Best PlacesSt. Mary Parish, LA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in St. Mary Parish, 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.
St. Mary Parish ranks 3,016th of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on low property taxes by a wide margin, and disaster risk is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in St. Mary 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. Mary Parish
The parts of St. Mary 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.
Patterson & Bayou Vista
Fewer homes sit empty, heat risk is lower, and it is quieter.
Morgan City & Berwick
Crime runs lower and biking is better.
Franklin & Baldwin
Fewer households have young kids and schools score lower.
Scores across St. Mary Parish run from about the 1st to the 52nd percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
St. Mary Parish's strengths and weaknesses
Where St. Mary Parish ranks high
- Low property taxBetter than 94% of counties
- Cell coverageBetter than 84% of counties
- WalkabilityBetter than 84% of counties
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 80% of counties
- BikingBetter than 75% of counties
Where St. Mary Parish ranks low
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of counties
- State infrastructureBetter than only 1% of counties
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 2% of counties
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 4% of counties
- Heat safetyBetter than only 4% of counties
What it costs to buy a home in St. Mary Parish
A household needs to earn about $36,000 a year to comfortably buy the median St. Mary Parish home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $58,140, 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. Mary Parish's effective rate of 0.34%, 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 St. Mary Parish
St. Mary Parish'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 St. Mary Parish.
Who works in St. Mary Parish, and how
Work in St. Mary Parish centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 89%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in St. Mary Parish
The coast is about 35 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across St. Mary Parish, which the map shows.
Is St. Mary Parish growing, and who is moving in?
St. Mary Parish has lost about 12% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Iberia Parish, LA.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving St. Mary 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. Mary Parish, month by month
St. Mary Parish sees roughly 114 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 91 degrees. January highs sit near 65, with lows near 44. The comfortable stretch runs February through April and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 65° | 53° | 44° |
| April | 78° | 69° | 60° |
| July | 91° | 82° | 75° |
| October | 83° | 71° | 61° |
Flying in and out of St. Mary Parish
The nearest airport, Lafayette Regional/Paul Fournet Field, is about 50 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Louis Armstrong New Orleans International, about 67 miles away.
The best schools in and around St. Mary Parish
Schools across St. Mary Parish average a C−, better than 23% of counties.
Top elementary schools
- Bayou Vista Elementary SchoolB+ · 55% proficient
- Berwick Elementary SchoolB · 49% proficient
- Chitimacha Tribal SchoolB · 45% proficient
Top middle schools
- Berwick Junior High SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Morgan City Junior High SchoolD+ · 26% proficient
- Patterson Junior High SchoolD+ · 24% proficient
Top high schools
- Berwick High SchoolC+ · 38% proficient
- Morgan City High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
- Patterson High SchoolC− · 30% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every St. Mary Parish school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
St. Mary 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. Mary Parish against the other 3,143 counties.
Who St. Mary Parish suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 7% already work from home.
Common questions about living in St. Mary Parish
Is St. Mary Parish a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, St. Mary Parish ranks 3,016th of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on low property taxes, cell coverage, and walkability, and lowest on disaster risk 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. Mary Parish expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $145,134. The overall cost of living runs about 23% below the national average. Set against a $58,140 median income, cost of living beats 35% of counties.
Is St. Mary Parish safe?
St. Mary Parish is safer than 12% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $675 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in St. Mary Parish?
July highs average about 91 degrees, and January highs near 65 with lows near 44. That works out to about 114 pleasant days a year, more than 70% of counties.
What are the best neighborhoods in St. Mary Parish?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Patterson & Bayou Vista, Morgan City & Berwick, and Franklin & Baldwin. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Compare St. Mary Parish with other counties
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to St. Mary Parish. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in St. Mary 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. Mary Parish detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for St. Mary Parish: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in St. Mary Parish: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of St. Mary Parish: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in St. Mary Parish: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
St. Mary 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.