Retiring from Military where to live in South Louisiana?

[NocEm]

Hello all,

Long time lurker first time poster. I am currently just shy over 20 years service active duty Air Force and will be retiring in the next couple of years.

We spent almost 10 years at Barksdale in Bossier, and while that area is nice, we really fell in love with South Louisiana. We spent a lot of time in the Lake Charles Big Lake Area (Cameron, Hackberry, Prien) but also visited and loved areas like Lafitte, LaPlace, Metarie, Mandeville and Madisonville. As you can tell we much preferred the out lying/smaller areas over big towns/cities.

We will be extremly flexible and obviously will go where the work is. Wife is in
financial/insurance business and I am a E-8(will retire as E-9) Petroleum Specialist with a Leadership/Organzational Managment BA degree and will more than likely be looking to hire on with an Oil Company in some form or fashion, but consider myself pretty marketable in a number of different enterprises.

We will have have school age children by then (High School/Jr High and elementary) so obviosly education quality is a factor. Additionally, with 2 professional incomes and a military pension we will be fairly financially comfortable.

The baseline that we are looking for is as follows.

- South Louisiana Small town/Outskirts preferred (willing to commute)
- Good Schools
- Good People/culture
- Close to good fishing/hunting(definetly entertaining living on the water, but will be on the hunt for land)

Please feel free to let me know if I have missed anything.

I want to thank anyone who puts in there two cents in advance and am genuinly looking foward to here some opinions.

Neil

[papap]

I,live in Lake Arthur and think it's great. Not sure what other people think of it. LOL. I work for ExxonMobil and I know we hire lots of military guys. Good Luck.

[Smalls]

Well I lived in Lake Charles for 18 years, childhood and college, and I intend on moving back. The economy is growing over there, but I wouldnt say the public schools are the best. All of my siblings and I went to Barbe, except my youngest Sister. My parents were not happy with where the school was going, so she is in private school.

I now live in prairieville. Have been here for 7 months now, and I've got to say, I love it. Small town (not even incorporated, I hunt in my front yard). Great schools, Ascension has one of the Top 10 school districts in the State. Think its Top 5 actually. Bayous all over the place. You're an hour or so from the Basin. An hour from Pontchartrain. Depending on what kind of hunting you want to do, there are good opportunities around. Only thing that doesn't seem to be as good as LC is the duck hunting opportunities.

As for work, obviously there is oil industry work in both areas. Growing in both areas, although I think it's growing a little more rapidly in LC.

I heard Mayor Randy Roach (LC) say once that Lake Charles was truely a sportsman's Paradise because you could hunt or fish for anything you want within an hour and a half. I think Prairieville is very much the same.

There is also Zachary as well. #1 school district in the state.

[Clafleur]

I would say Carlyss (sulphur has a good school), Moss Bluff / Gillis, Iowa/ Lebleu Settlement, lacassine, welsh, Jennings, etc. all good schools around here

[bigl3456]

Hackberry great place to live!!

[NocEm]

Great stuff all!!!! Thank you!!!

[Nothing but specks]

Look at Houma. Close to cocodrie and dularge. Great fishing, Great opurtunities for you both. Good schools. And also Nichols state college is close.

[Matt G]

I can use a good neighbor. Bring your people on down to Judice right outside of Lafayette. The fridge on the porch stays stocked with beer!

[jchief]

Carlyss America

[Goooh]

Anywhere but the lake Charles area

[Cripley]

Moss bluff I live in sulphur so it's not a bias

[Madonk]

A few years back Lake Arthur was selected as the best small town in Louisiana to raise a family.

[FF_T_Warren]

Mandeville/madisonville is prolly the nicest of everything you named with closest access to what all louisiana has to offer but still can be in the country type setting. However it's probably the most pricey of everything listed. If stay away from New Orleans or anything on that side of the ponchartrain. Just my opinion

[scott craft]

Originally Posted by Goooh

Anywhere but the lake Charles area

What's wrong with the Lake Charles area?
I don't know about living here, but I think Lafayette is a pretty nice place.

[Smalls]

Originally Posted by scott craft

What's wrong with the Lake Charles area?
I don't know about living here, but I think Lafayette is a pretty nice place.

If you look at cost of living analyses, Lafayette is actually more expensive than Baton Rouge. It is a nice place though, if you can live with all those USL fans.

[meaux fishing]

I live in Meaux near Abbeville in Vermilion Parish. I think its great here. an hour and a half from Lake Charles. A little over 2 hours to cocodrie and dularge. 3 and a half from Grand Isle. 45 min from Vermilion bay/Freshwater city/Pecan Island

[MathGeek]

My children interact a lot with children from several top notch schools in Baton Rouge: Baton Rouge Magnet, St. Josephs Academy, and Christian Life Academy. But our workaround for the sub-optimal Louisiana public schools is homeschooling. After several bad experiences with public schools, I just can't recommend going that route.

But if you can figure out the education thing, SW Louisiana has a lot of petroleum industry and the best fishing on the Gulf Coast with the possible exceptions of Grand Isle and Venice, which aren't really right for raising children. The cultural feel of Grand Isle is like a suburb of New Orleans. My children and I love to visit and go fishing, though.

Picking a spot in the LC area depends on your preferences. I like Hackberry a lot, but I wouldn't recommend buying a home south of the intracoastal waterway. I could see our family moving there though and renting a home if we could work out other details. Carlyss is very nice too. Headed north out of Lake Charles toward Deridder, there are some nice communities along Hwy 171 and 190 if you prefer more wooded and cow pasture like surroundings, being closer to fresh water fishing, and driving further for salt water fishing.

Some of the peeps on here might differ, but the fishing in VBay and the other salt water options between Big Lake and Terrebonne Bay (Cocodrie) are not nearly as promising as Big Lake and Terebonne, Timbalier, and Barataria. Houma and Thibodeaux are therefore much higher on my list than Lafayette. I like the friendly feel of those small towns (along with the smaller towns around Lake Charles) much more than Lafayette, Baton Rouge, and points east. To me, the towns in St Tammany seem too much like New Orleans now, as does Baton Rouge. There are some nice places to live in Livingston Parish, but I expect these will get squeezed in as Baton Rouge sprawls from the west and New Orleans metro sprawls from the southeast. Livingston parish would be great for a five year stint, but I think most would regret a 20 year settlement. In contrast, I doubt that Cameron or Beauregard parishes will see crowding in the next 20 years.

I'm often tempted to find a bit of ground at Holly Beach or Rutherford Beach (Cameron Parish) and plant a mobile home or trailer or some such when it's time to retire (or sooner). Maintain a good evacuation plan and be prepared to replace the mobile structure if you can't get it out when a hurricane is on the way, and it would be an awesome place to live if you don't mind the drive into town for gas and groceries.

[NocEm]

More great stuff Gents!!! MathGeek thank you especially for that very detailed breakout.

[meaux fishing]

Originally Posted by NocEm

More great stuff Gents!!! MathGeek thank you especially for that very detailed breakout.

there is no such thing as a simple answer when it comes to Mathgeek

[NocEm]

Lol! I have always enjoyed MGs post... :-)