New Orleans, LA
New Orleans merits investigation only by buyers comfortable underwriting weak demand signals and hurricane wind exposure; risk-sensitive investors should avoid it.
Why this market scores where it does
Written from the figures on this page and then checked against them: every number below had to appear in the source record or recompute from two that did, or the text was rewritten.
New Orleans merits investigation only by buyers comfortable underwriting weak demand signals and hurricane wind exposure; risk-sensitive investors should avoid it. The median home value is $264,891, median asking rent is $1,617, and gross yield is 7.33%, creating an income opportunity before expenses.
The demand side is less supportive. Employment fell 0.88% year over year, while tax filings show net migration of -4,600 households. Rent still rose 0.73%, but that modest increase should not be treated as evidence that tenant demand can absorb vacancies or higher operating costs.
Buyers may have negotiating room: listings took a median 53 days to sell, and 29.02% recorded price drops. Yet annual climate loss equals 0.476% of building value, with hurricane wind identified as the dominant hazard. Investigate property-level insurance, resilience, achievable rent, and expenses before relying on headline yield.
Frequently Asked Investor Questions
Does the headline rental income justify deeper property review?
Is there evidence that a buyer may have negotiating leverage?
What do migration data say about demand quality?
Investor Quick Takeaways
Computed from the current Zillow rent and home-value medians.
Zillow ZORI rent growth trend over trailing 12 months.
Originated investment purchase share (CFPB HMDA).
Annualized loss ratio evaluated for flood & hurricane risk.
Test the market, then test the deal
Keep New Orleans as the starting point or move into a more specific property and rent check.
The current market in eight signals
Fast-moving Redfin conditions sit beside the slower fundamentals so a buyer can separate today's negotiating climate from the long-run investment case.
Rents versus prices, indexed to 2019
Both series start at 100. The gap between the lines is the investment case, and which line is closing it tells you what kind of market this is.
What each component measures
Weights are published, not hidden, and the arithmetic is shown. Five components, each measured as a national percentile across all tracked metros.
| Signal | Score | Weight | Points |
|---|---|---|---|
| Job growth | 15 | 30% | 4.50 |
| Rent trend | 13 | 25% | 3.25 |
| Affordability | 15 | 15% | 2.25 |
| Supply pressure | 37 | 15% | 5.55 |
| Climate risk | 2 | 15% | 0.30 |
| Published score | 16 | ||
Job: employment declined 0.88% year over year -> weaker labor demand may limit tenant formation and rent resilience, so underwriting should not assume expanding employment.
Rent: median asking rent is $1,617 and increased 0.73% year over year -> current income supports a 7.33% gross yield, but recent rent growth provides little cushion for vacancies, concessions, or rising expenses.
Afford: rent equals 30.97% of median household income and price equals 4.23 times income -> housing costs already claim a meaningful share of local earnings, limiting room to raise rents or resale prices without stronger incomes.
Supply: months of supply is 4.8, median days on market is 53, and 29.02% of listings had price drops -> buyers may gain negotiating leverage, though slower absorption can also complicate resale.
Climate: annual climate loss is 0.476% of building value and the dominant hazard is hurricane wind -> insurance terms, deductibles, building condition, and mitigation can materially alter property-level returns.
What this market costs and what it earns
Every derived ratio below recomputes from the same source record used by the article and score.
What is being built, and for whom
Permits are the 12-to-24 month early warning. The total matters less than the mix: apartments compete with a rental the day they open.
Demand, and the competition for it
Tax filings say how many households moved and what they earn; mortgage disclosures say how many local purchases went to someone who will not live there. Moves between counties inside this metro are netted out of both flow figures.
What would make this a bad buy
Generated from the same figures with the instruction to argue against the score, and published unedited. A page that only agrees with itself is an advertisement.
Three ways the case breaks
- Demand could weaken further because employment declined 0.88% year over year and tax filings recorded 13,610 households moving in versus 18,210 moving out.
- Expected rental income could underperform because asking-rent growth was only 0.73%, while median rent already represented 30.97% of median household income.
- Net returns could be reduced by hurricane wind exposure, with annual climate loss measured at 0.476% of building value; property-level insurance costs are not published.
Move from the metro average to local evidence
County pages carry tax, migration, listing and hazard records. City pages appear only where direct city price, rent and Census evidence pass the publication gate.
Metros that behave like New Orleans
Nearest neighbours on price level, income, yield and job growth — not on geography. Every market page gets a different peer set, which is the point.
| Metro | Score | Price | Rent | Yield | Job Growth |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| New Orleans, LA (Target) | 16 | $265k | $1,617 | 7.3% | ▼ 0.9% |
| Memphis, TN | 28 | $248k | $1,435 | 6.9% | ▼ 0.4% |
| Oklahoma City, OK | 38 | $248k | $1,393 | 6.8% | ▼ 0.6% |
| Cleveland, OH | 59 | $256k | $1,474 | 6.9% | ▼ 0.1% |
| Toledo, OH | 55 | $206k | $1,276 | 7.4% | ▼ 1.6% |
Where every figure came from
“Checked nightly” means every source is re-pulled and re-verified each night. It does not mean every source moves nightly — the release column tells you how fresh each number can possibly be.
| Dataset Source | Method | Release Period | Pulled Date |
|---|---|---|---|
| Census ACS 5-year — household income | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — population | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS CES — payroll employment | direct | CES SM current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS LAUS — resident employment | direct | LAUS current | 2026-07-26 |
| BLS QCEW — county employment and wages | direct | annual county employment and wages 2025 vs 2024 | 2026-07-31 |
| OMB/BLS delineation — metro geography | direct | OMB July 2023 delineation | 2026-07-30 |
| Census Building Permits Survey — permitted units | direct | BPS through 2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| Census ACS 5-year — city population, households and housing | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-29 |
| Census ACS 5-year — county housing value, tenure and stock | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| Census ACS 5-year — cities and communities | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-30 |
| FEMA National Risk Index — hazard loss ratios | modelled | NRI counties (FEMA ArcGIS) | 2026-07-26 |
| FHFA House Price Index — annual county appreciation | direct | annual county HPI 2025 | 2026-07-28 |
| HMDA / CFPB — purchases by occupancy type | direct | HMDA 2024 purchase originations | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD Fair Market Rents — Section 8 standard | direct | FY2026 FMR | 2026-07-26 |
| HUD USPS crosswalk and Small Area FMRs — ZIP rent fallback | direct | ZIP-CBSA 2025Q4 + SAFMR FY2026 | 2026-07-26 |
| IRS SOI — county migration and mover income | direct | SOI migration 2022-2023 | 2026-07-26 |
| Freddie Mac PMMS — mortgage rates | direct | week of 2026-07-23 | 2026-07-27 |
| Census ACS 5-year — effective property tax | direct | ACS 2024 5-year | 2026-07-27 |
| Realtor.com Economic Research — county listing inventory | direct | county inventory 2026-06 | 2026-07-28 |
| Redfin Data Center — inventory, days on market, and price cuts | direct | metro tracker through 2026-05-01 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI and ZORI — county values and rents | direct | county ZHVI/ZORI 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — metro home values | direct | Metro_zhvi_uc_sfrcondo_tier_0.33_0.67_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZHVI — city home values | direct | zillow_zhvi_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — metro market rents | direct | Metro_zori_uc_sfrcondomfr_sm_sa_month.csv | 2026-07-26 |
| Zillow ZORI — city market rents | direct | zillow_zori_city.csv | 2026-07-29 |
| Zillow ZORI — ZIP market rents | direct | ZORI ZIP 2026-06 | 2026-07-26 |