Local Broker Examines Future of New Orleans Housing Market
Arthur Sterbcow of Latter & Blum Realty discounts fears that New Orleans is entering an inventory surplus that could affect the overall economy, but he does express concern that the slump in homes valued over $400,000 signals a disturbing loss in medical professionals and entrepreneurs the devastated city desperately needs.
When asked if the New Orleans housing market had reached the point where there are more properties for sale than there is demand, Sterbcow said:
“It depends on where in the city. In some price ranges and in some areas, that’s probably true. But, it would be a glut of flooded homes that people just don’t have the resources to put back into commerce. But homes that are habitable in areas that have schools, have infrastructure. There’s really no glut of inventory to be seen there.”
“There is a softening of the market in the upper price ranges, homes over $400,000. That is certainly true. And, that’s pretty much a consequence of the medical industry leaving, and a lot of business owners who have relocated their businesses, we hope temporarily, until they can kind of get their homeowner’s insurance proceeds, and get their workers back. Things like that.”
Relocation in the metro away from Orleans Parish accounts from many of the permanent departures. A lot of people simply moved to other areas of the region to find affordable housing. Just the same, sales in St. Tammany are strong, as are Jefferson and West Bank. Every area of the city except those areas that had heavy flooding are seeing strong sales, and even in some of those areas, people are starting to come in and fix up their homes.
Sales, the Louisiana Weekly maintains, in homes worth under $400,000 remain brisk. Again, if it’s a piece of property that flooded, that’s a problem. But, if its a property that’s in move-in condition, in an area that has schools, shopping, infrastructure, that’s a very solid market right now.
Of Lakeview, which is both devastated but beside the functional markets and infrastructure of Metairie, it’s just starting to come back to the point in which home mortgage loan demand is creeping up again. There are a lot of properties that are in transition, in that they are being renovated. It just takes time to get them completed, Realtors say.
Sterbcow’s outlook for the next six months:
“Still, there’ll be a tremendous number of homes where there won’t [be] obviously, but right now we’re seeing a pretty good pickup in pace in home sales in the Lakeview area right now. Still, not what they were before the storms… but certainly miles ahead from what it was six months ago.”
The areas, like Lakeview or the Carrolton University area, that sit beside healthy neighborhoods, will be more than half recovered in the next year. Expansion into Gentilly from Mid-City and from the CBD into Carrolton and Broadmoor is also on the horizon. However, neighborhoods like New Orleans East could take years to recover.