Baton Rouge, LA — Momentum Score, Home Values & Best-For

All states·Louisiana·Baton Rouge

East Baton Rouge Parish · Baton Rouge · population 220,907

First-time buyersShrinking
Baton Rouge, LA
Image: Wikipedia · Baton Rouge, Louisiana
OverviewCost of livingMoving guide
View watchlist →
54
Stable
Momentum score · 0–100

Where Baton Rouge stands

At or near all-time high. population shrinking 0.7% per year.

Median home $231,011
1-year -0.3%
5-yr CAGR +2.5%
vs 5-yr peak -0.9%
Population -0.7%/yr

Home value trajectory · last 10 years

Zillow ZHVI · monthly
peak 2025-02$231k$158k$186k$214k$242k201620182020202220242026

Lifestyle scores

🚶
Walkability
40/100
Car-dependent
Estimated from population density. Higher = denser, more amenities within walking distance.
🚉
Public transit
38/100
Minimal transit
Curated list of major US transit systems + population-based estimate. Higher = real subway/rail/bus options.
💻
Remote work fit
68/100
Strong remote-work fit
Composite of city size, housing cost, state tax structure, and region's remote-work track record.

Scores are heuristic estimates from population density, state, and known transit/walkable cities. Not based on a paid Walk Score / Transit Score API — see methodology for the formula.

Rent trajectory · last 5 years

Zillow ZORI · monthly
$1,343/mo$1,059$1,241$1,424202220242026

Home value vs rent · indexed to 100

Both rebased at first month of ZORI data (~2015)
Home valueRent113119100120202220242026

Rent vs buy

Price-to-rent ratio: 14.3
Buy

At a 14.3 price-to-rent ratio, buying generally beats renting in Baton Rouge on a long-enough horizon. The headline math is that one year of mortgage payments approximates 14.3 years of rent — well below the 15+ threshold where ownership starts to dominate.

How the momentum score breaks down

methodology →
Home YoY
49 · w22%
Home 5-yr CAGR
50 · w22%
Distance from peak
85 · w18%
Population growth
34 · w16%
Rent YoY
56 · w12%
Home 10-yr CAGR
45 · w10%
Long thesis

Baton Rouge has held up across the cycle: home values at $231,011 with +2.5% 5-year CAGR. The bull case is structural — population, location, employer base — and holds even if next year's print is soft.

Short thesis

Baton Rouge's population is shrinking 0.7% per year. Housing demand has to come from somewhere — if people are leaving, the buyer pool is shrinking faster than the inventory. That eventually shows up in price.

About Baton Rouge

Baton Rouge is a city in East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana, with an estimated population of 220,907. The population has contracted 0.7% per year on average since 2020. The median home value in Baton Rouge is $231,011 as of 2026-04, down 0.3% over the last 12 months. Over the last five years, home values have averaged +2.5% annual growth, with prices at or near the 5-year peak. Rents in Baton Rouge average $1,343 per month, roughly flat year-over-year (+1.7%). The composite momentum score is 54 of 100 (Stable). Conditions are neither hot nor cold, so the local fit matters more than market timing.

▲ Bull case

●Held the highs: currently -0.9% from the 5-year peak — this market refused to give back gains.
○The data is the data: Baton Rouge has at least 5 years of Zillow tracking, full Census identification, and is included in the 2-criteria momentum score on this page.

▼ Bear case

●Flat or shrinking population: -0.7% per year. Housing demand has to come from somewhere — verify the source.
○Local nuance: city-level data smooths over neighborhood differences. School zones, HOA rules, and street-level character matter — visit before deciding.

About Baton Rouge (Wikipedia)

Baton Rouge is the capital city of the U.S. state of Louisiana. It had a population of 227,470 at the 2020 United States census, making it Louisiana's second-most populous city. It is the seat of Louisiana's most populous parish, East Baton Rouge Parish, and the center of Louisiana's second-largest metropolitan area, Greater Baton Rouge, which had 870,569 residents in 2020.

Source: Wikipedia · this summary is contributed and licensed under CC-BY-SA.

City facts

Mayor-PresidentSid Edwards
Area88.52 sq mi
Elevation46 ft
Founded1699
Density2635.32/sq mi

Extracted from the Wikipedia infobox. Values may be slightly out of date relative to the latest sources.

Things to see in Baton Rouge(Tourism and recreation)

  • USS ''Kidd''
  • Now And Then African-American Museum
  • Old Louisiana State Capitol
  • Louisiana State Capitol
  • Magnolia Mound Plantation House
  • Myrtles Plantation
  • Nottoway Plantation
  • Italian Renaissance
  • Capitol Park Museum
  • Baton Rouge River Center
  • Louisiana State Archive and Research Library
  • Pennington Biomedical Research Center

+6 more on Wikipedia.

Extracted from the Wikipedia article. Names linked in the source — open the city’s Wikipedia page for details.

Playbook

Buyer

Lifestyle fit matters more than market timing in a Stable market. Take your time on the home and neighborhood; the macro trend isn't urgent. Negotiate normally.

Seller

Price competitively from day one or risk a 60+ day listing. Staging, photography, and presentation matter more in Stable markets than in Hot ones.

Investor

Stable cap rates, no big appreciation story to lean on. Underwrite this as a pure cash-flow play — the math has to work on rent alone.

Local safety & alerts

No active National Weather Service alerts for East Baton Rouge Parish right now.

NWS active alerts (LA)Louisiana Emergency ManagementHow to prepare (NWS)

Public-safety links are official .gov sources, not curated by us. East Baton Rouge Parish routes NWS alerts; check the state EM portal for non-weather emergencies.

Neighborhoods of Baton Rouge

55 tracked · ranked by median home value
1Woodchase$615,870+4.0%
2Nicholson$509,359+2.0%
3Kleinpeter$452,420+0.5%
4Southside$422,508+3.4%
5Kenilworth$376,647+2.9%
6Woodstone$370,174+2.9%
7Tara$367,787+4.0%
8Highland-Perkins$367,365+2.5%
9Pollard$351,341+2.8%
10City Park$335,756-4.9%
11Inniswold$328,994+2.8%
12Shenandoah$328,864+2.7%
13College Town$318,237+2.0%
14Goodwood$306,799+0.8%
15Jefferson$289,076+1.1%
16O'Neal$279,543+2.7%
17Bocage$270,474+1.2%
18Jones Creek$262,926-0.2%
19Drusilla$246,700-4.0%
20Sherwood Forest$242,804-0.3%
21Mid City$238,418-0.7%
22Broadmoor$236,269-0.6%
23Westminster$232,928-2.9%
24Mayfair$231,360-5.5%

See the full neighborhood ranking →

Cities like Baton Rouge

Shreveport, LA48 · StableMonroe, LA54 · StableLafayette, LA53 · StableBossier City, LA63 · Rising

Run the numbers for Baton Rouge

ToolCan I afford Baton Rouge?Income → city shortlistToolROI on a Baton Rouge rentalCap rate, cash-on-cash, DSCRToolCompare Baton Rouge to anywhereSide-by-side up to 3 citiesToolBaton Rouge cost-of-livingEquivalent income elsewhere

Sources: Zillow ZHVI (home values), Zillow ZORI (rents), US Census ACS + place population. Updated when source agencies publish revisions.

Climate & natural-disaster risk

Winter (Jan)
61° / 43°
avg high / low
Summer (Jul)
91° / 74°
avg high / low
Sunny days/yr
217
~59% of year
Annual precip
60″ rain
0″ snow
Disaster risk (1=very low, 5=very high)
Hurricane
Very high
Tornado
Moderate
Wildfire
Very low
Earthquake
Very low
Flood
Very high

State-level averages from NOAA Climate Normals (1991-2020) and FEMA National Risk Index. City-level conditions can vary significantly within a state.

Current weather

Loading current conditions…

7-day forecast on weather.gov →

Find rentals & listings

Open current Baton Rouge listings on the major real-estate sites.

Links open the live search on the destination site — results are always current.

Local news & community

Updated 2026-05-21 from Google News + Reddit RSS. Headlines link to original sources.

Local sports teams

Major professional teams the Baton Rouge area cheers for. Detailed stats, schedules, and player pages on intherafters.com.

Local economy & environment

Humidity
75%
Very humid climate
Median household income
$57,800
Louisiana state median
Top industries (state-level)
Oil & GasTourismShipping/Petrochemicals

Humidity is annual average relative humidity (NOAA). Income is Census ACS 5-year estimate. Industries are largest employment sectors statewide (BLS); the local mix in a given city may vary.

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