Best PlacesNew Orleans, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the New Orleans 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 scottwebb, Unsplash License, via unsplash
New Orleans ranks 378th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. Its strengths are walkability and cell coverage. The cost shows up in car insurance costs, noise, and state infrastructure.
The best neighborhoods in the New Orleans 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 New Orleans
The towns and districts of the New Orleans 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.
River Ridge, Destrehan & Jefferson
Crime runs lower, health care is easier to reach, and incomes run higher.
Marrero, Harvey & Estelle
Streets are more walkable, though fewer households have young kids.
Metairie, Kenner & Laplace
Fewer homes sit empty and prices have run up less.
Luling, Westwego & Bridge City
Biking is worse and fewer adults hold degrees.
Terrytown, Belle Chasse & Gretna
It is quieter and schools score higher.
Downtown New Orleans
Local pay stretches less far and homes cost more.
Chalmette
Scores close to Downtown New Orleans, except that commutes are longer here.
New Orleans shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 9%. Pick the area first, then the home.
New Orleans' strengths and weaknesses
New Orleans ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Walkability is the standout, in the top 2% of metro areas. Cell coverage and affordable childcare follow.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: car insurance costs, noise, and state infrastructure all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where New Orleans ranks high
- WalkabilityBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of metro areas
- Cheap childcare$702 a month, better than 79% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 77% of metro areas
- Big-city accessBetter than 73% of metro areas
Where New Orleans ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- QuietBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than only 6% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in New Orleans
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median New Orleans home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $71,972; 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 New Orleans' effective rate of 0.61%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in New Orleans
New Orleans'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 New Orleans.
Who works in New Orleans, and how
Work in New Orleans centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 80%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 10%
Life in New Orleans
New Orleans has more restaurants and bars per resident than 81% of metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. The coast is about 63 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of New Orleans and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is New Orleans growing, and who is moving in?
New Orleans has lost about 4% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Baton Rouge, LA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving New Orleans go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in New Orleans, month by month
New Orleans sees roughly 115 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 63, with lows near 48. The comfortable stretch runs October through April.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 63° | 55° | 48° |
| April | 79° | 71° | 65° |
| July | 92° | 85° | 80° |
| October | 82° | 75° | 69° |
Flying in and out of New Orleans
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International sits about 12 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 New Orleans
Schools across New Orleans average a C, better than 39% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Metairie Academy For Advanced StudiesA+ · 95% proficient
- Airline Park Academy For Advanced StudiesA+ · 88% proficient
- Gretna No. 2 Academy For Advanced StudiesA+ · 87% proficient
Top middle schools
- Ocean Springs Middle SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Sixth Ward Middle SchoolA · 60% proficient
- Biloxi Upper ElementaryA · 59% proficient
Top high schools
- Patrick F. Taylor Science & Technology AcademyA+ · 93% proficient
- Haynes Academy School For Advanced StudiesA+ · 93% proficient
- Benjamin Franklin High SchoolA+ · 92% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every New Orleans school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
New Orleans 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 New Orleans against the other 386 metro areas.
Who New Orleans suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 11% already work from home.
Common questions about living in New Orleans
Is New Orleans a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, New Orleans ranks 378th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on walkability, cell coverage, and affordable childcare, and lowest on car insurance costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is New Orleans expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $309,611. The overall cost of living runs about 0% above the national average. Set against a $71,972 median income, cost of living beats 6% of metro areas.
Is New Orleans safe?
New Orleans is safer than 3% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $709 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in New Orleans?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 63 with lows near 48. That works out to about 115 pleasant days a year, more than 70% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in New Orleans?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are River Ridge, Destrehan & Jefferson, Marrero, Harvey & Estelle, and Metairie, Kenner & Laplace. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is New Orleans good for families?
Schools beat 39% of metro areas, crime safety beats 3%, and childcare runs $702 a month.
Is New Orleans good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 6% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 71% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare New Orleans with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to New Orleans. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in New Orleans 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.
New Orleans detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for New Orleans: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in New Orleans: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of New Orleans: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in New Orleans: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
New Orleans 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.