BUYERS' & SELLERS' MARKET

Gutted Storefront , Airline Dr. , Metairie LA 6/2006

BUYERS' & SELLERS' MARKET

Undamaged homes are fetching record prices, but even houses that did flood are selling better than some expected.
Sunday, July 09, 2006
By Greg Thomas

The average sales price of undamaged homes in Orleans Parish has soared higher than storm surge in the eight months since Katrina, while flooded homes are discounted to about half the average prices of a year ago.
Jefferson and St. Tammany parishes appear to be more stable markets, with post-storm prices having jumped about 11.5 percent over prestorm values. For St. Tammany, that's a slight quickening of the market above the 9.2 percent increase noted in 2004 prices, while in Jefferson, the rate of increase has been level for the past two years.
The run-up in Orleans Parish prices for undamaged homes is the most startling number in a metrowide report on real estate sales prepared by Wade Ragas, the founder of Real Properties Associates and a retired finance professor who has studied the local market for 25 years.

excerpt from The Times-Picayune Sunday July 9, 2006

photograph by Wm. Greiner. All reproduction rights reserved.