Land on the West Bank, Close to New Orleans

Sometimes, the southern region of the crescent in the Crescent City of New Orleans gets overlooked for its potential to offer benefits for those home buyers who are interested in being near New Orleans but not necessarily living in the city of New Orleans.  Land on the West Bank is still available in an established, master planned community just over the Intercoastal Waterway in Plaquemines Parish.  Plaquemines Parish is an odd-shaped piece of land that extends from the “base” of New Orleans all the way down to where the land seems to disappear into the marsh.  Because of this, the parish gets a reputation for being flood prone or “too far south” to be livable for those looking to commute to work everyday in the Central Business District (CBD).

At The Parks of Plaquemines in Belle Chasse, Louisiana, we offer the best of both worlds.  You can live in a parish that has significantly lower bills (taxes, city rents, utilities), in a gated community, in a safe environment (only one way in or out of the parish from our location with low crime), only 10.2 miles from downtown New Orleans.  Also, a HUGE perk of choosing to live just outside of the city limits is the fact that Plaquemines Parish has one of the best rated school districts in the state of Louisiana, so if you are moving with your family, there is a guaranteed quality school district to send your children.

The subdivision itself also has a lot to offer.  In addition to being able to buy your own lot and custom build your new home (if you wish); you can also enjoy walking and hiking trails carved out around the community.  Inside the community we have built a community swimming pool, tot lot / playground, and tennis courts as amenities for our new home buyers.  New Homes are available now at The Parks of Plaquemines, and we are slowly building out the community with both traditional housing as well as new construction garden homes in our Villas Neighborhood.

Our master planned neighborhood is located near everything the West Bank in Jefferson Parish has to offer with shopping, dining, and entertainment locations, the day-to-day office visits that are “life necessary” such as doctor’s and dentist’s visits, veterinarian appointments, and even home business visits such as accountants and lawyers.   There are two ways to access New Orleans – across the Crescent City Connection bridge or by ferry at Algiers Point.  New ferry boats are in the works because of a bill signed recently by the governor to get them operational as well.

Real estate in New Orleans is scarce, and prices are higher because of supply and demand.  If you are interested in living in an established neighborhood, you may want to consider living a little bit farther away in the comfort of a beautifully maintained and quality built subdivision such as The Parks of Plaquemines.  Contact Us at 504-364-2350 or E-mail Info@TheParksLifestyle.com for more information.

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Single-Family Homes in the Greater New Orleans Area

New home starts for single-family homes in the Greater New Orleans area are on the rise, according to Jon Luther with The Home Builders Association of Greater New Orleans.  New construction starts were at 1.21 million last month, and that included single-family home starts of 600,000 – 700,000.  Between commercial building conversions and new construction, apartments are leading the race on new construction in New Orleans simply because the opportunity to build new homes is more limited within the city limits because of the lack of land to build.  However, even if builders cannot start and build out full-scale, new home developments, there is plenty of new construction going on in the city

in the form of tearing down blighted housing and even taking an existing home “back to the studs” and starting over again as a complete rebuild.

“Anytime you see 600,000 to 700,000 new (single-family) starts, home builders are going to be pretty damn happy,” Luther said. “They’re the best numbers we’ve seen in about 10 years.”
According to Luther, the best chance that New Orleans has of starting and building a large scale development would be to utilize the 5,000 acres of land near the Avondale shipyard.  Officials in Jefferson Parish have had several meetings about rezoning this property which is owned by several different owners.  If they were to release the land for building purposes, New Orleans would be able to develop and build either a Traditional Neighborhood Development (TND) or similar master planned community on this property.

Another obstacle for providing new homes for home buyers on the Southshore in New Orleans is that it is difficult for builders to provide housing for first-time home buyers.  According to Luther, the appraisal system in New Orleans recently went through an overhaul to ensure that appraisers knew how to appraise a new home for sale in New Orleans because the values given during appraisals were losing local builders a lot out of their profit margins.  Also, with the recent concessions by the

Department of Housing and Urban  Development in lowering the down payments on FHA loans for first time home buyers, there is now a possibility of Millenials being able to move out of apartment living in owning their own home – as long as affordable housing can be built in New Orleans.

If you are interested in living close to New Orleans but not having to “pay for it” with higher taxes, higher utilities, and city rents, you should consider moving to The Parks of Plaquemines, a masterplanned subdivision located just 10 miles from the Central Business District in New Orleans, across the Intercoastal Bridge.  With a convenient location, safer neighborhood proximity, and a little bit more lot space on which to play, The Parks of Plaquemines offers lots for sale and homes for sale at competitive new home pricing.  Contact Us at 504-364-2350 or E-mail Info@TheParksLifestyle.comInfo@TheParksLifestyle.com for more information.

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New Orleans Convention Center to Expand Its Economic Reach

With the latest addition of developed riverfront property on the Mississippi River in and around the French Quarter, many local New Orleans’ businesses have expressed an interest in developing riverfront property into usable and money-making ventures to encourage more visitors, tourists, and business to come to New Orleans.  Because of this, there are plans for the New Orleans Convention Center to expand its economic reach “upriver” on 47 acres of property.  Owners of the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center are in talks with Howard Hughes Corp. and local developers Joe Jaeger and Darryl Berger to build a 1,200 room hotel which would also be surrounded with retail, entertainment, restaurants, and housing in the form of condos and apartments.

Because the current configuration of the Convention Center is “walled off” from the river, this new construction project will offer guests riverfront views, luxurious rooms in which to stay, and even a

path from the new development to the current convention center for their meetings and seminars.  This $65 million proposal would revamp Convention Boulevard, reducing it from 4 lanes to 2, and creating pedestrian-friendly walking areas for convention goers.

In addition to the hotel on which the construction is estimated at approximately $360 million to $600 million, there are also talks about creating a green space that extends all the way to the river – similar to but better than Woldenberg Park.  The infrastructure construction would also include adding on to the streets of Euterpe, Race and Orange in the Lower Garden District so that the neighborhood would be connected to the new development.

“We’ve got to reclaim the parts that are not being used for maritime commerce and make the river a gathering place for our people and our visitors — generate some commerce, generate some opportunities for visitors and locals alike to come downtown and have a unique shopping experience or unique dining experience or some other attraction that’s uniquely New Orleans,” said Bob Johnson, president and general manager of the Morial Convention Center.  “It would dwarf anything that’s been done, ever, in the city,” Johnson said.

Plans are still in the works and the new neighborhood is being designed by Eskew+Dumez+Ripple and Manning Architects.  This is just one of many riverfront projects that are in the planning stages in the Greater New Orleans area.

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Plaquemines Parish Experiences a Growth in Home Prices

Plaquemines Parish, specifically Belle Chasse, saw a 7.9% growth in home prices during the first 6 months of 2015 according to Wade Ragas, local real estate consultant and expert.  The 7.9% growth was based on numbers pulled just before Hurricane Katrina, and overall in the Greater New Orleans area, home prices have jumped 50% since just before Katrina.  On the Southshore, the average sale price for a single-family home in New Orleans went from $114 / square foot to $166 / square foot which was a different in home pricing of $228,620 vs. $339,743.  Belle Chasse in Plaquemines Parish saw the 2nd highest increase in home prices in Greater New Orleans followed by a 6% increase in St. John the Baptist Parish.

Home prices on the Southshore in New Orleans have risen on average 4.6% per year for a record-high increase of 46%.  All numbers culminated for the 8-parish region surrounding Lake

Pontchartrain in the Greater New Orleans area saw an increase in home prices of 18.6%, which is still a pretty significant increase for a 10-year period.  However, interestingly, Jefferson Parish home pricing has not “moved” very much at all since Hurricane Katrina.

Homes for sale in Jefferson Parish have remained nearly the same pricing overall in this period with only a 1% growth in 10 years.  The average price of a home in Jefferson Parish is $194,510 which equals approximately $106 / square foot.  Spikes of home pricing in Jefferson Parish can be seen in prominent neighborhoods such as Old Metairie and Bucktown where the average price of a home is $494,724 amounting to $204 / square foot.

The Greater New Orleans area can actually be compared to larger metros in its growth rate.  These metros, such as Dallas, Houston, or Miami were seeing similar growth according to Ragas.
“We have a surge in demand, but we don’t have enough inventory to keep that at an affordable level,” Ragas said. “Problems like this tend to solve themselves if markets are left alone.”

Ragas claims that there is a supply of buyers but not such a large supply of homes to be purchased, which have led to bidding wars for homes located in safe and quality neighborhoods in the city.  The Parks of Plaquemines, located just across the river from New Orleans offers new lots for sale as well as new homes for sale.  When buying a new home in our master planned community, you can avoid the high price of purchasing a home in the city of New Orleans with lower taxes, lower utilities, and a much higher level of safety.  For More Information about purchasing a home at The Parks of Plaquemines, Contact Us at 504-364-2350 or E-mail Info@TheParksLifestyle.com.

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