St. Martin Parish, Louisiana Eviction Risk: Low

St. Martin Parish scores 2.7/10 on the EvictionRiskMap scale, placing it in the Low risk tier for landlords operating across its 8 tracked cities. That average sits at rank 32 of 64 Louisiana eviction laws parishes, meaning 31 parishes carry more risk and 32 are even more landlord-friendly, putting St. Martin Parish squarely in the middle third of the state. For an investor scanning Louisiana markets, this parish represents manageable operating conditions, though the underlying numbers reveal some pressure points worth weighing before committing capital.

The average rent across the parish runs $853 per month, against an average rent burden of 35.7% of income. That burden figure matters: when renters spend more than a third of their income on housing, the margin for covering a bad month narrows, and eviction risk ticks upward accordingly. The renter share of 30.8% of the population means the landlord market is relatively small, so vacancy and tenant quality both carry more weight than in denser urban corridors.

The cities inside St. Martin Parish

Risk inside St. Martin Parish is genuinely hyper-local. At the high end, Breaux Bridge (population 7,501) and Cecilia (population 1,742) both score 2.5/10, the highest in the parish. Breaux Bridge is the largest city in St. Martin Parish by a wide margin, so its elevated score shapes the parish average more than any other community. Parks scores 2.6/10 and Henderson sits at 2.4/10, both still in the low-risk band but noticeably above the parish floor.

At the other end of the range, Sorrel scores 2.2/10, the lowest in the parish, followed by St. Martinville at 2.6/10 (population 5,297) and Sorrel at 2.2/10. The spread from 2.2 to 2.9 across these eight cities is a reminder that a single parish-level score cannot substitute for city-level due diligence when selecting specific properties or management strategies.

State-level laws that apply here

Louisiana eviction laws state law governs eviction procedure uniformly across St. Martin Parish. Under La. R.S. § 9:3251 et seq., landlords must give a 5-day written notice for non-payment of rent or a lease violation, and a 30-day notice to end a tenancy at the close of a lease term without cause. Once notice expires and the tenant has not vacated, an uncontested eviction typically resolves in 14 to 30 days; contested cases can stretch to 30 to 90 days. Understanding the full Louisiana eviction laws eviction process before acquiring rental property here is essential, because timeline variance between uncontested and contested proceedings is substantial.

Total eviction costs in Louisiana eviction laws break down as: court filing fees of $170 to $300, sheriff lockout fees of $50 to $175, and attorney fees that commonly range from $500 to $3,000, depending on case complexity. Louisiana eviction laws imposes no statewide just-cause requirement for non-renewal, and state law preempts any local rent control ordinance, so landlords here face no local cap on rent adjustments. For a full breakdown of what a removal action actually costs, see the Louisiana eviction costs guide. Louisiana eviction laws also does not include source-of-income protection under state fair housing law, though the Louisiana eviction laws Attorney General's Consumer Protection office handles fair housing complaints.

With a poverty rate of 21.9% across St. Martin Parish, landlords should stress-test prospective tenants carefully; the city-by-city grid above shows where that economic pressure is most concentrated and where lower-risk communities like Catahoula and St. Martinville offer a comparatively steadier rental base.