Shreveport is the only market in this group with enough depth to build and exit a real position: 35,515 renter households, roughly $420 million of annual gross rent, and an employer base anchored by Barksdale AFB, Willis-Knighton, Amazon, and SLB. That depth is also why it is worth entering selectively and not broadly. Zillow's ZHVI was $134,461 in February 2026, down 2.8% year over year, and the city has lost about 7% of population since 2020. Yields are real; appreciation is not. Buy renovated three-bedrooms in the stable submarkets and treat price growth as zero.
Shreveport is the only market in this group with enough depth to build and exit a real position: 35,515 renter households, roughly $420 million of annual gross rent, and an employer base anchored by Barksdale AFB, Willis-Knighton, Amazon, and SLB. That depth is also why it is worth entering selectively and not broadly. Zillow's ZHVI was $134,461 in February 2026, down 2.8% year over year, and the city has lost about 7% of population since 2020. Yields are real; appreciation is not. Buy renovated three-bedrooms in the stable submarkets and treat price growth as zero.
Caddo Parish · Shreveport–Bossier City metropolitan area
The city has 90,007 housing units and 75,996 households, with 35,515 renting — more than four times Alexandria and twelve times Opelousas. At the $987 median gross rent, annual gross rent runs near $420 million before vacancy. Caddo Parish authorised 267 new housing units by building permit in 2025, up from 221 in 2024 and 181 in 2023, the strongest year of the four parishes and still under 0.3% of existing stock.
The submarket dispersion is extreme and it is the single most important fact about this market. Zillow's neighbourhood ZHVI reads $179,132 in Western Hills and Yarborough and $178,039 in Airport/Pines Road, against $29,887 in Queensborough, $29,452 in Mooretown and Hollywood Heights, and $24,682 in Allendale-Lakeside. Any citywide median — the $178,900 ACS value, the $134,461 ZHVI, or the $182,750 Realtor.com listing price — describes a market that does not exist at the block level.
Liquidity is better than the other three but still slow. Realtor.com showed a median 74 days on market in June 2026 with a 98% sale-to-list ratio, and Zillow recorded 57.6% of sales closing under list price. Inventory sits near 1,000 to 1,600 active listings. Enough to exit one house; not enough to exit thirty at once.
| Metric | Value | Basis |
|---|---|---|
| Population | 180,982 | Census / estimates, 2024 |
| Households | 75,996 | ACS |
| Housing units | 90,007 | ACS |
| Owner-occupied | 53.3% | ACS tenure split |
| Renter-occupied | 46.7% | ACS tenure split |
| Median home value | $178,900 | ACS / ZHVI |
| Median list price | $182,750 | Listing data |
| Median price / sq ft | $107 | Listing data |
| Median rent / month | $987 | ACS gross rent / ZORI |
| Median household income | $48,699 | ACS |
| Average days on market | 74 | Listing data |
| Vacancy rate | 15.6% | ACS / HUD |
| Management fee band | 8%-10% | Local market |
Renter households are 46.7% of occupied units, and tenant stress is high: 49.7% of renter households pay 30% or more of income in rent and 28.9% pay 50% or more, both above the U.S. median. Median household income is $48,699 against a price-to-income ratio of 3.7x. Professional management penetration is the highest of the four, we estimate about 25%, because the multifamily sector has been institutionally managed here since the 1970s.
Institutional single-family ownership remains around 2% despite the market's size — national SFR buyers have not treated Shreveport as a target, largely because of appreciation. The unserved gap is the 1970s-era single-family house bought at $40,000–$90,000, rented to a voucher or hospital-services household, and managed by an owner who lives out of state and has never seen the inside of the property since purchase.
Beyond Realty has no Shreveport coverage today. The entry case is bilingual leasing plus hard compliance: rental registration, deposit itemisation under the 2026 Act 63 change, and habitability documentation that survives a Property Standards complaint. That bundle is exactly what the absentee owner in this market does not have.
Shreveport has the most developed management industry of the four. Fairfield Property Management has specialised in multifamily management since 1976, runs roughly 3,000 units across Louisiana, Florida, and New Mexico, and employs over 120 people across Shreveport, Bossier City, and Monroe. UL Coleman Properties and Vintage Realty are substantial local multifamily owner-managers with visible rental inventory.
Single-family and small-portfolio management is fragmented: Great Southern Property Management operates a local house portfolio, Haley Real Estate Group and Horn-Barlow Companies combine brokerage with management, and Ramsey-Hoffpauir Associates, Rachel & Co. Realty, and Anderson Realty & Associates appear on the single-family rental listings. Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices Ally Real Estate is active across the metro.
Concentration is moderate; intensity is real but not crushing. The differentiator that matters is not fee level — 8%–10% is standard — it is whether the operator can keep a unit compliant with the city's rental registration and Property Standards regime and still collect rent from a cost-burdened tenant.
Base case for 2027–2029: flat-to-slightly-negative nominal prices, roughly -1% to +1% a year, with rent growth of 2%–3%. The city has fallen from 186,809 in the 2020 census to about 173,400 by 2026, near -1.4% a year, and nothing in the parish pipeline reverses that. Employment is the offset: the Shreveport–Bossier MSA was projected to add about 2,700 jobs in 2026 and 3,000 in 2027, led by Amazon at roughly 2,200 workers, SLB doubling toward 800 and beyond, and the Cyber Research Park.
Supply will not rescue or sink this market. Caddo Parish permitted 267 units in 2025 against 90,007 existing units and 15.6% vacancy. The real supply issue is the stock of vacant and adjudicated structures — nearly 9,000 city-owned tax-title properties — which sets a ceiling on values in the neighbourhoods where they cluster and simultaneously creates the acquisition pipeline if the city's new tax-lien certificate process works.
Upside scenario: the $210 million Weapons Generation Facility at Barksdale, the Amazon and SLB expansions, and the new SkyWest MRO facility hold the employment base; the adjudicated-property reform clears several hundred titles into private hands; and price stabilises by 2028 with 3% rent growth. That path supports selective accumulation.
Downside scenario: a B-52 mission change at Barksdale, casino revenue softening on the Bossier side, and continued out-migration push ZHVI below $125,000 by 2029 with rents flat. Because yields start high, the cash flow survives this path; the equity does not, and that is the trade the buyer is making.
Selective entry. The depth of the rental pool is what earns Shreveport a selective rather than a hold — this is the only market of the four where a position can be built and later sold without taking a structural discount. What caps the score is that the same depth comes with a shrinking population, negative price momentum, the heaviest regulatory overlay in the group, and severe tenant cost burden.
Buy three-bedroom, 1,200–1,500 sq ft houses built after 1960, already renovated, in the $90,000–$140,000 band, within a short drive of Barksdale, Willis-Knighton, or the 71106 and 71105 corridors. Require gross yield of at least 10% after confirming insurance. Register the unit with the MPC before the first rent payment and budget for the Property Standards regime, not around it.
Do not buy in the sub-$40,000 submarkets — Queensborough, Mooretown, Allendale-Lakeside, Cedar Grove — where ZHVI in the $25,000–$35,000 range reflects a vacancy and crime profile that no yield compensates. Do not buy unrenovated stock unless you hold the construction capability in-house. Do not buy for appreciation; underwrite zero.
Exit triggers: ZHVI falling more than 4% in a year; the HUD two-bedroom FMR for the Shreveport–Bossier MSA dropping below $1,050; rental registration being converted from a free registry into a fee-and-inspection permit regime; or median days on market exceeding 100 for two consecutive quarters.
Figures are compiled from public sources and our own management portfolio and are general information, not legal, tax or investment advice. Confirm any figure against current data before you transact.
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