MARKET SPOTLIGHT
HOUSINGNEWSREPORT
NEW ORLEANS HOUSING: ‘A TALE OF TWO CITIES’
BY OCTAVIO NUIRY, MANAGING EDITOR
Eleven years after Hurricane Katrina, the New Orleans real estate market has become what Rick Haase, president of Latter & Blum , calls “a tale of two cities.” Haase, who presides over a vast and fast-growing real estate empire in South Louisiana and the Gulf Coast, said there are parts of the city that are booming and other areas that are still struggling to regain their footing. ‘A Tale of Two Cities’ “The market in New Orleans is a tale of two cities,” said Haase, using a metaphor from the title of a classic Charles Dickens novel by the same name. “In the greater New Orleans area — in neighborhoods like the Garden District, Uptown and the Warehouse District — prices are going through the roof,
driving up median and average prices in those areas. In other neighborhoods, we are seeing the opposite: no appreciation or price declines. In areas like Chalmette, East New Orleans and the River Parishes, we are seeing flat to slight price appreciation.” Haase said demand for housing in the most sought-after New Orleans neighborhoods is so fierce that inventory is nearly depleted. Conversely, he noted, some areas severely affected by Hurricane Katrina are seeing fewer sales. “Inventory is so scarce — under 500 listings in Uptown — that buyers are bouncing to other neighborhoods like the Faubourg Marigny, Bywater and Mid City to find homes
they can’t afford in the most desirable areas of the city,” said Haase, who overseas the largest real estate brokerage firm in the Gulf South. “Those neighborhoods are less established and are going through a renaissance. There are also rebound markets, like the Lakefront, that attracts young millennial families.” Up-and-coming neighborhoods like the dense and increasingly trendy Bywater and the Faubourg Marigny, adjacent to the French Quarter, are attracting young, college- educated, transplanted millennials who started moving to the Crescent City in 2005 after Hurricane Katrina to help rebuild the city. Bywater & Faubourg Marigny Neighborhoods
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