The Meta data center in Louisiana is creating a housing boom

For decades, Richland Parish remained a small farming community nestled in Louisiana’s northeast corner.

Residents living in the parish — a spattering of rural towns and unincorporated communities — had come to know their home for its slower pace of life. Much of the area is filled with winding back roads, sprawling farmland, and a skyline free of towering skyscrapers. The closest major regional city is Monroe, about 30 minutes west, with a population more than twice that of Richland Parish.

It’s the kind of place where everybody claims to know everybody, or at very least, has heard of them.

Now Meta has arrived, and things are changing.

In Decem…