Louisiana cities compared
All 10 Louisiana metropolitan areas on the same $100,000 salary and the same $400,000 home. Monroe leaves you $9,763 a year better off than Slidell — and none of it is income tax, which is identical everywhere in the state.
Monroe to Slidell: $9,763 a year apart, same tax code
Louisiana has 10 metropolitan areas with a published price index, and on $100,000 with a $400,000 home they are not interchangeable: $89,146 of purchasing power in Monroe against $79,383 in Slidell — $9,763 a year, 9.8% of the salary, without leaving the state.
That gap is unusually easy to trust, because the income tax is identical in every row. Federal $13,170, FICA $7,650, Louisiana state income tax $2,625, and no county or city in Louisiana levies its own. Two things move down this table and only two: what a house costs in property tax, and what everything costs at the till.
| Metropolitan area | Buys | Behind the best | Prices | Property tax |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1Monroe | $89,146 | best | 83.597 | 0.51% |
| 2Hammond | $88,587 | −$558 | 84.46 | 0.43% |
| 3Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux | $87,733 | −$1,413 | 85.103 | 0.47% |
| 4Shreveport-Bossier City | $87,474 | −$1,672 | 84.766 | 0.60% |
| 5Lake Charles | $87,197 | −$1,949 | 85.852 | 0.42% |
| 6Alexandria | $86,635 | −$2,511 | 85.686 | 0.58% |
| 7Lafayette | $85,588 | −$3,557 | 87.209 | 0.48% |
| 8Baton Rouge | $81,865 | −$7,280 | 90.78 | 0.56% |
| 9New Orleans-Metairie | $79,895 | −$9,251 | 92.597 | 0.64% |
| 10Slidell-Mandeville-Covington | $79,383 | −$9,763 | 92.726 | 0.74% |
Purchasing power on a $100,000 salary with a $400,000 home: take-home after federal, FICA, Louisiana income tax and property tax, divided by that area’s price level. The income tax is identical in every row — the whole of the spread is property tax and the price level. Price index 100 is the US average.
Every one of these areas prices below the national average.
Property tax runs from 0.42% in Lake Charles to 0.74% in Slidell — on a $400,000 home that is $1,695 against $2,946 a year, a difference of $1,252. Each rate is that area's counties averaged and weighted by how many homes are in each, because a house pays the tax and a rural county of a few thousand homes should not weigh the same as an urban one of several hundred thousand.
The 45 Louisiana comparisons, resolved
Every pair of Louisiana cities, each on its own page with the full working, the break-even salary and the property tax bill house by house. Ordered by the population that could plausibly be choosing between them:
Baton Rouge vs New Orleans — Baton Rouge by $1,971 a year. Price level 90.78 against 92.597; property tax 0.56% against 0.64%.
Lafayette vs New Orleans — Lafayette by $5,693 a year. Price level 87.209 against 92.597; property tax 0.48% against 0.64%.
New Orleans vs Shreveport — Shreveport by $7,579 a year. Price level 92.597 against 84.766; property tax 0.64% against 0.60%.
Baton Rouge vs Lafayette — Lafayette by $3,723 a year. Price level 90.78 against 87.209; property tax 0.56% against 0.48%.
Baton Rouge vs Shreveport — Shreveport by $5,608 a year. Price level 90.78 against 84.766; property tax 0.56% against 0.60%.
New Orleans vs Slidell — New Orleans by $512 a year. Price level 92.597 against 92.726; property tax 0.64% against 0.74%.
Lake Charles vs New Orleans — Lake Charles by $7,302 a year. Price level 85.852 against 92.597; property tax 0.42% against 0.64%.
Monroe vs New Orleans — Monroe by $9,251 a year. Price level 83.597 against 92.597; property tax 0.51% against 0.64%.
Houma vs New Orleans — Houma by $7,838 a year. Price level 85.103 against 92.597; property tax 0.47% against 0.64%.
Baton Rouge vs Slidell — Baton Rouge by $2,482 a year. Price level 90.78 against 92.726; property tax 0.56% against 0.74%.
Alexandria vs New Orleans — Alexandria by $6,740 a year. Price level 85.686 against 92.597; property tax 0.58% against 0.64%.
Hammond vs New Orleans — Hammond by $8,693 a year. Price level 84.46 against 92.597; property tax 0.43% against 0.64%.
Baton Rouge vs Lake Charles — Lake Charles by $5,331 a year. Price level 90.78 against 85.852; property tax 0.56% against 0.42%.
Baton Rouge vs Monroe — Monroe by $7,280 a year. Price level 90.78 against 83.597; property tax 0.56% against 0.51%.
Baton Rouge vs Houma — Houma by $5,868 a year. Price level 90.78 against 85.103; property tax 0.56% against 0.47%.
Alexandria vs Baton Rouge — Alexandria by $4,769 a year. Price level 85.686 against 90.78; property tax 0.58% against 0.56%.
Baton Rouge vs Hammond — Hammond by $6,722 a year. Price level 90.78 against 84.46; property tax 0.56% against 0.43%.
Lafayette vs Shreveport — Shreveport by $1,885 a year. Price level 87.209 against 84.766; property tax 0.48% against 0.60%.
Lafayette vs Slidell — Lafayette by $6,205 a year. Price level 87.209 against 92.726; property tax 0.48% against 0.74%.
Shreveport vs Slidell — Shreveport by $8,091 a year. Price level 84.766 against 92.726; property tax 0.60% against 0.74%.
Lafayette vs Lake Charles — Lake Charles by $1,609 a year. Price level 87.209 against 85.852; property tax 0.48% against 0.42%.
Lafayette vs Monroe — Monroe by $3,557 a year. Price level 87.209 against 83.597; property tax 0.48% against 0.51%.
Lake Charles vs Shreveport — Shreveport by $277 a year. Price level 85.852 against 84.766; property tax 0.42% against 0.60%.
Houma vs Lafayette — Houma by $2,145 a year. Price level 85.103 against 87.209; property tax 0.47% against 0.48%.
And 21 more pairs of Louisiana cities, each with its own page.
Every Louisiana city, and what it can be compared with
The areas themselves, largest first. Each line has what defines that city on the two measures that matter here, and then every comparison it takes part in:
New Orleans-Metairie — 989k people across 7 counties. Price level 92.597, housing 86.009, property tax 0.64%. Compared with Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, Slidell, Lake Charles, Monroe, Houma, Alexandria, Hammond.
Baton Rouge — 871k people across 10 counties. Price level 90.78, housing 74.183, property tax 0.56%. Compared with New Orleans, Lafayette, Shreveport, Slidell, Lake Charles, Monroe, Houma, Alexandria, Hammond.
Lafayette — 411k people across 4 counties. Price level 87.209, housing 58.845, property tax 0.48%. Compared with New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Shreveport, Slidell, Lake Charles, Monroe, Houma, Alexandria, Hammond.
Shreveport-Bossier City — 389k people across 3 counties. Price level 84.766, housing 52.286, property tax 0.60%. Compared with New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Slidell, Lake Charles, Monroe, Houma, Alexandria, Hammond.
Slidell-Mandeville-Covington — 269k people across 1 county. Price level 92.726, housing 85.449, property tax 0.74%. Compared with New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, Lake Charles, Monroe, Houma, Alexandria, Hammond.
Lake Charles — 246k people across 3 counties. Price level 85.852, housing 51.752, property tax 0.42%. Compared with New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, Slidell, Monroe, Houma, Alexandria, Hammond.
Monroe — 225k people across 4 counties. Price level 83.597, housing 42.815, property tax 0.51%. Compared with New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, Slidell, Lake Charles, Houma, Alexandria, Hammond.
Houma-Bayou Cane-Thibodaux — 204k people across 2 counties. Price level 85.103, housing 51.311, property tax 0.47%. Compared with New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, Slidell, Lake Charles, Monroe, Alexandria, Hammond.
Alexandria — 151k people across 2 counties. Price level 85.686, housing 53.684, property tax 0.58%. Compared with New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, Slidell, Lake Charles, Monroe, Houma, Hammond.
Hammond — 135k people across 1 county. Price level 84.46, housing 48.16, property tax 0.43%. Compared with New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, Shreveport, Slidell, Lake Charles, Monroe, Houma, Alexandria.
The counties behind each rate
Nobody pays a metropolitan area's property tax rate. They pay their county's, and the figures above are those county rates averaged and weighted by how many homes each county holds. Opened up:
New Orleans averages 0.64% across 7 counties: Orleans Parish 0.82%, Jefferson Parish 0.52%, St. Charles Parish 0.57%, St. Bernard Parish 0.51%, St. John the Baptist Parish 0.45%, Plaquemines Parish 0.46%, St. James Parish 0.53%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.45% in St. John the Baptist Parish to 0.82% in Orleans Parish, which is $1,475 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Baton Rouge averages 0.56% across 10 counties: East Baton Rouge Parish 0.64%, Livingston Parish 0.49%, Ascension Parish 0.53%, Iberville Parish 0.33%, West Baton Rouge Parish 0.59%, Pointe Coupee Parish 0.28%, Assumption Parish 0.43%, East Feliciana Parish 0.15%, and 2 more. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.15% in East Feliciana Parish to 0.64% in East Baton Rouge Parish, which is $1,945 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Lafayette averages 0.48% across 4 counties: Lafayette Parish 0.57%, Vermilion Parish 0.34%, Acadia Parish 0.30%, St. Martin Parish 0.40%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.30% in Acadia Parish to 0.57% in Lafayette Parish, which is $1,056 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Shreveport averages 0.60% across 3 counties: Caddo Parish 0.61%, Bossier Parish 0.64%, De Soto Parish 0.31%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.31% in De Soto Parish to 0.64% in Bossier Parish, which is $1,327 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Slidell averages 0.74% across 1 county: St. Tammany Parish 0.74%. One county, so the area rate is that county's rate exactly — no averaging involved.
Lake Charles averages 0.42% across 3 counties: Calcasieu Parish 0.44%, Jefferson Davis Parish 0.28%, Cameron Parish 0.44%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.28% in Jefferson Davis Parish to 0.44% in Calcasieu Parish, which is $648 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Monroe averages 0.51% across 4 counties: Ouachita Parish 0.56%, Morehouse Parish 0.43%, Union Parish 0.41%, Richland Parish 0.35%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.35% in Richland Parish to 0.56% in Ouachita Parish, which is $814 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Houma averages 0.47% across 2 counties: Terrebonne Parish 0.45%, Lafourche Parish 0.50%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.45% in Terrebonne Parish to 0.50% in Lafourche Parish, which is $191 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Alexandria averages 0.58% across 2 counties: Rapides Parish 0.57%, Grant Parish 0.64%. Inside the area the rate runs from 0.57% in Rapides Parish to 0.64% in Grant Parish, which is $256 a year on a $400,000 home — a real spread inside a single labour market.
Hammond averages 0.43% across 1 county: Tangipahoa Parish 0.43%. One county, so the area rate is that county's rate exactly — no averaging involved.
Which is the limitation of every figure on this page, stated rather than buried: an area rate is an average, and your address decides what you actually pay. The county pages linked above carry the rate, the assessment basis and the source for each one.
Where Louisiana cities sit among the 380 in the country
A state ranking answers "where in Louisiana". It does not answer whether Louisiana is an expensive place to begin with, and the two questions have different answers often enough to be worth separating.
Against all 380 metropolitan areas the Bureau of Economic Analysis prices, Slidell ranks 213 and Monroe ranks 380, counting from the most expensive. The national median area sits at 93.492 — Monroe — so 0 of these 10 Louisiana areas are dearer than the typical American metropolitan area and 10 are cheaper.
Monroe is in the cheapest tenth of the country, so the bottom of this state's table is genuinely cheap and not just cheap relative to its neighbours.
The distinction matters for a specific reason. Everything on this page holds the income tax constant because these cities share a state; the moment a move crosses a state line that stops being true, and the comparison becomes the harder one — which is what Louisiana against every other state is for.
The tax that is the same in all 10
Worth spelling out, because it is what makes the ranking above readable at all. On $100,000, in every one of these areas:
Federal income tax — $13,170. Set by Congress, identical everywhere in the United States.
Social Security and Medicare — $7,650. Also federal, and also flat across the country up to the Social Security ceiling.
Louisiana income tax — $2,625. One set of brackets for the whole state, one standard deduction, applied identically in every city on this page.
Local income tax — $0. Louisiana does not permit counties, cities or school districts to levy their own. That is not a modelling shortcut, it is the law, and it is the condition on which these pages get published: in the eleven states that do permit it, the levying jurisdictions do not line up with metropolitan areas and no honest rate can be assigned.
Which leaves property tax as the only tax in the whole comparison that moves — from $1,695 to $2,946 a year on the same $400,000 home — and the price level as the only other thing. Two variables, both measured, both sourced. It is as clean as a cost-of-living comparison gets.
Monroe stays on top whether you rent or buy
A ranking built on one salary and one house value is worth exactly as much as its assumptions, so here are the same 10 areas resolved again with those assumptions changed.
Renting, with no property tax at all: Monroe still leads, by $9,016 over Slidell. The order does not depend on owning a house.
On $60,000 instead of $100,000: Monroe still leads. The gap narrows to $6,513 — smaller in dollars, but a larger share of a smaller salary.
On $250,000: Monroe still leads, and by $21,481 — the spread widens with income, because the price level applies to everything you have left after tax.
This is the same discipline applied to a single published figure elsewhere on this site: a number without its range is half a number. Every page linked above lets you set your own salary, your own house and your own horizon, and recomputes the whole comparison rather than scaling it.
How this is worked out, and what it does not claim
Every row is the same calculation: gross salary in, federal income tax and FICA out, Louisiana income tax out, property tax on a $400,000 home out — then what is left divided by that area's price level, so the figure is what the money buys rather than what the payslip says.
The price index is the Bureau of Economic Analysis Regional Price Parity, 2024, published per metropolitan area with a documented method and broken into housing, goods, utilities and services. Which counties make up each area comes from the Census Bureau delineation file, joined by CBSA code and never by name — there are thirty "Washington County" in the United States and a join on names would have failed silently.
US Bureau of Economic Analysis — Regional Price Parities by State and Metro Area, 2024 (released 19 February 2026) — read 2026-09-10. https://www.bea.gov/data/prices-inflation/regional-price-parities-state-and-metro-area
US Census Bureau — Core Based Statistical Areas delineation file, 2023 (which counties form each metropolitan area) — read 2026-09-10. https://www.census.gov/geographies/reference-files/time-series/demo/metro-micro/delineation-files.html
US Census Bureau, American Community Survey — county effective property tax rates and housing units — read 2026-08-31. https://data.census.gov/
What it does not claim: that the city at the top is the better place to live. This measures what a salary buys. Schools, the commute, the weather and how far you are from your family are not in it, and on a move inside one state they are usually what actually decides it.
It also assumes one salary, one house value and a buyer rather than a renter. Every page linked above lets you change all three, and the answer moves with them — on some pairs enough to change which city comes out ahead.
Where to go next
Questions
- Which city in Louisiana leaves you best off?
- Monroe, at $89,146 of purchasing power on $100,000 with a $400,000 home — $9,763 a year more than Slidell at the other end of the table. Because the income tax is identical everywhere in Louisiana, that ranking is made of two things only: the price level and property tax.
- Which is the cheapest city in Louisiana?
- Monroe, at 83.597 on the Bureau of Economic Analysis price index where 100 is the US average, against 92.726 in Slidell. Cheapest is not the same as best off, though: property tax is set separately and can move a household by $914 a year on the same house.
- Does income tax differ between cities in Louisiana?
- No. Louisiana sets one set of brackets for the whole state, and it does not let counties or cities levy their own income tax. On $100,000 the bill is federal $13,170, FICA $7,650 and state $2,625 in every one of these 10 areas. That is what makes comparing them clean.
- How much does cost of living vary inside Louisiana?
- From 83.597 to 92.726 on the price index — 9.1 points between Monroe and Slidell. In take-home terms that is $9,763 a year of purchasing power on the same salary.
- How many Louisiana city comparisons are there?
- 45, one page each, every pair of the 10 metropolitan areas the Bureau of Economic Analysis prices in Louisiana. Each resolves the same way — income tax, property tax and price level — and each shows the break-even salary in both directions.