SEPTEMBER 2005

A Publication of ELLIOTT® & Company Appraisers

 

REAL ESTATE PRICES SKYROCKET ON PERIPHERY OF KATRINA

Just like the price of gasoline rose dramatically in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, so are the prices of housing in Baton Rouge and other outlying cities and towns, as former residents of New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport and smaller towns devastated by the hurricane are anxious to get on with their lives and settle in a location.

"Prices of real estate in the outlying areas around New Orleans is going through the roof," said Wayne Pugh, a Baton Rouge, La., real estate consultant, who is vice president-elect of the Appraisal Institute.

According to Pugh, people and businesses started looking for housing and commercial real estate once they realized the property where they were living and operating businesses would not be available in the foreseeable future.

"First, these people rented all the hotel and motel rooms in Baton Rouge; then they rented all the apartments," Pugh recalled. "Then they started bidding on the houses, which began selling for significantly more than their asking price. The real estate prices in Baton Rouge went up 25%-to-50% in a matter of hours."

Griffin Sole, a displaced commercial insurance broker looking for a home in Baton Rouge, said, "I heard of one $90,000 house being bid up to $180,000."

Sole, like many others, decided to move further west. He settled in Alexandria, La. Lafayette, La., located several hours northwest of New Orleans, has also become a boomtown. Dallas and Houston have become home to many larger companies that have operated in the affected area.

Government agencies, such as FEMA, have entered the bidding war in Baton Rouge, buying a significant amount of new construction entering the market.

CONCERN FOR OUR FRIENDS ALONG THE GULF

Like most national companies, we have clients, as well as affiliate appraisers, in New Orleans, Biloxi, Gulfport and other areas on the Gulf Coast affected by Hurricane Katrina. To those people we express our sincere concern and hope that they have weathered this hurricane as well as possible. As of now, communication to those areas is limited, and things are definitely no longer business as usual. We expect to be learning some troubling stories in the coming weeks about some of our business associates, and we hope these people can rebuild their lives as soon and as full as possible.
 

QUOTES OF WIT & WISDOM

"A university is what a college becomes when the faculty loses interest in students."   -- John Ciardi

"Words without actions are the assassins of idealism." -- Herbert Hoover

"While one person hesitates because he feels inferior, the other is busy making mistakes and becoming superior."   -- Henry Link

"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
                                                                        -- Albert Einstein

"Not even computers will replace committees, because committees buy computers."   -- Edward Shepard Mead

"Progress may have been all right once, but it has gone on too long."   -- Ogden Nash

"Politics is the art of looking for trouble, finding it whether it exists or not, diagnosing it incorrectly and applying the wrong remedy."   -- Ernest Benn

 

CONTACT US

Newsletter Editor: kevin@elliottco.com   

Web Site: www.appraisalsanywhere.com

3316-A Battleground Avenue • Greensboro, NC 27410

 

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