Every Louisiana Parish Property Tax Rate, Ranked From Lowest to Highest

LAFAYETTE, La. — If you own a home in Louisiana, you already know the state is one of the more tax-friendly places to live in America. What you may not know is that two homeowners with identical $300,000 houses — one in East Feliciana Parish, one in Allen Parish — can end up with property tax bills that differ by more than a thousand dollars a year, even though both live in the same state under the same rules.

That gap exists because property taxes in Louisiana are set almost entirely at the local level. According to Southern Title, which tracks millage rates across all 64 Louisiana parishes using data from the Louisiana Tax Commission, total combined millage rates run from a low of 48.40 mills in East Feliciana Parish to 145.70 mills in Allen Parish.

Lafayette Parish sits at 105.20 mills, placing it right in the middle of the state — slightly below the 50th percentile when ranked by millage rate. For a homeowner in the city of Lafayette with a $300,000 house who qualifies for the homestead exemption, that works out to a 0.79% effective tax rate.

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How Louisiana Property Taxes Actually Work

Louisiana does not have a state property tax. Every mill on your tax bill comes from local authorities — your parish government, school board, sheriff’s law enforcement district, fire department, library system, drainage boards, levee boards, and various special improvement districts.

One mill equals $1 in tax for every $1,000 of assessed value. Louisiana assesses residential property at 10% of fair market value, so a $300,000 home carries an assessed value of $30,000. A combined millage rate of 100 mills on that property produces $3,000 in annual taxes before exemptions.

white and red wooden house beside grey framed magnifying glass

The homestead exemption cuts that bill considerably for owner-occupied primary residences. Louisiana law exempts the first $7,500 of assessed value from parish, state, and most special taxes — the equivalent of exempting the first $75,000 of your home’s market value. On a $300,000 home with a 100-mill rate, the homestead exemption saves you $750 per year.

One thing worth knowing: the homestead exemption does not apply to municipal taxes. Homeowners inside city limits pay city millages on the full assessed value, which is why a Lafayette city resident and a Lafayette Parish resident just outside the city limits can carry different tax bills despite sharing the same parish.

Why Millage Rates Vary So Much

Coastal and low-lying parishes generally carry higher levee millages because they maintain flood protection infrastructure that inland parishes don’t need. That’s part of why Cameron Parish and St. Bernard Parish sit near the top of the rankings despite their very different population sizes.

Growing suburban parishes tend to carry higher school millages, driven by voter-approved measures to fund new schools and teacher pay. The 2024 statewide reassessment also triggered automatic millage adjustments across Louisiana. Under state law, when assessed property values rise at reassessment, taxing authorities must roll back their millage rates to keep total tax collections revenue-neutral. Most authorities hold at those rolled-back rates rather than rolling them forward, but some choose to levy additional mills through a super-majority vote and a publicly noticed hearing.

Two neighboring parishes with similar home values can end up at very different millage totals based entirely on decisions made by their local school boards and parish councils over decades.

The Parishes With the Lowest Rates

All rates below come from Southern Title’s parish millage database, which draws from Louisiana Tax Commission annual reports and individual parish assessor offices. The effective rate reflects the annual tax on a $300,000 owner-occupied home with the homestead exemption applied, divided by the home value. Ward-level rates and special assessments can push the actual bill higher.

East Feliciana Parish has the lightest property tax burden in the state at just 48.40 combined mills, an effective rate of 0.36% on that $300,000 benchmark. St. Martin Parish is next at 56.20 mills (0.42%), followed by Evangeline at 67.80 mills (0.51%), Pointe Coupee at 69.80 mills (0.52%), and Plaquemines at 70.69 mills (0.53%).

Rounding out the ten cheapest parishes: Acadia at 71.80 mills (0.54%), West Feliciana at 72.30 mills (0.54%), Union at 72.88 mills (0.55%), Iberia at 74.30 mills (0.56%), and Avoyelles at 75.70 mills (0.57%).

brown and white concrete house near green trees during daytime

Parishes in the next tier — still well below the state midpoint — include Winn (79.80 mills), Claiborne (84.10), Vermilion (84.50), Richland (84.52), Lincoln (85.36), Sabine (86.40), Tensas (89.30), Natchitoches (89.80), Catahoula (90.30), and Rapides (90.63).

One important caveat: a low millage rate on a standardized $300,000 home doesn’t always mean the lowest actual tax bills. East Feliciana has the lowest rate in the state, but its median annual tax bill is $328 — slightly higher than Allen Parish’s median of $199 — because home values in East Feliciana are higher. According to The Center Square, Allen Parish’s median home is valued low enough that even with a higher millage rate, most homeowners there pay less in actual dollars than their East Feliciana counterparts. Millage rates tell you how aggressively your local government taxes property. Median tax bills tell you what people are actually paying.

The Parishes With the Highest Rates

On the other end of the spectrum, Allen Parish carries the highest combined millage in the state at 145.70 mills, an effective rate of 1.09%. Grant Parish is close behind at 143.85 mills (1.08%), followed by Caddo at 143.39 mills (1.08%), St. Bernard at 141.10 mills (1.06%), and Cameron at 138.41 mills (1.04%). Bienville rounds out that group at 138.40 mills (1.04%).

The next cluster of high-millage parishes: Caldwell at 133.20 mills (1.00%), Orleans at 131.99 mills (0.99%), Ouachita at 130.96 mills (0.98%), East Carroll at 129.30 mills (0.97%), Beauregard at 128.25 mills (0.96%), Terrebonne at 126.40 mills (0.95%), De Soto at 126.13 mills (0.95%), and St. Landry at 125.10 mills (0.94%).

Coastal parishes like Cameron and St. Bernard sit near the top largely because of levee millages — they fund flood protection infrastructure that inland parishes simply don’t need. Parishes like Caddo and Ouachita carry higher rates driven more by school board and municipal millages built up over decades of voter-approved measures.

Where Lafayette Stands in Acadiana and the State

Lafayette’s 105.20 combined mills puts it at No. 35 out of 64 parishes, just under the midpoint when ranked from lowest to highest. Among its Acadiana neighbors, Lafayette runs higher than Acadia (71.80 mills), Iberia (74.30), St. Martin (56.20), and Vermilion (84.50), but lower than St. Landry (125.10).

LEDA, the Lafayette Economic Development Authority, confirms the 2025 parish-wide combined millage at 105.20 mills, with the rate dropping to 88.29 mills for property outside the city limits of Lafayette. That difference reflects the additional city-level millages that residents inside Lafayette city limits pay on top of the base parish rate.

For a homeowner in the city of Lafayette with a $300,000 home who qualifies for the homestead exemption, the 2025 combined millage rate of 105.20 produces an effective tax rate of 0.79%, or roughly $2,370 per year. Outside city limits in Lafayette Parish, the 88.29-mill rate generates a substantially lower bill.

Sheriff Mark Garber rolled forward two law enforcement millages in fall 2024. According to The Acadiana Advocate, the owner of a $275,000 home can expect to pay about $21.40 more per year as a result of that action.

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Louisiana’s Property Tax Advantage — And Its Trade-Off

Louisiana homeowners pay far less than their counterparts in most states. AARP reports that Louisiana’s average effective property tax rate is 0.55% of a home’s assessed value, citing the Tax Foundation. The national average runs around 0.90%.

The $75,000 homestead exemption carries a lot of that weight. A homeowner in a 105-mill parish saves $787 per year compared to what they would pay without it. In a higher-mill parish like Caddo at 143 mills, that exemption is worth $1,072 annually.

Louisiana does, however, recoup a significant chunk of that property tax savings through sales taxes. The Tax Foundation puts the state’s combined state and local sales tax rate at 10.11%, the highest in the nation. Lafayette homeowners pay less to own their house than almost anywhere in America. They just pay more every time they go to the store.

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