Best PlacesRed River Parish, LA Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Red River 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Red River Parish ranks 3,070th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and state infrastructure ranks lowest.

#3,070
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Red River Parish

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Red River Parish area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Red River Parish's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Low property taxes
Top 10%A stable housing market
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Red River Parish with other counties.

Where Red River Parish ranks high

  • Low property taxBetter than 98% of counties
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 94% of counties
  • QuietBetter than 88% of counties
  • Tree shadeBetter than 76% of counties
  • Cheap childcare$636 a month, better than 69% of counties

Where Red River Parish ranks low

  • State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
  • Health outlookBetter than only 1% of counties
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 3% of counties
  • Internet speedBetter than only 4% of counties
  • Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 4% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Red River Parish

A household needs to earn about $30,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Red River Parish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $51,409, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$30,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$689
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $122,173 home
Median rent
$677
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$623
Property tax$25
Homeowners insurance$41

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 Red River Parish's effective rate of 0.25%, 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.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Red River Parish

Red River Parish's age mix sits close to the national median, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
42
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
20%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1823%
18 to 3420%
35 to 4918%
50 to 6419%
65 and older20%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Red River Parish.


Who works in Red River Parish, and how

Work in Red River Parish centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
4%
below the national average
Unemployment
6.4%
above the national average
Job growth
+2.4%
/y 2019-2023, near the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social15%
Retail trade12%
Manufacturing12%
Hospitality & food10%
Education10%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 95%
  • Work from home 4%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 1%

Life in Red River Parish

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Red River Parish.

Places to eat and drink
37
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 48.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 56% of counties

Is Red River Parish growing, and who is moving in?

Red River Parish has lost about 17% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Shreveport, LA.

Population growth
-17%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
7,238
down from 8,757
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Shreveport, LA91 / yr
Dallas, TX68 / yr
Spartanburg, SC54 / yr
Monroe, LA39 / yr
Webster Parish, LA22 / yr

Where people leaving Red River Parish go

Natchitoches Parish, LA34 / yr
Lafayette, LA18 / yr
Monroe, LA15 / yr
Baton Rouge, LA12 / yr
Avoyelles Parish, LA10 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Red River Parish, month by month

Red River Parish sees roughly 69 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 61, with lows near 39. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, October, and November.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January61°48°39°
April79°66°55°
July95°82°73°
October83°67°56°

Flying in and out of Red River Parish

The nearest airport, Shreveport Regional, is about 41 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is George Bush Intcntl/Houston, about 187 miles away.

Nearest airport
SHV
Shreveport Regional, about 41 miles
Airport size
Nonhub
158th-busiest in the US, 19 nonstop destinations
Average drive
58 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Red River Parish

Schools across Red River Parish average a D, better than 4% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Red River Parish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Red River 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 Red River Parish against the other 3,143 counties.


Common questions about living in Red River Parish

Is Red River Parish a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Red River Parish ranks 3,070th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low property taxes, a stable housing market, and quiet, and lowest on state infrastructure and health outcomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Red River Parish expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $122,173. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $51,409 median income, cost of living beats 10% of counties.

Is Red River Parish safe?

Red River Parish is safer than 7% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $753 per resident a year.


Compare Red River Parish with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Red River Parish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Red River 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.

Red River Parish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Red River Parish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Red River Parish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Red River Parish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Red River Parish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Red River Parish detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.