Best PlacesSt. Bernard Parish, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in St. Bernard Parish, 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.
St. Bernard Parish ranks 2,781st of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and car insurance costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in St. Bernard Parish
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 St. Bernard Parish
The parts of St. Bernard Parish, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the county.
Meraux & Violet
More residents vote, local pay stretches further, and prices have run up less.
St. Bernard
Tree cover is thicker, though fewer households have young kids.
Chalmette & Arabi
Streets are more walkable, though crime runs higher.
Scores across St. Bernard Parish run from about the 1st to the 50th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
St. Bernard Parish's strengths and weaknesses
Where St. Bernard Parish ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 98% of counties
- Low property taxBetter than 94% of counties
- WalkabilityBetter than 90% of counties
- Big-city accessBetter than 86% of counties
- Internet speedBetter than 80% of counties
Where St. Bernard Parish ranks low
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 4% of counties
- Heat safetyBetter than only 7% of counties
- State fiscal healthBetter than only 8% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in St. Bernard Parish
A household needs to earn about $50,000 a year to comfortably buy the median St. Bernard Parish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $63,297, 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 St. Bernard Parish's effective rate of 0.35%, 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 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in St. Bernard Parish
St. Bernard Parish runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for St. Bernard Parish.
Who works in St. Bernard Parish, and how
Work in St. Bernard Parish centers on health care & social and retail trade. 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 10%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in St. Bernard Parish
St. Bernard Parish has more restaurants and bars per resident than 96% of counties. That concentrates in some parts of St. Bernard Parish and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is St. Bernard Parish growing, and who is moving in?
St. Bernard Parish has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from the rest of the New Orleans, LA metro.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving St. Bernard Parish go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in St. Bernard Parish, month by month
St. Bernard Parish sees roughly 119 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 St. Bernard Parish
Louis Armstrong New Orleans International sits about 20 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 St. Bernard Parish
Schools across St. Bernard Parish average a C+, better than 44% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Anniston Avenue Elementary SchoolA− · 62% proficient
- Pass Christian ElemA− · 60% proficient
- Magnolia Park ElementaryB+ · 55% proficient
Top middle schools
- Ocean Springs Middle SchoolA · 67% proficient
- Biloxi Upper ElementaryA · 59% proficient
- Pass Christian MiddleA− · 54% proficient
Top high schools
- Thomas Jefferson High School For Advanced StudiesA+ · 80% proficient
- Ocean Springs High SchoolA · 75% proficient
- Pass Christian High SchoolA− · 63% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every St. Bernard Parish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
St. Bernard 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 St. Bernard Parish against the other 3,143 counties.
Who St. Bernard Parish suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 10% already work from home.
Common questions about living in St. Bernard Parish
Is St. Bernard Parish a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, St. Bernard Parish ranks 2,781st of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on cell coverage, low property taxes, and walkability, 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 St. Bernard Parish expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $202,204. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $63,297 median income, cost of living beats 15% of counties.
Is St. Bernard Parish safe?
St. Bernard Parish is safer than 25% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $540 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in St. Bernard Parish?
July highs average about 92 degrees, and January highs near 63 with lows near 48. That works out to about 119 pleasant days a year, more than 74% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in St. Bernard Parish?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Meraux & Violet, St. Bernard, and Chalmette & Arabi. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare St. Bernard Parish with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to St. Bernard Parish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in St. Bernard 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.
St. Bernard Parish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for St. Bernard Parish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in St. Bernard Parish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of St. Bernard Parish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in St. Bernard Parish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
St. Bernard Parish 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.