West Monroe, Louisiana.
Typical home $201,762 (+2.9% in a year), asking rent $1,219 (+12.1%). Monroe, LA metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$436 (+70%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $5,666 +3%
- $196,096$201,762 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $22,196 +12%
- $179,566$201,762 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.
- West Monroe$1,059
- Louisiana$1,123
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 30 years.
Typical home values in West Monroe, LA rose 2.9% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Asking rents in West Monroe, LA rose 12.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +2.7%.
Owning the typical home in West Monroe runs $147/mo more than renting one. The gap peaked at $397 in Oct 2023.
That is $1,366 a month against $1,219 rent: a $1,059 mortgage payment, plus $91 property tax and $216 insurance & upkeep.
Owning vs renting — West Monroe
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$1,366
- Renting$1,219
- Mortgage only$1,059
Property tax · $91/mo 0.54% of value a year — the ACS 2020-2024 median bill over the median home value for Ouachita Parish, LA
Insurance & upkeep · $216/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 West Monroe, Ouachita Parish, Louisiana
West Monroe is a city of 13,103 people in Ouachita Parish. 45% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 55% are rented. Unemployment in Ouachita Parish was 3.7% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% 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. West Monroe is a small city in Ouachita Parish, on the Ouachita River's western bank. The population is young for the country, and a good share of adults hold a four-year degree. Fewer homes are lived in by their owners than in many towns, and poverty is more common than most places. Winters are mild and short, summers are hot, and the year brings plenty of rain.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in professional and business services, and in the building trades. Ouachita Parish Schools, Glenwood Regional Medical Center and Walmart are among the largest workplaces in town. Most people have a fairly short drive to work, and few work from home.
Things to do. In or beside town, the Biedenharn Museum and Gardens is a botanical garden, and Kiroli Park is a park for time outdoors. A short drive away, Watson Brake is an archaeological site, and the Louisiana Purchase Gardens and Zoo is a zoo. Black Bayou Lake National Wildlife Refuge, also a short drive off, is a protected area for walking and watching wildlife.
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- 4,951households
- 22%of adults have a degree
- 26%below the poverty line
- 20 mintypical commute
- 5%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Ouachita Parish had 69,886 jobs in 2025, 0.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 57° and lows near 37°; warmest in August, with highs near 94° and lows near 71°. About 55 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Monroe Regional Airport weather station, 6 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in West Monroe
- Ouachita Parish SchoolsSchool district2,556FTE
- Glenwood Regional Medical CenterGeneral hospital553FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters377
- Edge E & I ServiceElectrical, electrical wiring, and low voltage electrical work172
- Central Management CompanySkilled nursing facilities143
- CommcareSkilled nursing facilities134
- WalmartSupermarkets and other grocery stores126
- Advanced Conveyor InstallationConveyor system installation105
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 19 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,639 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
- Ice stormsRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- Strong windrelatively high in parts of West MonroeRelatively moderate
- HailRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in West Monroe’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively low. 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 Ouachita Parish and the Monroe, LA metro.
West Monroe home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- West Monroe$201,762
- Louisiana$213,867
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 West Monroe listings, and the typical home goes pending in 7 days — the market is heating up.
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.
- West Monroe23.56%
- United States26.90%
Days to pending
How long the typical listing takes to go under contract.
- West Monroe7
- United States27
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- West Monroe118
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- West Monroe42
Median sale price
What buyers actually paid — closed sales, not asking prices.
- West Monroe$229,129
- United States$371,407
Sale-to-list ratio
Above 100%, homes sell over asking; below, buyers negotiate wins.
- West Monroe98.58%
Zip codes with a West Monroe address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls West Monroe — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.
Zip codes in West Monroe
| Zip activate to sort by Zip | Place activate to sort by Place | Population sorted descending, activate to sort ascending | Rent activate to sort by Rent | Home value activate to sort by Home value |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 71291 | West Monroe | 35,269 | $1,267 | $220,135 |
| 71292 | West Monroe | 22,935 | $921 | $156,696 |