Opelousas, Louisiana.
Typical home $130,510 (-0.8% in a year), asking rent $842 . Opelousas, LA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$77 (+13%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $1,084 -1%
- $131,594$130,510 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $27,102 -17%
- $157,612$130,510 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.
- Opelousas$685
- Louisiana$1,123
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in Opelousas, LA fell 0.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Opelousas, St. Landry Parish, Louisiana
Opelousas is a city of 15,786 people in St. Landry Parish. Half its households earn more than $32,964 a year and half less, against $44,462 across St. Landry Parish; 37% of its people live below the poverty line. 53% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 47% are rented. Unemployment in St. Landry Parish was 4.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.4% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Opelousas is a small city in St. Landry Parish, with a population that is somewhat younger than in many older towns. Incomes run well below the parish's, and more people live below the poverty line than is typical, though a slim majority of homes are lived in by their owners. A typical home is valued at about what Zillow reports below, and few adults hold a four-year degree. Winters are mild, with January the coldest month, and summers are hot, with August the warmest; rain falls generously through the year.
Work. Most residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, followed by shops, then restaurants, hotels and entertainment, with manufacturing also employing many. The biggest workplaces in Opelousas include St. Landry Parish Schools, Opelousas General Hospital and Walmart. Jobs across the parish grew slightly last year, and the typical commute is a moderate one, with few people working from home.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Rural African American Museum is the best known place to visit. A longer drive brings you to Chicot State Park and the neighbouring Lake Chicot, a protected area and a lake suited to time outdoors. Also a longer drive away is the Louisiana State Arboretum, a botanical garden for slow walks.
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- 6,278households
- 11%of adults have a degree
- 37%below the poverty line
- 24 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. St. Landry Parish had 23,882 jobs in 2025, 1.4% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 64° and lows near 41°; warmest in August, with highs near 92° and lows near 72°. About 62 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Grand Coteau weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Opelousas
- St. Landry Parish SchoolsSchool district1,676FTE
- Opelousas General HospitalGeneral hospital902FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters335
- Leading Home Care - OpelousasHomemaker's service for elderly or disabled persons, non-medical175
- Ventura Foods - OpelousasGrease, inedible, animal and vegetable, refining and blending purchased oils160
- Lowe's Companies, INCHomecenter132
- RightCare Health ServicesSkilled nursing facilities124
- Prairie ContractorsAsphalt paving115
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 8 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,121 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- LightningRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- HurricanesRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Opelousas’ census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on St. Landry Parish and the Opelousas, LA metro.
Opelousas home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Opelousas$130,510
- Louisiana$213,867
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Opelousas listings — the market is roughly in balance.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Opelousas23.89%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Opelousas122
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Opelousas21
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Opelousas$144,193
- United States$371,407
Zip codes with a Opelousas address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Opelousas — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.