A Glorious Sunday in Spring – New Orleans Style

While our Northern friends are still dealing with cold weather, today was one of those gorgeous spring days in New Orleans that make you forget that before long we will be living with the heat of the summer.

It was entirely too pretty to stay inside, so we hopped over the river and spent the morning walking through the French Market and Jackson Square. Soaking up the sights and the sounds of the city on a Sunday is a wonderful, inexpensive (FREE) way to spend a morning or afternoon and I was reminded how much I love this city that I was born and raised in.

We wandered through the French Market, ate alligator sausage on a stick and checked out the wares of the local vendors. The mouth watering aroma of roasted corn and sweet potatoes was drifting through the market…

On our way back upriver, we strolled along the Moon Walk which has a fabulous view of the West Bank of New Orleans and of the downtown area that hugs the banks of the river.

We wound our way around Jackson Square, stopping to watch a magician perform tricks, pausing to admire the work of local artists, ducking inside the cool interior of St. Louis Cathedral and admiring the beautiful architecture of the oldest neighborhood in New Orleans.

With a live band playing in the square right outside the Cabildo, we had to stop and listen to the talented street performers that were entertaining a huge crowd. It was easy to tell who the tourists were, because they don’t know the local songs…it was also easy to spot the residents wandering through, because they are the first ones to dance and sing along.

My out of town friends always swear that we have more fun than anyone else….what did you do with your Sunday?

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For information about home buying or selling on the West Bank of New Orleans, or relocating to or from NAS JRB New Orleans, please contact the West Bank Living Team. It would be our pleasure to have the opportunity to assist you with any of your real estate needs and have a little fun while doing it!

Marrero LA Investment Opportunities – 6 Doubles For Sale at a New Price!

One of the results of tightened lending restrictions is that many more people are waiting to buy a home as they clean up their credit or save additional money for a down payment.

In the meantime, they are renting and many of them prefer to live in a property that is more like a home and less like an apartment.  Here is your opportunity to own several rental properties on the West Bank of New Orleans.

Located right off of Ames Blvd. in Marrero LA, there are six doubles for sale that have recently been reduced to only $124,000 each.

Available properties and rents are:

5545-47 Jordan Drive -  5545 is currently rented for $800/month, 5547 is rented for $700/month

5549-51 Jordan Drive – both sides currently rented for $700/month each

5553-55 Jordan Drive – both sides currently rented for $700/month each

5557-59 Jordan Drive – both sides currently rented for $700/month each

5561-63 Jordan Drive – 5561 is currently rented for $800/month, 5563 is rented for $700/month

5565-67 Jordan Drive – 5565 is currently rented for $900/month (section 8), 5567 is rented for $700/month

Each of these all brick, 1800 square feet units are laid out the same and are next door to each other.  The owner has installed ceramic tile flooring in 11 of the units for easy clean up, making the occasional transition from one tenant to the next quick, easy and inexpensive.

Individual units have 2 bedrooms and 1 bath per side, with laundry rooms on the exterior.  Tenants pay all of their own utilities and supply their own appliances except for the range/ovens.  With central air and heat and newer roofs (replaced in 2006) they are available to purchase individually or as a package.

To schedule your private showing, please contact Terri Babineaux at (504) 258-5178 or terri@westbankliving.com.

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For more information about home buying or selling on the West Bank of New Orleans, or relocating to or from NAS JRB New Orleans, please contact the West Bank Living Team. It would be our pleasure to have the opportunity to assist you with any of your real estate needs and have a little fun while doing it!

Spring into Spring

I love spring. It’s my favorite season of all, even if it doesn’t last very long in New Orleans.  The long term forecast says that we are expected to have a cooler, wetter than normal spring in 2010.  I could do without the wet, but the idea of it not being sweltering hot anytime soon is wonderful.

One of my favorite signs of spring is the blooms on the Japanese Magnolia trees. They don’t last very long, so I had to grab the camera when I saw this one in Algiers this past weekend.  My neighbor tells me that the sure sign that winter has passed is when the pecan trees begin to leaf, but that hasn’t happened yet, so I’ll just be content with gorgeous pink blossoms.

Next weekend, we’ll spring forward into daylight savings time. I’m really looking forward to that extra hour of sunshine and the change to take more pictures all around the city.

HAPPY SPRING!

There’s a Difference Between a House and A Home – What Are You Buying?

You don’t have to look far to find opposing views on whether or not this is the “best” time to buy a house. Some folks say that with rates as low as they are and inventory high, it’s a great time to buy.  Others say that even if rates rise, prices will drop to offset them so that will have little impact.  Still others say that we haven’t seen the bottom of the market yet and that a large number of foreclosures are still to come, which could have the effect of depressing prices even further if they hit the market en masse.

Here’s the thing…are you looking for a house or a home?

If all you need is a roof over your head, there are plenty (and I mean plenty) of rental options out there. Lots of home sellers that grew frustrated with the slow market have decided to rent their homes instead of waiting for a buyer.

But a home…well that’s a different story.

A home is where you mark the kids’ growth on the door jambs.  A home is where you reminisce about that terrible paint color the living room used to be.  A home is where you put your personal stamp on each and every room and then stand back and allow yourself that moment of pride in what is truly yours.

When my husband and I were first married, we lived in an apartment.  White walls, white tile, white baseboards, cheap cabinets, beige carpet.  No matter what we did, how we tried to decorate it on our limited budget, it looked like an apartment.  Not to mention that we had to park in the lot and schlep our groceries up the stairs.  Or that we could hear the neighbors through the walls if they raised their voices just a little or turned the stereo up past 2 on the volume control.  It was just an apartment.

Later in our married life, we had the chance to rent a house.  It had a yard, but we weren’t allowed to add a gate for easier access.  It had pink carpet that we couldn’t change.  It had hideous floral wallpaper that I just had to live with.  It was a house, but it still wasn’t our home.

When we were first able to buy a home of our own, it was in the 1980s. Rates were outrageously high, but we either didn’t know or didn’t care.  All we knew was that we wanted a home of our own to raise our daughter in.  A place where we could choose to paint a wall at whim – or even just knock the darn thing down if we wanted to.  It had nothing to do with a return on our investment, it had nothing to do with resale value, it had nothing to do with a long term plan.  It was nothing more than the desire to give our family the same thing we had grown up with.  A real home.

Over the years, we’ve owned a couple more places. Each time we moved, we left a piece of ourselves behind.  Whether in a garden that we toiled in or in a basketball goal cemented next to a driveway, there were traces of the fact that we lived and loved and laughed and played within the walls of those properties.  Our current home (dubbed the money pit when we started renovations years ago) has a collection of memories that bond the family together, even the older children who have since moved out and onto their own.  Each year, the Christmas tree gets placed in the same spot, the Easter eggs get hidden in the same irises in the garden, the grill gets pulled out to the same spot for summer BBQs and the orange tree in the back corner of the yard provides sweet fruit.  We look back and laugh and remember all of the good times we’ve had here and look forward to the memories yet to be made.

So, are you looking for a house or a home?

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For more information about home buying or selling on the West Bank of New Orleans, or relocating to or from NAS JRB New Orleans, please contact the West Bank Living Team. It would be our pleasure to have the opportunity to assist you with any of your real estate needs and have a little fun while doing it!

The Countdown is On

With less than 60 days left before the tax credit expires, first time home buyers who want to take advantage of the credit are quickly running out of time to find a home and get it under contract before the April 30th deadline.

Yeah, I know…we’ve said this before. But the difference is that this time we haven’t heard even a peep about the possibility of an extension.  It looks like this is really the end of Uncle Sam handing out rewards for home purchases and those buyers who are sitting back and taking their time in finding a home may end up leaving $8,000 on the table that could have been in their pockets.

Take into account low rates, a large selection of West Bank homes for sale and the tax credit and I can’t remember a time that it’s been more advantageous to be a home buyer.

Of course, you should still decide whether you are really ready to be a home owner before making a such a large purchase. If you are, and you want to take advantage of the tax credit, then you truly don’t have any time to waste.

Need a little help getting started with that home search? Tell us what you are looking for and we’ll get a free list of homes that match your wants, needs and budget to you right away.

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For more information about home buying or selling on the West Bank of New Orleans, or relocating to or from NAS JRB New Orleans, please contact the West Bank Living Team. It would be our pleasure to have the opportunity to assist you with any of your real estate needs and have a little fun while doing it!

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