70605
Lake Charles, Louisiana.
Lake Charles, Calcasieu Parish, LA · Lake Charles, LA metro · population 40,482
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$505 (+54%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $2,863 +1%
- $273,163$276,027 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $1,641 +1%
- $274,386$276,027 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.
- 70605$1,449
- United States$1,922
Typical home values in zip 70605 rose 1.0% over the past year — in step with the nation.
Asking rents in zip 70605 rose 24.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in zip 70605 runs $408/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $821 in Oct 2022.
That is $1,847 a month against $1,438 rent: a $1,449 mortgage payment, plus $103 property tax and $296 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — zip 70605
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$1,847
- Renting$1,438
- Mortgage only$1,449
Property tax · $103/mo 0.45% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Calcasieu Parish, LA
Insurance & upkeep · $296/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 — 70605
Against the Lake Charles, LA metro and the national benchmark.
- 70605$1,438
- Lake Charles$1,358
- United States$1,932
Typical home value — 70605
Mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- 70605$276,027
- 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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 6.9 | 70607 | Lake Charles | 27,080 | $1,367 | $203,121 |
| 7.5 | 70601 | Lake Charles | 30,872 | $1,039 | $100,280 |
| 7.7 | 70669 | Westlake | 9,552 | $1,965 | $187,556 |
| 10.2 | 70665 | Sulphur | 13,222 | — | $236,361 |
| 12.3 | 70663 | Sulphur | 27,799 | $1,124 | $184,408 |
| 12.5 | 70615 | Lake Charles | 12,980 | — | $145,015 |
| 14.2 | 70645 | Hackberry | 899 | — | $233,180 |
| 15.2 | 70630 | Bell City | 1,478 | — | $199,345 |
| 15.5 | 70611 | Lake Charles | 22,124 | $1,181 | $257,148 |
| 17.4 | 70647 | Iowa | 12,736 | — | $246,279 |
Coordinates and population from SimpleMaps US Zips (Basic). Rent and home values from Zillow Research.