New Orleans Real Estate by Eric

There are no All Stars on this team but they have been playing good basketball. Small market teams get less respect from voters. New Orleans defeated Denver tonite 117 to 93. Chris Paul had 23 points and 17 assists. He did much better tonite than Iverson the Denver All Star. I am going to the game tommorow nite so I am into it since I got a great deal on some tickets. Its worth the trip. This guy Chris Paul is a hard worker and a real community kid as are most of the team. Followers of basketball know how many players get 17 assists in a game.

Seeing houses with water lines is getting a little harder to do these days in New Orleans. Time tends to make the lines disappear. Thousands have been demolished and thousands have been put back together. The stucco homes still retain the water marks that mark the waterlines following Katrina. The water stood in this neighborhood for several weeks and of course ravaged these homes. You just wonder where the people went and memories that were lost. Louisiana people here have a passion for place and life for many has never been easy. But we have a lot of happy people who enjoy slices of life. Just a reminder of September 2005 where people view life as pre-Katrina and post-Katrina. New Orleans Lakeview    

Few cities get to enjoy Carnival Season like New Orleans.  New Orleans hosted the Sugar Bowl, the National Championship game this year, now its Madri Gras, then its the NBA All Star game before getting a break for New Orleans Jazz Fest. They have a great line up this year including Stevie Wonder, Tim Mcgraw, Allison Krauss, Sheryl Crow, Jimmy Buffet, Billy Joel, Santana, Randy Newman, Randy Plant among others. Now for the Trivia?

1. What do Mardi, Lent and Easter have to do with each other.

2. What is a Krewe and the Krewe of Rex is special for what reason.

3. Harry Connick started which Krewe?

4. Name three throws you would like to catch?

5. What is a King cake, what is unedible in the cake and what does it mean?

These are all easy for the natives. people actually make careers out of Mardi Gras like Blaine Kern. Who is blaine Kern and you get a bonus question?

         

I like to give a special thanks to one of my home inspectors who does most of my condo inspections. Besides liking Matt as a person and a great dad to his kids, he does an admirable job for me inspecting condos in the New Orleans Market. I use Matt since he is on time all the time, is very flexible with his appointments, e-mails or prints the reports on site. He will call the client if they are out of town to review the report. Doing condos its most repeating certain complexs. Matt knows about most since we have used him about 50 times in the last 18 months. Matt is in it on his own so its his business so he trys hard to please and does the best job he can. Jack my partner says "Matt can always find the loose toilets" but he will find what is questionable and or broken. He will go anywhere New Orleans Warehouse District, Metairie, Kenner, Uptown, Harahan, River Ridge, La Place, Destrehan and where you may need him

The market is going down big tommorow. I wonder where all the money that is sitting on the side is going to go. Will it lower interest rates? Will it make real estate a better investment as not all markets have had a bubble. The Politicians do not have a clue, you cannot spend your way to wealth and jobs. I know it will be some exciting times for those who have not lived through something like Katrina. Hurricane hits market?

I can only speak for myself but the office meetings are getting old and lack focus. It seems to be a session where the company wants to spend the time selling agents new services or in house vendors. Then again I may be just bored with the meetings and have better things to do. I spend so much time on-line I tend to learn more and learn it quicker. Many time the meetings are grip sessions and that is not me. It may be that after 11 years and hundreds of agents going through the office the meetings need to be reinvented. Just want to hear your thoughts on how it could be made better or just laid to rest when the meetings die. Sometimes walls can be more interesting or is it just my meetings.

         

Lousiana politics are certainly a counter trend. A Republican who is the first Indian American to hold a governorship. At 36 years of age he is the youngest of all the govenors. His main push is to make Louisian more business friendly and of course less corrupt. This is a tough task but he could do it. He even hired his chief of staff who did not go to college and was home schooled. This is great since college sometimes takes creativity out of people. The legislature is still democratic as it has been for over a 130 years but they will change too. What does this mean for real estate values, less taxes and better services that will cost less. Lets hope he can do a Les Miles and win some business like Les Miles did with football. An outsider can take the talent and natural resources and become a winner in spite of the past. The grandkids are happy and hopefully there will be jobs for them here.

Just wonder if Localism is still in the Beta stage or is something new happened lately. I post over half my blogs to the local market so was just wondering if anything new is on the horizon. The features pop up quickly which is why I post there. I have been getting some reponses so I know its working. Anything new? Are we still on track?