The Northshore, the River Parishes and Jefferson Parish Will Now Be Connected Through Cultural Tours

The New Orleans area has a vast amount of great historical and cultural tours that both visitors and residents can enjoy. The St. Tammany Parish Tourist Commission, the River Parishes Tourist Commission and Jefferson CVB have come together to offer a unique tour that will begin on the Northshore, going to River Parishes and ending in Jefferson Parish. The tour will highlight the Native, Creole and African American people, heritage, culture and way of life in the triparish region and will be updated on a daily basis to cover different parts of history and culture.

The tour will start at the Northshore where patrons will visit places such as the Bayou Lacombe Museum highlighting the history of natives and a Three Sisters and Medicine Wheel Garden and the Fontainebleau State Park where 153 enslaved people who worked at Bernard de Marigny de Mandeville's sugar plantation have a historical marker. Other stops along the way will be at the Madisonville Historic Museum, Jean Baptiste Lang Creole House, the Dew Drop Jazz and Benevolent Hall, and the nine Native and African American markers on the Historic Mandeville Marker Tour.

The next stop will be in the Louisiana River Parishes. Patrons will tour Whitney Plantation and learn about the cruel labor slaves went through on sugar plantations. There is also a memorial to the 1811 Slave Revolt that is located at the plantation. The Destrehan Plantation will also be toured where an exhibit is housed honoring the 1811 Slave Revolt procession and the Rost Home Colony. On a lighter note, the tour will also go to the 1811 Kid Ory History House and the Historic Riverlands Soul River Musical Journey where life after slavery is represented.

The tour will end in Jefferson Parish where patrons will visit the Marsalis Mansion Motel Marker, Camp Parapet and learn about this safe haven for slaves that were housed here during the Civil War's Union's occupation. Local gospel artist Mahalia Jackson’s gravesite is also located onsite. Other destinations on the tour will include True Vine Baptist Church, the oldest and longest-running African American Church on the West Bank of Jefferson Parish and famous pirate Jean Lafitte's smuggling route which is now the Barataria Preserve of Jean Lafitte National Historical Park and Preserve.

The tour is a five-day tour and can be customized. The tour is ideal for groups of around 10 - 25 but can have up to 50 people. Martha Martinez of YAYA Louisiana Tours and Travel is a certified tour guide and will accompany and lead groups if desired.

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Buy a New Home on the Northshore at Bedico Creek Preserve

When relocating to the Greater New Orleans area, you may want to buy a new home on the Northshore at Bedico Creek Preserve.  If you are considering relocating to the tight knit area of West St. Tammany Parish, you can enjoy the ambiance of downtown Covington, LA, which is located approximately 7 miles from Bedico Creek Preserve.  Living in Madisonville, Louisiana, at Bedico Creek gives you easy access to shopping, entertainment, and dining at the many locations of the two shopping areas Colonial Pinnacle at Nord Du Luc and Stirling Covington Shopping Center off of Highway 21.  In addition to the prolific shopping at mall stores such as JC Penny, Belk, and Lane Bryant, Colonial Pinnacle at Nord Du Luc and Stirling Covington Shopping Center also showcase box stores such as Academy Sports, Kohls, Best Buy, Marshalls, Target, Hobby Lobby, as well as the Hollywood Stadium 14 movie theater.  This Covington, Louisiana shopping area also features restaurants such as Olive Garden, Longhorn Steakhouse, Texas Roadhouse, Cracker Barrel, and Panera Bread Company.  For faster food and service, you can visit Steak & Shake, Firehouse Subs, and Dickeys Barbeque Pit.

Bedico Creek Preserve offers lots and homes for sale in its masterplanned community in St. Tammany Parish.  Lots for sale start in the mid $40’s, and new homes for sale begin in the $230’s.  If you are interested in building your own new, custom home or if you are looking to relocate to one of our existing homes for sale, you can find any lot or home in a selection of different neighborhoods in this St. Tammany Parish subdivision.  Contact Bedico Creek today to schedule your tour.  Call 985-845-4200 or E-mail Info@LiveBedico.com.

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Builders & Buyers Enjoying Robust Real Estate Market

Builders and buyers alike are optimistic that the recovery of the real estate market nationwide is here to stay as new home sales increased 18% year-over-year in June, 2015 compared to 2014, and new home inventory also increased by 3.4%.  Builders are discovering that bank construction loans are easing slightly on credit requirements and equity, and also with the increasing number of new home sales, builders are “turning over” the new homes that they are building so they are freeing up capital to invest in new lots for sale in traditional as well as master planned developments.

However, all of the great news regarding the real estate market was tempered by a slight drop in sales from May to June, 2015, for a total drop of 6.8%, down from 517,000 in may to 482,000 in June.  However, the summer months sometimes experience a lag because of school getting out, and potential home buyers going on vacation in the early part of the summer.  Overall, new home sales have been increasing both incrementally and expotentially since 2012.

Good news for builders is that there is an increasing demand from new home buyers for homes to purchase. This demand has not tapered off or decreased since the housing market started its recovery.  This trend has especially been noticed in the new, master planned community of Bedico Creek Preserve in St. Tammany Parish which features 11 Neighborhoods of new homes for sale, lots for sale, and new homes under construction.  Buyers living on the Northshore already find that this new home community is convenient to the cities of Mandeville, Madisonville, Covington, and Abita Springs in West St. Tammany Parish.

New lots are constantly being developed as new neighborhoods within the subdivision are opening with available lots for those new home buyers interested in building their own custom home.  There is no shortage of new homes to buy and new lots to buy at Bedico Creek in the Greater New Orleans area.  Contact Bedico Creek to schedule a tour of this Conservation Community by calling 985-845-4200 or E-mailing Info@LiveBedico.com.

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More Homes Are Being Built to Supplement the Housing Inventory Shortage

A shortage in homes and a strong job market in the Greater New Orleans area definitely strengthened the housing market, especially in new home construction and the advent of new subdivisions. Solid hiring in the job market, low mortgage rates and easier credit conditions have driven the demand for new home buyers to purchase a new home for sale. The Greater New Orleans area alone represents 20% of the new jobs that have been created this year in the state of Louisiana which has led to the strong home sales on both the north shore and the south shore.

West St. Tammany Parish has seen a decrease in housing inventory making the average sales price increase.  The housing market in general is leaning more towards a seller’s market because of the lack of supply of homes for sale.  This lack of inventory in homes priced from $190,000 – $300,000 is causing a bidding war pulling the average sales price for metro New Orleans up by 7.8% from $197,300 to $212,610. New Orleans has seen an increase from 21,954 homes sold annually in 2010 to 30,322 in 2014. Homeowners are starting to realize that this is the time to sell, and for home builders now is the time to build new homes for sale in St. Tammany Parish on the northshore.

On the flip side, home buyers will not have long to wait because more homes are being built which means the inventory problem will start to correct itself. According to Richard Haase, president of NAI/Latter & Blum, who reported at the UNO/Latter & Blum Economic Outlook & Real Estate Forecast Seminar for the Northshore Region, which was held at the Clarion Inn & Suites Conference Center in Covington, ”There’s a lot of pent-up demand,” he said, because tight lending standards have kept potential buyers out of the homebuying market, even as the economy recovered. ”For the next one or two years, I’m extremely optimistic about housing prices and housing affordability,” Haase said. ”We’re in a very healthy supply-and-demand market.”

Bedico Creek Preserve in Madisonville, Louisiana, offers new homes for sale that could plug the dearth of homes priced from $190,000 – $300,000.  Two neighborhoods being built in this master planned community in St. Tammany Parish offer new homes for sale from the $230’s – $300’s. 

These two neighborhoods are called Cypress Crossing and Deer Park.  Also, if you purchase one of our lots for sale in the Garden / Courtyard section of this St. Tammany Parish subdivision, you can build a home starting from the $290’s.  For more information about our homes for sale, Contact Bedico Creek at 985-845-4200 or E-mail Info@LiveBedico.com.

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