Lisa Heindel, New Orleans West Bank Real Estate

Current real estate activity in Belle Chasse LA:

49 homes for sale

• High list price $900,000
• Low list price $78,800
• Average list price $348,235
• Median list price $320,000

9 homes are under contract or pending sale, priced from $59,900 to $1,300,000 Based on the number of homes sold in October (6), there is a 8.17 month supply of homes for sale

Belle Chasse LA | Number of Homes Sold | October 2009

Home sales in Belle Chasse continue to hold steady, with 6 homes sold in October. This brings the year to date total number of single family homes sold to 56, compared to 66 at the same time in 2009. With 9 homes currently under contract, it looks like we will end the year with about 10% fewer sales than last year. Financing choices continue to be spread out, with 2 FHA sales, 2 conventional sales and 2 cash sales recorded in October.

Interestingly, VA loans have been used in only 17.8% of Belle Chasse home sales this year, despite the fact that NAS JRB New Orleans is located in the area. More than likely, it is because the majority of incoming military families are looking for housing that is a little more affordable than that offered in the Belle Chasse community.

Belle Chasse LA | Average Home Sale Prices | October 2009

While there was a spike in the average sale price in October due to a $975,000 sale, the year to date average of $273,742 is down 17.45% from 2009. The good news is that the year to date average is well above that of 2005, so unless you purchased your Belle Chasse home in 2006-2008, the odds are good that you have increased your equity in your home.

Of course, all neighborhoods are performing differently, so if you would like a report of recent sales and listings in yours, sign up for your free Market Snapshot.

All information is provided by GSREIN and is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed

You may also be interested in:

Belle Chasse homes for sale
New Orleans West Bank Homes for Sale

Home Buying Tips
Home Selling Tips

The West Bank Living Team provides professional buyer and seller representation on the West Bank of New Orleans. Please feel free to call or email us with any of your real estate questions or visit West Bank Living.

Living in a sub-tropical climate is a definite plus if you love to spend a lot of time in your garden or yard. Despite the fact that it is November, there are still blooming flowers throughout my West Bank garden.

However, the periwinkles are starting to get leggy, the coneflowers are gone and the basil has started to flower and is done for the year. Before the holiday madness starts, I need to find time to get outside in the gorgeous weather we’ve been having and start the winter garden.

I stopped in to visit my favorite Algiers nursery this week – New Orleans Garden Center and Landscape on Huntlee Drive, just off of General Meyer. The fall and winter plants have arrived and wherever you decide to buy them (although I hope it’s from someone local) there is a profusion of color that can quickly take your garden from the end of summer blahs to the winter aaaaahhhhhs.

What I’m Planting This Winter

Pansies are probably the most traditional of the winter flowers, although we have to be careful not to plant them too early in New Orleans. They will survive the coldest of winters with ease, but our climate can be a little more challenging for them. The lovely ladies at the garden center shared this tip with me: if you want show stopping pansies, they love blood meal as a soil additive.

Most people think of petunias as a spring time flower, but in the south they are a perfect addition to your garden after the long hot days of summer have ended. Cool days and nights allow them to flourish and they can provide blankets of color for the next few months that will make all of the neighbors jealous :)

Snapdragons are one of my favorite winter flowers. A few years ago, I replanted my entire front garden in white – white petunias, white snapdragons and white pansies. I threw in a few sparkly Christmas lights and voila! A winter paradise, right in my own front yard.

I plan to finish off my winter garden with ornamental cabbage. The colors range from almost white to deep green to purple and the texture they bring to the space is fantastic.

Some other winter gardening tips from New Orleans Garden Center and Landscape

• Roses need to be pruned in January, but how much depends on the type of rose. If you are a novice rose grower (like me), check with a professional before you start chopping off branches!
• It’s time to winterize your lawn whether you have St. Augustine sod, centipede grass or even if you’ve seeded with winter rye
• Mulch is just as important in the winter as in the summer and can help protect the roots of your plants during those rare freezes on the south shore
• Once you’ve watered your plants in well, there is no need to water as much as in the summer. Of course, common sense rules and if they are looking a little droopy, give them a drink!

Hopefully, I can get all of this work done before the Thanksgiving holiday, because after that it will be time for a return visit to pick up poinsettias in every color for Christmas. Whew…I better get to work. Happy gardening!

New Orleans Garden Center and Landscape is located at 210 Huntlee Drive in Algiers. Call (504) 366-2017 for winter operating hours or more information and tell Blair HELLO for us!

I’m not talking about painting your house.  I’m talking about one of the newest hot spots for West Bank ladies (and a few gentlemen too) to get together for a few hours and share food, drinks and definitely a few laughs. 

Painting With A Twist recently opened in Gretna LA, just a couple of blocks off the West Bank Expressway.  One of my friends decided that painting and drinking would be a fun way to spend an evening, so we rounded up a group and headed over there last night.

We all arrived toting trays of goodies to share, bottles of wine and even a few daiquiris.  I figured the drinking was so that we wouldn’t cry if we hated our pictures.  The entire premise is that anyone can be at least a novice artist.  Bring your own snacks, drinks and $35 and Painting With a Twist provides the bottle openers, the cups, the space, the canvas, the paints, the brushes and the most patient instructors you’ll ever meet. 

Each night of the week, there are open classes that anyone can attend.  2 hours classes are $35 and 3 hour classes are $45.  Walk ins are welcome, but it’s preferred that you either call ahead or sign up online, since there are a minimum of 4 people to hold a class.  A different picture is featured each night (see the schedule on their website) for the open classes or you can book a private party for 15 or more people and choose your own painting from a large gallery selection.

If you have company coming to visit over the holidays, wouldn’t this be a fantastic way to get out of the house and spend an evening as a group or a family?

Step by step, we were led through the process of turning a blank canvas into our own little piece of art.  Rule number one from our fabulous teacher, Jason, was….relax!  It’s supposed to be fun, not stressful and a room full of type A, perfectionist personalities promptly did just that.  Music played in the background as we made those first hesitant strokes onto the canvas.  I don’t know why we were worried to begin with.  If we ran into a little trouble, Jason and another of the resident artists were on hand to help us out, encouraging us to put our own interpretation on the guide pictures we were trying to recreate and giving us how-to tips to fix our little mistakes along the way.

Now, I’m not creative or the least bit artistic by any stretch of the imagination.  I can’t even draw a straight line, much less paint a picture, but I’m pretty proud of my first attempt and figure it’s at least a step up from what my mom used to hang on the refrigerator.

Painting With A Twist is located at 1900 Lafayette Street, in the Village Shopping Center in Gretna LA.  Visit them on the web at www.paintingwithatwist.com or call (504) 361-0574.

Current real estate activity in English Turn:

42 homes are for sale in English Turn

• High list price $1,995,000
• Low list price $395,000
• Average list price $688,392
• Median list price $557,383

3 homes are under contract or pending sale, with an average list price of $474,667

Based on the number of homes sold in September (1), there is a 42 month supply of homes for sale in the community

English Turn | Number of Homes Sold | September 2009

Year to date, there have been 18 home sales in English Turn, compared to 21 at the same time last year. 

3 of this years sales have been foreclosure or bank owned properties, which are selling for about $110 per square foot compared to $132 per square foot for normal resale homes in English Turn.

English Turn | Average Home Sale Prices | September 2009

Average home sale prices in English Turn are down to $507,378 as of the end of September 2009.  This is a decrease of 14% in the average sale price when compared to 2008.

My initial thought was that with so few sales, the handful of foreclosures were impacting the average prices.  But removing those from the mix resulted in an average of $507,607 – a negligible change not even worth noting.

All data is provided by GSREIN and is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed

Related information:

Algiers LA homes for sale
New Orleans West Bank Homes for Sale

Home Selling Tips
Home Buying Tips

Are you considering buying or selling a home in English Turn?  Feel free to contact the West Bank Living Team with any of your questions or just for a little advice.  It would be our pleasure to assist you with any of your real estate needs.

Current real estate activity in Algiers LA 70131 (excluding English Turn):

198 homes are for sale

• High list price $895,000
• Low list price $35,000
• Average list price $188,261
• Median list price $154,950

39 homes are under contract or pending sale, with an average list price of $144,823

Based on the number of homes sold in September (25), there is a 7.92 month supply of homes for sale in the area

Algiers LA 70131 | Number of Homes Sold | September 2009

September saw the highest number of home sales in Algiers for all of 2009 AND the most homes sold since April 2008.  While we are still running behind this same time last year (160 this year compared to 175 in September 2008), it does appear that the market is flattening instead of continuing the steep drops that Algiers has experienced for the last couple of years. 

BUT (there’s always a but), remember that for a period of time this summer Algiers was included in the City of New Orleans soft second mortgage program for homes that suffered more than $5,200 in repaired hurricane damage.  When that money ran out, showing activity softened and slowed.  The majority of those allocations have now been closed, so we’ll have to keep an eye on the trends to see what impact that has on the sales numbers going forward.

Algiers LA 70131 | Average Home Sale Price | September 2009

In another bit of good news, the average home sale price in Algiers is less than $1,000 lower than the 2008 average and is almost on par with 2005 (our last normal market).   The expiration of the $8,000 tax credit for first time home buyers at the end of November may impact this as well, unless the credit is extended.

The choice of financing can tell you a lot about who is purchasing in a community.  FHA continues to be the choice of the majority of home buyers due to the low down payment requirements and the ability to have home sellers provide some assistance with closing costs.

So far in 2009, 53% of FHA buyers in Algiers have received closing cost assistance from sellers.  The amounts ranged from a low of $2,000 to a high of $11,500.  The average amount of closing cost assistance provided to FHA buyers in 2009 is $5,581 or 3.71% of the purchase price.

All data provided by GSREIN and is deemed reliable, but not guaranteed

Related information:

Algiers LA homes for sale

Home buying tips
Home selling tips

If you are considering buying or selling a home in Algiers and have a question or just need a little advice, please contact the West Bank Living Team.  It would be our pleasure to assist you with any of your real estate needs.