Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana Eviction Risk: Low

Terrebonne Parish scores 2.6/10 (Low) averaged across 9 cities, placing it 5th of 64 parishes in Louisiana eviction laws, which means only 4 parishes statewide carry higher eviction risk. That top-five position puts landlords and investors in a higher-risk third of the state, even though the raw score sits in the Low tier. Average rent runs $1,056 per month, renter households carry an average rent burden of 28.7% of income, and only 29.3% of the parish population rents at all, leaving a relatively thin renter pool concentrated in a handful of communities along the bayou corridor.

The intra-parish spread, from 2.8 in Bourg up to 3.9 in Bayou Cane, is tighter than many comparably sized Louisiana parishes, but it still represents a full risk tier of difference from one community to the next. Operators who assume uniform conditions across the parish based on the parish-level average will be drawing on incomplete information. Where a property sits matters as much as the county headline.

The cities inside Terrebonne Parish

The highest-risk community in the parish is Bayou Cane, scoring 2.6/10 with a population of 21,253, making it both the second-largest city in the parish and the one carrying the most landlord exposure. Immediately behind it are Houma (2.7/10, population 32,392) and Schriever (2.5/10), where the combination of size and score suggests landlords should budget time and legal fees more conservatively than the parish average implies.

At the lower end of the risk scale, Bourg comes in at 2.2/10, a full point below Bayou Cane, and Presquille scores 2.6/10. Both communities are smaller, with populations of 2,239 and 2,062 respectively, which limits the available rental inventory but also correlates with steadier tenant pools. The gap between a Bourg portfolio and a Houma portfolio is real and should factor into acquisition underwriting.

State-level laws that apply here

All landlords in Terrebonne Parish operate under Louisiana state law, which is generally favorable to owners. Under the Louisiana eviction process, non-payment of rent and lease violations both require only a 5-day notice to vacate before a landlord may proceed to court. No-cause terminations at the end of a lease term require 30 days of notice. Louisiana does not require just cause for eviction and, under state preemption, no local government in the state may impose rent control, so rent adjustments and lease non-renewals face no additional hurdles.

Understanding Louisiana eviction costs is equally important for budgeting purposes. Court filing fees range from $170 to $300, sheriff lockout fees add another $50 to $175, and attorney fees for contested matters run $500 to $3,000. An uncontested case typically concludes in 14 to 30 days from filing; a contested case can stretch to 30 to 90 days. Building those ranges into pro-forma models, rather than assuming best-case timelines, gives a more accurate picture of holding costs during a vacancy dispute.

With an average poverty rate of 17.1% across the parish, tenant financial stress is a real operating variable, and the city-by-city grid above shows which communities carry the most concentrated exposure for landlords considering acquisitions in Terrebonne Parish.