Best PlacesMonroe, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Monroe 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
Monroe ranks 385th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on state infrastructure and low incomes. It does better on low property taxes, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Monroe 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 Monroe
The towns and districts of the Monroe 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.
West Monroe & Claiborne
Local pay stretches further, schools score higher, and incomes run higher.
Sterlington
Fewer homes sit empty and it is quieter.
Downtown Monroe
More adults hold degrees, though tree cover is thinner.
Brownsville
Crime runs lower, though fewer households have young kids.
Farmerville & Marion
Heat risk is lower, though advertised internet is slower.
Rayville & Delhi
Prices have run up less, though disaster risk is higher.
Bastrop
Health outcomes score lower and health care is harder to reach.
Richwood
Homes cost less, though fewer residents vote.
Scores across Monroe run from about the 1st to the 85th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Monroe's strengths and weaknesses
Monroe ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Low property taxes, a stable housing market, and affordable childcare carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: state infrastructure, low incomes, and health outcomes all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Monroe ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 93% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 88% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$694 a month, better than 80% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than 79% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 74% of metro areas
Where Monroe ranks low
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Household income$58,864 median, better than only 2% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 4% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Monroe
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Monroe home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $58,864, 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 Monroe's effective rate of 0.43%, 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 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Monroe
Monroe'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 Monroe.
Who works in Monroe, and how
Work in Monroe 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 86%
- Work from home 8%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Monroe
Monroe has fewer places to eat and drink per resident than most metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Monroe and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Monroe growing, and who is moving in?
Monroe has lost about 2% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Shreveport, LA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Monroe go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Monroe, month by month
Monroe sees roughly 81 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 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° | 47° | 39° |
| April | 78° | 66° | 56° |
| July | 94° | 83° | 74° |
| October | 82° | 68° | 57° |
Flying in and out of Monroe
The nearest airport, Monroe Regional, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 205 miles away.
The best schools in and around Monroe
Schools across Monroe average a D+, better than 4% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Sterlington Elementary SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- Kiroli Elementary SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Woodlawn Elementary SchoolB− · 44% proficient
Top middle schools
- Sterlington Middle SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- Good Hope Middle SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Woodlawn Middle SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top high schools
- West Ouachita High SchoolC+ · 40% proficient
- Neville High SchoolC+ · 36% proficient
- West Monroe High SchoolC+ · 35% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Monroe school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Monroe 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 Monroe against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Monroe suits
Common questions about living in Monroe
Is Monroe a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Monroe ranks 385th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on low property taxes, a stable housing market, and affordable childcare, and lowest on state infrastructure and low incomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Monroe expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $176,305. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $58,864 median income, cost of living beats 5% of metro areas.
Is Monroe safe?
Monroe is safer than 4% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $702 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Monroe?
July highs average about 94 degrees, and January highs near 59 with lows near 39. That works out to about 81 pleasant days a year, more than 40% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Monroe?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are West Monroe & Claiborne, Sterlington, and Downtown Monroe. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Monroe good for families?
Schools beat 4% of metro areas, crime safety beats 4%, and childcare runs $694 a month.
Is Monroe good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 5% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 35% of metro areas. About 8% of workers already work from home.
Compare Monroe with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Monroe. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Monroe 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.
Monroe detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Monroe: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Monroe: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Monroe: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Monroe: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Monroe 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.