Living In New Orleans

Living In New Orleans Realtor Margarete Wabnig, native New Orleanian, Historic House Specialist, the 1st Certified International Property specialist. There is no place like home...

09/03/2026

Deciding between the city and crossing the lake to the Northshore comes down to one test: the 20-minute rule.

List your non-negotiables — job, people, the restaurants you'll actually use every week — and check if they sit inside a 20-minute drive of the Northshore. If they do, cross the lake. If they don't, stay in the city. I live in Mandeville myself, and I sell on both sides of that line.

The Northshore gets you a driveway and a yard. The city gets you the walk and the streetcar. Only your 20 minutes decides which one's right for you. → mw.livinginneworleans.com/schedule

09/02/2026

**Caption:**

If you've got a dozen browser tabs open trying to pick a New Orleans neighborhood, more listings aren't going to fix that.

I ask three questions instead: what does your actual weekday look like, what do you want to walk to, and what does your dream Sunday morning look like. Those answers usually collapse twenty neighborhoods down to two.

That's the job. Not more listings. The right questions. → mw.livinginneworleans.com/schedule

09/02/2026

I've watched a homeowner put off a simple roof repair until a storm was already sitting in the Gulf — and watched that repair triple in price overnight.

This isn't about fear, it's about timing. Hurricane season runs June through November here, so get your roof, gutters, and drainage checked the moment there's no active system out there, not after one's already forming.

Handle it early, and it's maintenance. Handle it late, and it's an emergency. → mw.livinginneworleans.com/schedule

08/31/2026

watched a homeowner put off a simple roof repair until a storm was already sitting in the Gulf — and watched that same repair triple in price overnight, because every contractor in the city had the same phone ringing.

This isn't about fear, it's about timing. Hurricane season runs June through November here, so "the calm months" isn't really a season on the calendar — it's the quiet stretch between storms, whenever that happens to be. I tell every buyer the same thing at closing: get your roof, your gutters, and your yard drainage checked the moment there's no active system out there, not after one's already forming.

Handle it early, and it's maintenance. Handle it late, and it's an emergency.

What's on your list to check before the next one forms? Tell me in the comments.

08/30/2026

The buyers who protect themselves best make one call before they ever schedule a second showing.

Most buyers wait to think about insurance until after they've made an offer. By then, you're negotiating from a losing position.

Here's the question: what does full coverage on this specific address actually cost — not the neighborhood average, not last year's number. In New Orleans, that number can swing hard from one block to the next based on flood zone and elevation.

I call it pricing the house twice — once for the mortgage, once for the policy. Skip that step and you can end up house-rich and insurance-poor within your first year.

Relocating and want to price a house right? Comment INSURANCE.

08/29/2026

Buyers relocating from a high-tax state open their New Orleans tax estimate expecting a typo.

Louisiana has some of the lowest effective property tax rates in the country. On top of that, homeowners get a homestead exemption that shields the first $75,000 of your home's value from parish taxes entirely.

Buyers coming from New York, Illinois, or California are used to property tax bills that rival a car payment every month. Here, on a comparable home, that bill is often a fraction of that.

It's not a reason by itself to move, but it's real money back in your budget every year — and it changes what house you can actually afford.

Relocating and want the real number on a specific address? Comment EXEMPTION.

08/28/2026

Everybody worries about flooding in the Garden District. That's not actually the risk.

The Garden District sits on some of the highest ground in the entire city — locals call it the sliver by the river, and it earned that name for a reason. So if flooding isn't the real risk here, what is?

It's the maintenance math on a house built before 1900. Wood, plaster, cast iron — every piece of that character has an upkeep number attached to it, and it's not the number people expect.

I walk every Garden District buyer through that number before they fall for the porch. Comment NUMBER and I'll walk you through it too.

08/26/2026

The French Quarter buyers actually live in isn't the one on the postcard.

If French Quarter living sounds like Bourbon Street at 2am to you, that's the tourist map, not the residential one. The actual French Quarter is bigger than the six or seven blocks everyone pictures.

Once you get past Bourbon and Royal, onto the quiet side streets toward Esplanade or Rampart, it's a completely different rhythm — courtyard buildings, longtime residents, and a walk to everything without a single tourist crowd. I call it the residential Quarter, and it's where most of my French Quarter buyers actually end up living.

The question isn't whether you can live in the Quarter. It's whether you've walked the blocks nobody puts on a postcard. Comment QUARTER and I'll show you where to start.

08/25/2026

Five minutes of the actual showing get photographed. None of the real work does.

Most people picture a showing as unlocking the door and stepping back while the buyer looks around. That's maybe five minutes of the actual day.

Before any buyer walks in, I'm checking the things a first-time visitor won't think to check — water stains from the last rain, whether the door actually latches, what the neighbor's roofline looks like from the porch. I call that the walk-before-the-walk, and it's where most of the real work happens.

So by the time the buyer's standing in the kitchen asking questions, I've already got the answers to the ones they haven't thought to ask yet.

Curious what else happens on a day like this? Comment SHOWING.

08/25/2026

Buyers walk into a condo, see granite and new appliances, and assume the building's in good shape too. Those two things have nothing to do with each other.

What actually tells you the building's health is buried in the HOA documents, in a number most buyers never ask to see. It's called the reserve fund — the account that pays for the roof, the elevator, and every shared system when it eventually fails.

A low reserve fund means a special assessment is coming, and it can cost you more than the granite ever saved you.

I ask for that number on every condo closing I do here, before the finishes even come up. Touring condos in New Orleans? Comment RESERVE and I'll tell you what to ask for.

Address

Keller Williams Realty 455-0100, 3550 N Causeway
Metairie, LA
70002

Opening Hours

Monday 9am - 5pm
Tuesday 9am - 5pm
Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
Friday 9am - 5pm

Telephone

+15044302178

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