Best PlacesSlidell, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Slidell 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 jahebert 7, CC BY 2.0, via wiki
Slidell ranks 245th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. The coast is about 45 minutes away. Its strengths are health care access and a stable housing market. The cost shows up in car insurance costs, state infrastructure, and long commutes.
The best neighborhoods in the Slidell 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 Slidell
The towns and districts of the Slidell 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.
Madisonville
More adults hold degrees, schools score higher, and local pay stretches further.
Mandeville
Tree cover is thicker and fewer homes sit empty.
Covington & Folsom
It is quieter and prices have run up less.
Abita Springs & Bush
Fewer households have young kids and commutes are longer.
Downtown Slidell
Heat risk is higher.
Lacombe
Incomes run lower and health outcomes score lower.
Pearl River
Homes cost less, though health care is harder to reach.
Slidell shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 10%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Slidell's strengths and weaknesses
Slidell lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Health care access, a stable housing market, and what local pay buys carry most of that.
The one real hole is car insurance costs, near the bottom of the country. State infrastructure and long commutes also cost it ground. Cost swings more from one part of Slidell to another than it does between Slidell and its neighbors, which the map below shows.
Where Slidell ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 91% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 85% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than 84% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than 80% of metro areas
Where Slidell ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of metro areas
- Short commute31.4 minutes each way, better than only 2% of metro areas
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 9% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Slidell
A household needs to earn about $79,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Slidell home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $87,739, 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 Slidell's effective rate of 0.70%, 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 Slidell
Slidell'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 Slidell.
Who works in Slidell, and how
Work in Slidell centers on health care & social and education. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 84%
- Work from home 14%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Slidell
Slidell has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of metro areas and less parkland per resident than most metro areas. The coast is about 45 minutes away. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Slidell and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Slidell growing, and who is moving in?
Slidell has grown about 13% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from New Orleans, LA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Slidell go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Slidell, month by month
Slidell sees roughly 111 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 64, with lows near 43. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 64° | 52° | 43° |
| April | 79° | 68° | 58° |
| July | 92° | 82° | 75° |
| October | 83° | 70° | 60° |
Flying in and out of Slidell
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International sits about 35 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 Slidell
Schools across Slidell average a B−, better than 63% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Whispering Forest Elementary SchoolB+ · 52% proficient
- Honey Island Elementary SchoolB · 50% proficient
- Sixth Ward Elementary SchoolB− · 43% proficient
Top middle schools
- Little Oak Middle SchoolB+ · 50% proficient
- Boyet Junior High SchoolB+ · 47% proficient
- Clearwood Junior High SchoolC · 35% proficient
Top high schools
- Northshore High SchoolB+ · 53% proficient
- Slidell High SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Pearl River High SchoolD · 23% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Slidell school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Slidell 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 Slidell against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Slidell suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 84% of metro areas and 14% already work from home.
Retirees
The weather beats 67% of metro areas and health care access beats 91%.
Common questions about living in Slidell
Is Slidell a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Slidell ranks 245th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on health care access, a stable housing market, and what local pay buys, and lowest on car insurance costs and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Slidell expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $304,978. The overall cost of living runs about 12% below the national average. Set against a $87,739 median income, cost of living beats 84% of metro areas.
Is Slidell safe?
Yes, Slidell is safer than 80% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $344 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Slidell?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 64 with lows near 43. That works out to about 111 pleasant days a year, more than 67% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Slidell?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Madisonville, Mandeville, and Covington & Folsom. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Slidell good for families?
Schools beat 63% of metro areas, crime safety beats 80%, and childcare runs $737 a month.
Is Slidell good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 84% of metro areas, though advertised internet speeds beat only 50% of metro areas. About 14% of workers already work from home.
Compare Slidell with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Slidell. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Slidell 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.
Slidell detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Slidell: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Slidell: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Slidell: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Slidell: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Slidell 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.