This story in the paper made me feel ever-so-slightly vindicated about our decision to renovate.
A new study of home prices around the New Orleans area shows that buyers rewarded sellers who gambled and rebuilt in devastated areas like Lakeview, eastern New Orleans and Chalmette. Renovated homes in those areas recovered much of their pre-storm value last year, while prices continued to tumble on homes that were gutted but otherwise left untouched.
It’s not that I take any glee in seeing others lose out. Take for instance our next-door neighbor. He hasn’t even gutted his house, two and a half years after the flood. I’m not happy about that, and I hope he can get it together. I wish him well.
I’m just glad to know that we aren’t being punished for having done the right thing. We have no plans to sell our home, but if we did, we wouldn’t take a bath. There’s a little solace in knowing that.
“We have no plans to sell our home, but if we did, we wouldn’t take a bath. There’s a little solace in knowing that.”
How long have you hippies gone without bathing?
It also means that if the construction market stabilizes and prices for gutted houses continue to fall, there is opportunity for people to either homestead or flip. There should be an economic incentive to renovate these houses.
There is only economic incentive to renovate if the population returns. A population that can afford to pay for a house. Which means we need to work exceptionally hard at economic development in this town to get the jobs for people in wage ranges where they can afford to buy a house.
Barring that, we should let the bulldozers roll and give Bart a side yard.