Louisiana

Evaluating Louisiana as a relocation target starts with the statewide BEA Regional Price Parity of 88.2 - where 100 is the national average, so every point above or below translates to percent-level cost of living difference. Housing costs in Louisiana index at 63.1, goods at 93.7, and services at 71.5. HUD Fair Market Rents averaged across Louisiana counties put a 2-bedroom at $1,007/month, the figure HUD uses to cap Section 8 voucher payments, so it reflects real submarket rents rather than listings bias.

On the income side, BLS Occupational Employment and Wage Statistics report a statewide median salary of $62,928 with a mean of $66,313 across 1,910,380 tracked jobs. For safety context, FBI UCR data shows a violent crime rate of 410 per 100,000 residents and a property crime rate of 1773 per 100K. These state-level reads let you benchmark Louisiana against both your origin state and national medians before zooming into specific metros.

Family and education costs often decide a move. Department of Labor data for Louisiana shows center-based infant care running $7,396/year, preschool at $7,111/year, and toddler care at $7,237/year. Louisiana contains 10 metropolitan statistical areas in our dataset - Alexandria, Baton Rouge, Hammond and more - each with its own rent, wage and crime profile that can diverge sharply from the statewide average. The composite Life Score of 61.5/100 (C) folds all seven federal sources into one number for quick comparison.