $227,411. The overall cost of living runs about 19% below the national average. Set against a $73,462 median income, cost of living beats 57% of metro areas.
Is Lafayette safe?
Lafayette is safer than 11% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $615 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lafayette?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 61 with lows near 41. That works out to about 111 pleasant days a year, more than 68% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Lafayette?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Youngsville & St. Martinville, Downtown Lafayette, and Abbeville, Maurice & Erath. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Lafayette good for families?
Schools beat 27% of metro areas, crime safety beats 11%, and childcare runs $721 a month.
Is Lafayette good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 57% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 94% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Lafayette with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lafayette. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lafayette 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.
Lafayette detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lafayette: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lafayette: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lafayette: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lafayette: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lafayette 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.