All homes and bedroom counts
RENTAL MARKET INTELLIGENCE
New Orleans, LA
New Orleans merits investigation only by buyers comfortable underwriting weak demand signals and hurricane wind exposure; risk-sensitive investors should avoid it.
Median price$265k
Median rent$1,617
Gross yield7.3%
Job growth▼ 0.9%
Composite Market ScoreRank #565 of 571 scored US market areas
Direct rental answer
How much is rent in New Orleans, LA?
Zillow's metro-wide Observed Rent Index is $1,617 per month for 2026-06-30. That is up 0.73% from a year earlier.
Studio, 1BR and 2BR listings
Occupied rental units paying rent
Two-bedroom standard
These figures are not averaged together. Zillow and Realtor describe asking-rent markets, ACS measures rent paid by surveyed households, and HUD publishes administrative bedroom standards.
Exact county schedules
HUD rent benchmarks inside New Orleans
Every row keeps its own county FIPS schedule. No county is selected as a metro proxy and no synthetic metro FMR is calculated.
| County | Studio | 1 BR | 2 BR | 3 BR | 4 BR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Jefferson Parish, LAFIPS 22051 | $964 | $1,113 | $1,331 | $1,701 | $1,996 |
| Orleans Parish, LAFIPS 22071 | $964 | $1,113 | $1,331 | $1,701 | $1,996 |
| St. Charles Parish, LAFIPS 22089 | $964 | $1,113 | $1,331 | $1,701 | $1,996 |
| St. Bernard Parish, LAFIPS 22087 | $964 | $1,113 | $1,331 | $1,701 | $1,996 |
| St. John the Baptist Parish, LAFIPS 22095 | $964 | $1,113 | $1,331 | $1,701 | $1,996 |
| Plaquemines Parish, LAFIPS 22075 | $964 | $1,113 | $1,331 | $1,701 | $1,996 |
| St. James Parish, LAFIPS 22093 | $697 | $702 | $921 | $1,281 | $1,315 |
The read
Why this market scores where it does
New Orleans merits investigation only by buyers comfortable underwriting weak demand signals and hurricane wind exposure; risk-sensitive investors should avoid it. The median home value is $264,891, median asking rent is $1,617, and gross yield is 7.33%, creating an income opportunity before expenses.
The demand side is less supportive. Employment fell 0.88% year over year, while tax filings show net migration of -4,600 households. Rent still rose 0.73%, but that modest increase should not be treated as evidence that tenant demand can absorb vacancies or higher operating costs.
Buyers may have negotiating room: listings took a median 53 days to sell, and 29.02% recorded price drops. Yet annual climate loss equals 0.476% of building value, with hurricane wind identified as the dominant hazard. Investigate property-level insurance, resilience, achievable rent, and expenses before relying on headline yield.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
Does the headline rental income justify deeper property review?
Potentially. Median asking rent is $1,617 against a median home value of $264,891, corresponding to a 7.33% gross yield. That figure excludes operating expenses, financing, vacancies, repairs, insurance, taxes, and management, none of which are published here.
Is there evidence that a buyer may have negotiating leverage?
Yes, although it is market-level rather than property-specific. Median time on market was 53 days, 29.02% of listings had price drops, and months of supply was 4.8. These measures support careful negotiation but do not establish the discount available on any individual asset.
What do migration data say about demand quality?
Tax filings show 13,610 households moved in and 18,210 moved out, producing net migration of -4,600. Average income was $58,071 for inbound movers and $65,634 for outbound movers, a calculated difference of $7,563, with outbound movers higher. The record does not publish neighborhood-level migration.
Investor Quick Takeaways
Gross Yield: 7.3%
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Rent Momentum: ▲ 0.73%
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Investor Activity: 13.2%
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Climate Exposure: FEMA NRI
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Put the evidence to work
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep New Orleans as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
Run cash flowStarts with this market's measured price and rentSave to shortlistCompare this metro with up to four other placesCheck rent by ZIPMove from metro context to a local rent benchmarkFind a comparison marketRead a curated two-market decision analysisShare this analysisEmail the canonical link without adding page scriptsReport a data issueSend the figure, source and release period to review
Market pulse
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
Months of supply4.8 mo.▼ from 5.4 mo. a year ago
Median days on market53 days▼ from 54 days a year ago
Listings with price drops29.0%▼ from 30.5% a year ago
Sale-to-list ratio96.3%2026-05-01
Home value growth▲ 2.7%Zillow ZHVI · trailing 12 months
Rent growth▲ 0.73%Zillow ZORI · trailing 12 months
Gross rental yield7.3%Rent × 12 ÷ price
Payroll job growth▼ 0.9%CES · 12m to 2026-06
Release-to-release evidence
What actually changed
This comparison exists because at least one underlying source period advanced. Rebuilding the same data never creates a new observation.
Published score held steady16→16
0 ptsThe published component scores did not move in this release.
Weights were unchanged at metro-2026-07-v2-omb2023, so the movement comes from refreshed evidence and percentile ranks.
The named source periods advanced, but the measured values on this page held steady.
The one chart
Rents versus prices, indexed to 2019
Both series start at 100. The gap between the lines is the investment case, and which line is closing it tells you what kind of market this is.
Reindexed Price vs. Rent Growth
2019 = 100 · annual · 2019–2026
Since 2019, prices are up 9% and rents 30%. Rents running ahead of prices is what lifts yield. ✓ recomputed from series
Composite breakdown
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
Published arithmeticComponent × weight = points
16| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 15 | 30% | 4.50 |
| Rent trend | 13 | 25% | 3.25 |
| Affordability | 15 | 15% | 2.25 |
| Supply pressure | 37 | 15% | 5.55 |
| Climate risk | 2 | 15% | 0.30 |
| Published score | 16 | ||
New Orleans, LA scoreRank #565
16Job growth15/100
Job: employment declined 0.88% year over year -> weaker labor demand may limit tenant formation and rent resilience, so underwriting should not assume expanding employment.
Rent trend13/100
Rent: median asking rent is $1,617 and increased 0.73% year over year -> current income supports a 7.33% gross yield, but recent rent growth provides little cushion for vacancies, concessions, or rising expenses.
Affordability15/100
Afford: rent equals 30.97% of median household income and price equals 4.23 times income -> housing costs already claim a meaningful share of local earnings, limiting room to raise rents or resale prices without stronger incomes.
Supply pressure37/100
Supply: months of supply is 4.8, median days on market is 53, and 29.02% of listings had price drops -> buyers may gain negotiating leverage, though slower absorption can also complicate resale.
Climate risk2/100
Climate: annual climate loss is 0.476% of building value and the dominant hazard is hurricane wind -> insurance terms, deductibles, building condition, and mitigation can materially alter property-level returns.
The numbers
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
ZHVI Median Price
$265k
YoY ▲ 2.7%
ZORI Median Rent
$1,617
YoY ▲ 0.73%
Gross Rental Yield
7.3%
Rent × 12 ÷ price
$1,617 × 12 ÷ $264,891
Job Growth (YoY)
▼ 0.9%
CES payrolls
Job signal 15/100
Median Household Income
$63k
Census ACS 5-year
Rent Burden
31.0%
Annual rent ÷ household income
Price-to-Income
4.2x
Median value ÷ household income
HUD 2BR Fair Market Rent
$1,331
Market rent 121.5% of FMR
Historical affordability context
Compare aligned 2019 and 2024 asking-rent and nominal household-income endpoints across the direct-overlap metro set.
Independent rent evidence
One market, several legitimate rent benchmarks
These releases observe different homes and different moments. RentMarker keeps them separate: ZORI remains the scoring baseline, while the other sources test how sensitive the market story is to bedroom mix and measurement method.
Monthly benchmark4 of 5 reported values
Zero-based scale$1,617Primary RentMarker baseline
2026-06-30
All homes and bedroom counts
A smoothed metro rent index for observed rentals; it is the primary rent used by RentMarker scores and career ratios.
View source release ↗n/aUnavailable in this source release
2026-05
Studio, 1BR and 2BR listings
The median advertised rent in Realtor.com's 50-largest-metro rental report; source NAs remain unavailable.
View source release ↗$1,113−$504 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
One-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,331−$286 vs ZORI
FY2026 FMR
Two-bedroom standard
An administrative gross-rent benchmark used by HUD programs; it is neither a listing median nor a prediction of one lease.
View source release ↗$1,217−$400 vs ZORI
ACS 2024 5-year
Occupied rental units paying rent
A five-year survey estimate of contract rent plus applicable tenant-paid utilities; it is not a current asking-rent index.
View source release ↗Take the next step
Keep New Orleans as context, then replace market-wide evidence with the candidate property's facts.
Direct local rental evidence
Recent leases and rental-market liquidity in New Orleans, LA
These Apartment List observations match the exact metro CBSA code 35380. They are kept separate from Zillow asking rent, Census occupied-home rent and property-level comparables.
Direct recent-lease rent history
Monthly overall-rent index; missing observations are not filled from another geography.
Recent-lease rent$1,1772026-07 · -2.9% year over year
Rental vacancy5.7%2026-07 · +0.7 percentage points year over year
Time on marketn/an/a
Measured rent retention
How much of gross yield survives the first two measured deductions?
This bridge subtracts direct rental vacancy and effective property tax only. It is not net yield, NOI, cap rate or property cash flow.
measured retention property tax vacancy
- Gross yield
- 7.3%
- Vacancy
- 5.7%
- Effective tax
- 0.6%
- Retained yield
- 6.3%
Regional price level
What feels expensive inside New Orleans
BEA compares each category with the United States, which equals 100. This is a 2024 price-level comparison—not annual inflation.
BEA Regional Price Parities · 2024US = 100
Occupation wage lens
How asking rent sits against major local occupations
Annualized Zillow asking rent is divided by each BLS annual median wage. This is a screening ratio for one wage, not a household budget or affordability verdict.
Six largest published major groupsannual rent ÷ median wage
Office and Administrative Support Occupations$43,390 median wage
44.7%
Food Preparation and Serving Related Occupations$26,000 median wage
74.6%
Transportation and Material Moving Occupations$40,080 median wage
48.4%
Sales and Related Occupations$34,810 median wage
55.7%
Healthcare Practitioners and Technical Occupations$76,810 median wage
25.3%
Management Occupations$105,850 median wage
18.3%
Supply pipeline
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
National supply context
Compare this authorization pipeline with asking-rent growth, jobs and for-sale liquidity across the evidence-complete metro set.
Building permits by structure type
units per year · latest year annualised
1,696 units authorised in 2026, 12% of them in 5+ unit buildings. This is a single-family building cycle, so the competition is other houses, not new apartments. ✓ recomputed from series
Who is arriving, and who is buying
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
Net Household Move
−4,600
13,610 in vs 18,210 out (IRS SOI)
▼ 33.8% of arriving households
Mover Income Gap
−$7,563
Arriving $58,071 vs leaving $65,634
Average AGI per tax return (IRS SOI)
Investor Purchase Share
13.2%
909 of 6,891 originated purchase loans
CFPB HMDA 2024
Dominant Hazard
hurricane
0.476% building value annual loss ratio
FEMA NRI · risk type: wind
Compare yield and FEMA exposure →Households arrive mainly from: St. Tammany Parish · East Baton Rouge Parish · Harris County · Tangipahoa Parish · Ascension Parish
✓ 13,610 in − 18,210 out = -4,600 netDirect market links
Where tax-return households moved from and to
These are the largest flows where both counties map to a RentMarker market area. They are a documented subset of the all-US IRS totals above.
Leading inbound markets
- Baton Rouge, LA1,147 arriving
- Houston, TX773 arriving
- Dallas, TX360 arriving
Leading outbound markets
- Baton Rouge, LA1,504 leaving
- Houston, TX1,366 leaving
- Dallas, TX641 leaving
The other side
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- Demand could weaken further because employment declined 0.88% year over year and tax filings recorded 13,610 households moving in versus 18,210 moving out.
- Expected rental income could underperform because asking-rent growth was only 0.73%, while median rent already represented 30.97% of median household income.
- Net returns could be reduced by hurricane wind exposure, with annual climate loss measured at 0.476% of building value; property-level insurance costs are not published.
Inside this metro area
Move from the market-area average to local evidence
Use the available county and city pages to add local price, rent, housing, migration and hazard context to the market-area view.
County records
County · LAJefferson Parish$276k home · 6.6% yieldCounty · LAOrleans Parish$248k home · 8.1% yieldCounty · LASt. Charles Parish$271k home · 6.5% yieldCounty · LASt. Bernard Parish$209k home · 8.7% yieldCounty · LASt. John the Baptist Parish$201k home · 10.0% yieldCounty · LAPlaquemines Parish$278k home · 9.2% yieldCounty · LASt. James Parish$210k home · n/a yield
Cities in this market
Statistical peers
Market areas that behave like New Orleans
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Market area | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Orleans, LA (Target) | 16 | $265k | $1,617 | 7.3% | ▼ 0.9% |
| Memphis, TN | 28 | $248k | $1,435 | 6.9% | ▼ 0.4% |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 38 | $248k | $1,393 | 6.8% | ▼ 0.6% |
| Cleveland, OH | 59 | $256k | $1,474 | 6.9% | ▼ 0.1% |
| Toledo, OH | 55 | $206k | $1,276 | 7.4% | ▼ 1.6% |
Provenance
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income and gross rent | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — historical household income | direct | ACS 2019 and 2024 5-year | 2026-08-05 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Apartment List Rent Estimates — recent-lease rent index | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Time on Market — listing liquidity | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| Apartment List Vacancy Index — rental vacancy | direct | Apartment List 2026-07 | 2026-08-08 |
| BEA County Personal Income — income and population | direct | 2024 County Personal Income (released 2026-02-05); history 1969-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BEA Regional Price Parities — metropolitan price levels | direct | 2024 Regional Price Parities (released 2026-02-19); history 2008-2024 | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS OEWS — occupation employment and wages | direct | May 2025 OEWS estimates (released 2026-05-15) | 2026-08-03 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2021-2025; latest 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-08-02 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS five-year — ZCTA housing and income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year ZCTA | 2026-08-08 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI history 1975-2025; latest 2025 | 2026-08-02 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD CHAS — renter burden by HAMFI income band | direct | HUD CHAS 2018-2022 ACS 5-year (released 2025-12-23) | 2026-08-03 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD-USPS ZIP-to-county residential-address crosswalk | direct | HUD-USPS 2026Q1 | 2026-08-09 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-30 | 2026-08-06 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-08-06 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Realtor.com Rental Report — top-50 asking rents | direct | top-50 rental asking rents 2026-05 | 2026-08-05 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Redfin Data Center — ZIP resale activity and supply | direct | ZIP rolling 3 months through 2026-06-30; updated 2026-07-03 | 2026-08-12 |
| USDA ERS — Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | direct | USDA ERS 2023 Rural-Urban Continuum Codes | 2026-08-02 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI - metro market rents, not seasonally adjusted | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_month.csv | 2026-08-15 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-08-08 |