Prices, inventory, and demand — distilled every month into one clear verdict: buyer’s market or seller’s. The investor’s read, before you make an offer.
The median asking price in Lafayette is about $228,000 as of Sep 2026, down 10.4% from a year ago. That is the asking price on listed homes, so sold-price and home-value sites show different numbers (why).
Only if you move fast. Sellers have more pull in Lafayette than usual. Compared with 2017–2019 at this time of year, there are 30% fewer homes for sale, and there are 34 pending sales per 100 listings, against 26 then. Good homes go under contract quickly. If you want one, be ready to move in days.
Asking price per square foot in Lafayette is 13.2% below its May 2022 high and down 7.0% over the last year. Prices were above the year before in 57% of months since the data starts, so drops here have not always reversed quickly. 20% of sellers have cut their price. Underwrite with no price growth for now and let the seller carry the next cut.
The population in Lafayette's ZIP codes fell 1.7% over five years. 10.1% of homes are vacant, higher than 75% of tracked cities. Households still grew 5.3% while the housing stock grew 4.8%. Fewer people living in more households means rental demand has held up better than the population suggests. Check vacancy by ZIP before you buy.
The median asking price is 41.3% below its Apr 2022 peak. Per square foot the gap is smaller: 13.2% below the May 2022 high. Part of the drop is smaller homes coming to market. Prices are still falling. Waiting has paid off so far. Let listings age, then come back lower. Lafayette prices rose in only 63 of the last 111 months. This market goes up and down. Timing matters here. Growth will not rescue a bad price.
If you plan to sell in the next two years, move it up. This much buyer demand does not last. Right now it does your negotiating for you.
For every 100 homes still for sale, 34 are under contract. In 2017–2019 at this time of year it was 26. The rest are still waiting for a buyer. About 1 in 5 sellers has already dropped their price. Each one has learned their first price was too high. Start your offer below their new price.
The typical Lafayette listing has been on the market 74 days. There are 668 homes for sale in Lafayette. That is 2.9 times the tightest month on record, but below the peak of 1,052. Supply is growing against last year.
HUD sets one fair market rent for Lafayette Parish. For fiscal year 2026:
The figures include tenant-paid utilities and apply to all of Lafayette Parish, so one home's rent can sit well above or below them. See fair market rent by city.
In Lafayette, 43 out of every 100 households rent. That is nearly half. The renter share is growing. Five years ago it was 40 in 100. Lafayette added about 3,600 renter households in five years. Renter households average 2.1 people. Singles and couples rent here. Two bedrooms beat four.
The median Lafayette household earns $68,445 a year. Incomes here have grown 3.9% a year since 2019. Incomes are rising faster than home prices. Affordability is improving. A typical home costs 3.3 times the median income. Locals can afford to buy here. Your exit buyer can be a local family. At 30% of income, a tenant on the median income can pay about $1,711 a month.
To see what one Lafayette address would rent for and cash flow, run it through the app.
Read when a cheap market is a warning and how we read these numbers, then run the numbers on a deal.
The median asking price in Lafayette is about $228,000 as of Sep 2026, down 10.4% from a year ago. This is the asking price on homes listed for sale. Sites that report sold prices or estimated home values will show a different number. Our Lafayette figures cover the 11 ZIP codes with a Lafayette mailing address, which can reach past city limits.
Sellers have more pull in Lafayette than usual. We compare Lafayette with 2017–2019 at this time of year: there are 30% fewer homes for sale; there are 34 pending sales per 100 listings, against 26 then; the typical listing has been up 13% fewer days.
The median asking price is 41.3% below its Apr 2022 peak. Per square foot the gap is smaller: 13.2% below the May 2022 high. Part of the drop is smaller homes coming to market. Prices are still falling. Waiting has paid off so far. Let listings age, then come back lower.
Across 9 full years, Lafayette asking prices ran lowest in January, about 2.8% below the year's average. They peaked in May. The most homes for sale show up in September, about 5% above the yearly average.
Assume -1.0% a year. Lafayette grew 1.2% a year over the decade. Ignore that rate. Most of it landed in the 2020 and 2021 boom. Without the boom, Lafayette loses about 1.0% a year. That is the number to type in. Prices fell 7.0% over the last year. Use it for timing. The five-year rate is the better guide.
HUD's fiscal year 2026 fair market rent for Lafayette Parish is $1,019 a month for 2 bedrooms and $1,301 for 3 bedrooms. The figures include tenant-paid utilities and cover the whole county.
ZIP 70501 is on both lists. That is rare. It is the one place in Lafayette where leverage and growth overlap.
| ZIP | $/sqft, 2 yrs | $/sqft now | Buyers per home | For sale |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 70507 | -3.7% | $134 | 0.45 | 66 |
| 70506 | -4.0% | $132 | 0.43 | 158 |
| 70508 | -6.1% | $182 | 0.31 | 204 |
| 70501 | -11.6% | $96 | 0.32 | 101 |
| 70503 | -14.4% | $145 | 0.26 | 139 |
Computed from each ZIP's own ten-year history. ZIPs with fewer than 10 homes for sale are excluded: a median across a handful of listings is noise, not a signal.
Lafayette has eleven ZIP codes. Each links to its live market dashboard.
Closest matches on asking price, price per square foot, time on market, buyer demand, and price cuts.
.png)
