Best PlacesMetairie, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Metairie, 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.
Metairie ranks 356th of 445 U.S. cities 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 Metairie
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.
Metairie's strengths and weaknesses
Metairie ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. A stable housing market, affordable childcare, and health care access carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: state infrastructure, car insurance costs, and transit all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Metairie ranks high
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 96% of cities
- Cheap childcare$702 a month, better than 92% of cities
- Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 90% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than 88% of cities
Where Metairie ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of cities
- TransitBetter than only 5% of cities
- Heat safetyBetter than only 5% of cities
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 10% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Metairie
A household needs to earn about $89,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Metairie home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $85,632; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.
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 Metairie's effective rate of 0.56%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Metairie
Metairie runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Metairie.
Who works in Metairie, and how
Work in Metairie centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Metairie
Metairie has more restaurants and bars per resident than 81% of cities and more parkland per resident than 80% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Metairie and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Metairie, month by month
Metairie sees roughly 112 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 66, with lows near 45. The comfortable stretch runs October through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 66° | 55° | 45° |
| April | 81° | 71° | 61° |
| July | 94° | 84° | 77° |
| October | 84° | 74° | 65° |
Flying in and out of Metairie
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International sits about 5 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 Metairie
Schools across Metairie average a D+, better than 16% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Metairie Academy For Advanced StudiesA+ · 95% proficient
- Airline Park Academy For Advanced StudiesA+ · 88% proficient
- J.c. Ellis SchoolB− · 41% proficient
Top middle schools
- Larose-cut Off Middle SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- John Q. Adams Middle SchoolD+ · 26% proficient
- J.d. Meisler Middle SchoolD · 19% proficient
Top high schools
- Haynes Academy School For Advanced StudiesA+ · 93% proficient
- South Lafourche High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Riverdale High SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Metairie school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Metairie 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 Metairie against the other 444 cities.
Who Metairie suits
Families
Schools land around the 16th percentile and crime safety beats 68%.
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Metairie
Is Metairie a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Metairie ranks 356th of 445 cities. It scores highest on a stable housing market, affordable childcare, and health care access, 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 Metairie expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $353,436. The overall cost of living runs about 3% above the national average. Set against a $85,632 median income, cost of living beats 40% of cities.
Is Metairie safe?
Yes, Metairie is safer than 68% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $419 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Metairie?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 66 with lows near 45. That works out to about 112 pleasant days a year, more than 54% of cities.
Is Metairie good for families?
Schools beat 16% of cities, crime safety beats 68%, and childcare runs $702 a month.
Is Metairie good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 40% of cities, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 71% of cities. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Metairie with other cities
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Metairie. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Metairie 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.
Metairie detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Metairie: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Metairie: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Metairie: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Metairie: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Metairie 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.