Challenges And Opportunities: Analyzing Louisiana's Real Estate Landscape

LAFAYETTE, La. (KPEL News) - The real estate market has been a roller coaster for the last several years. According to Redfin, In July 2024, home prices in Louisiana were up 2.7% compared to last year, selling for a median price of $261,500. On average, the number of homes sold was up 0.5% year over year and there were 3,483 homes sold in July this year, up 3,468 homes sold in July last year. The median days on the market was 57 days, up 10 year over year.

Where are the best places to buy a home?

With home values up around 3.3% nationwide in the past year and mortgage rates remaining high, the personal-finance website WalletHub today released its report on the Best Real Estate Markets in 2024, to identify the most attractive cities for home-buyers and real estate professionals.

“Current home prices are extremely important, but there’s much more that you need to look at when determining the health of a city’s real estate market. Factors like the cost of living, the potential for the value of homes to increase, the availability of recently-built homes and the quality of the city’s job market are all important to consider in conjunction with asking prices and interest rates. The best cities may not always be the cheapest, but they offer excellent housing options and long-term stability.”
- Cassandra Happe, WalletHub Analyst

WalletHub compared 300 cities across 17 key metrics. The data set ranges from median home-price appreciation to housing affordability to job growth. If you are a resident of Louisiana you may, or may not be surprised by the results.

Best Real Estate Markets		Worst Real Estate Markets
1. McKinney, TX		291. Miami Beach, FL
2. Frisco, TX		292. Cleveland, OH
3. Cary, NC		293. Davenport, IA
4. Nashville, TN		294. Philadelphia, PA
5. Durham, NC		295. Peoria, IL
6. Gilbert, AZ		296. Jackson, MS
7. Charlotte, NC		297. Baton Rouge, LA
8. Denton, TX		298. Shreveport, LA
9. Allen, TX		299. Baltimore, MD
10. Port St. Lucie, FL		300. New Orleans, LA

Best vs. Worst

San Jose, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, California, have the lowest share of seriously underwater mortgages, which is 26.6 times lower than in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, the city with the highest.
Fontana, California, has the lowest vacancy rate, which is 16.6 times lower than in Miami Beach, Florida, the city with the highest.
Flint, Michigan, has the lowest home price as a share of income, which is 12.7 times lower than in Santa Monica, California, the city with the highest.
Rochester, New York, has the fewest median days on the market, which is six times fewer than in Lancaster, California, the city with the most.

To view the full report and your city’s rank, please visit:
https://wallethub.com/edu/best-real-estate-markets/14889