70601
Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish, LA · Lake Charles, LA metro · population 30,872
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — $228 (-30%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $6,877 -6%
- $107,157$100,280 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $71,013 -41%
- $171,293$100,280 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- 70601$526
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in zip 70601 fell 6.4% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in zip 70601 rose 10.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in zip 70601 runs $368/mo less than renting one — the widest that gap has been in this data.
That is $671 a month against $1,039 rent: a $526 mortgage payment, plus $37 property tax and $107 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — zip 70601
The owning line is the typical home's monthly payment at that month's rate, plus property tax and insurance & upkeep; the renting line is the typical asking rent; the grey line is the mortgage payment on its own. Same homes, same months, both ways of paying for a roof.
- Owning all in$671
- Renting$1,039
- Mortgage only$526
Property tax · $37/mo 0.45% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Calcasieu Parish, LA
Insurance & upkeep · $107/mo insurance, maintenance and repairs together, from the BLS Consumer Expenditure Survey — the national figure for mortgaged homeowners, scaled to this market's home value. BLS publishes the three bundled and they cannot be split.
Both are priced off the same month's home value, so they rise with the market. Neither is a quote — a specific home's bill depends on its assessment, its age and its insurer.
Zillow also publishes an index for the city itself: Lake Charles, LA — measured over the city limits, which is a different area from this zip.
Asking rent — 70601
Against the Lake Charles, LA metro and the national benchmark.
- 70601$1,039
- Lake Charles$1,358
- United States$1,932
Typical home value — 70601
Mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- 70601$100,280
- Lake Charles$201,631
- United States$366,157
Within 20 miles
| Miles sorted ascending, activate to sort descending | Zip activate to sort by Zip | City activate to sort by City | Population activate to sort by Population | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 3.9 | 70669 | Westlake | 9,552 | $1,965 | $187,556 |
| 5.9 | 70615 | Lake Charles | 12,980 | — | $145,015 |
| 7.5 | 70605 | Lake Charles | 40,482 | $1,438 | $276,027 |
| 8.3 | 70611 | Lake Charles | 22,124 | $1,181 | $257,148 |
| 11.1 | 70663 | Sulphur | 27,799 | $1,124 | $184,408 |
| 12.0 | 70647 | Iowa | 12,736 | — | $246,279 |
| 12.2 | 70607 | Lake Charles | 27,080 | $1,367 | $203,121 |
| 15.4 | 70665 | Sulphur | 13,222 | — | $236,361 |
| 16.9 | 70630 | Bell City | 1,478 | — | $199,345 |
| 17.5 | 70633 | Dequincy | 8,486 | — | $157,708 |
| 19.4 | 70657 | Ragley | 5,254 | — | $249,592 |
Coordinates and population from SimpleMaps US Zips (Basic). Rent and home values from Zillow Research.