Ponchatoula, Louisiana.
Typical home $246,990 (+1.8% in a year), asking rent $1,675 (+0.8%). Hammond, LA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$562 (+76%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $4,469 +2%
- $242,522$246,990 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $16,518 +7%
- $230,472$246,990 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.
- Ponchatoula$1,296
- Louisiana$1,123
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 50 years.
Typical home values in Ponchatoula, LA rose 1.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in Ponchatoula, LA rose 0.8% over the past year — slower than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in Ponchatoula runs $29/mo less than renting one. The gap peaked at $149 in Nov 2025.
That is $1,646 a month against $1,675 rent: a $1,296 mortgage payment, plus $85 property tax and $264 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — Ponchatoula
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$1,646
- Renting$1,675
- Mortgage only$1,296
Property tax · $85/mo 0.41% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Tangipahoa Parish, LA
Insurance & upkeep · $264/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.
Living in Ponchatoula, Tangipahoa Parish, Louisiana
Ponchatoula is a city of 7,822 people in Tangipahoa Parish. 76% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 24% are rented. Unemployment in Tangipahoa Parish was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had about as many jobs in 2025 as the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then restaurants and hotels.
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. Ponchatoula is a small city in Tangipahoa Parish, with a population on the older side and most homes lived in by their owners. Household incomes across the parish run below the typical American figure, and a good share of residents live below the poverty line, though the cost of a home here sits in a middle range. Winters are mild, with cool days and chilly nights, and summers are hot, and the year brings a lot of rain.
Work. Residents work mainly in schools, hospitals and social care, in restaurants, hotels and entertainment, and in transport, warehouses and utilities, with professional and business services close behind. Among the largest workplaces in town are Walmart, United Medical Rehabilitation Hospital and Gabriel Building Supply. The commute is a fairly long one, and only a small number of people work from home. Unemployment across the parish has eased compared with a year ago, though the number of jobs has held about level.
Things to do. Much of the outdoor life here is on the water. The Tickfaw River and Sims Creek are a short drive away, and Lake Pontchartrain is a longer drive for those who want a big lake. For a quiet walk among trees and wetland, Joyce Wildlife Management Area, a protected area, is a short drive away, as is the Columbia Theatre for the Performing Arts for an evening out.
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- 3,449households
- 24%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 33 mintypical commute
- 9%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Tangipahoa Parish had 47,216 jobs in 2025, about as many as the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 62° and lows near 38°; warmest in August, with highs near 92° and lows near 71°. About 64 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Hammond East weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Ponchatoula
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters350
- United Medical Rehabilitation HospitRehabilitation hospital60FTE
- Gabriel Building SupplyBuilding materials supply dealers53
- GSF of LouisianaTracked vehicle freight transportation, local52
- PonchatoulaMail and parcel delivery37
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 4 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 492 people in all. Hospitals come 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
- HurricanesVery high
- Coastal floodingRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively moderate
- Inland floodingRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Ponchatoula’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively high. 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 Tangipahoa Parish and the Hammond, LA metro.
Ponchatoula home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Ponchatoula$246,990
- Louisiana$213,867
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 3 Ponchatoula listings, and the typical home goes pending in 53 days — the market is cooling.
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.
- Ponchatoula30.11%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- Ponchatoula53
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Ponchatoula229
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Ponchatoula47
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- Ponchatoula$244,613
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- Ponchatoula98.16%
Zip codes with a Ponchatoula address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Ponchatoula — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.