Best PlacesMadison Parish, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in Madison Parish, 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.
Madison Parish ranks 3,135th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Madison Parish
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.
Madison Parish's strengths and weaknesses
Where Madison Parish ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 99% of counties
- Short commute17.2 minutes each way, better than 90% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 76% of counties
- Cheap childcare$625 a month, better than 70% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 69% of counties
Where Madison Parish ranks low
- School gradeF, better than only 1% of counties
- Health outlookBetter than only 1% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of counties
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in Madison Parish
A household needs to earn about $25,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Madison Parish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $44,295, 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 Madison Parish's effective rate of 0.23%, 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 3 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Madison Parish
Madison Parish runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Madison Parish.
Who works in Madison Parish, and how
Work in Madison Parish centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 92%
- Work from home 4%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Madison Parish
Madison Parish has more restaurants and bars per resident than 99% of counties. That concentrates in some parts of Madison Parish and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Madison Parish growing, and who is moving in?
Madison Parish has lost about 23% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Monroe, LA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Madison Parish go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Madison Parish, month by month
Madison Parish sees roughly 86 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 59, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 59° | 48° | 39° |
| April | 78° | 67° | 57° |
| July | 93° | 82° | 74° |
| October | 82° | 68° | 56° |
Flying in and out of Madison Parish
The nearest airport, Monroe Regional, is about 50 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 175 miles away.
The best schools in and around Madison Parish
Schools across Madison Parish average an F, better than 1% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Wright Elementary SchoolF · 4% proficient
- Tallulah Elementary SchoolF · 4% proficient
Top middle schools
- Madison Middle SchoolF · 6% proficient
Top high schools
- Madison High SchoolF · 8% proficient
- Christian Acres Alternative SchoolF · 7% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Madison Parish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Madison Parish 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 Madison Parish against the other 3,143 counties.
Common questions about living in Madison Parish
Is Madison Parish a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Madison Parish ranks 3,135th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low property taxes, short commutes, and cell coverage, and lowest on the schools and health outcomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Madison Parish expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $103,022. The overall cost of living runs about 23% below the national average. Set against a $44,295 median income, cost of living beats 4% of counties.
Is Madison Parish safe?
Madison Parish is safer than 3% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $973 per resident a year.
Compare Madison Parish with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Madison Parish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Madison Parish 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.
Madison Parish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Madison Parish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Madison Parish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Madison Parish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Madison Parish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Madison Parish 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.