What Is Your New Orleans Home Worth?

Why an automated estimate is not a valuation

A Zillow estimate is produced by an algorithm working from public records and past listing data. It has never been inside your house. It cannot see the kitchen you renovated, the bathroom you added, the termite damage you repaired, or the true condition of your roof. It prices the record of your house, not the house itself.

That gap matters more in New Orleans than in a subdivision of identical homes. The housing stock here is old and irregular, and value can change within a single block. A Garden District house and a similar house a few blocks away can sit at different elevations, carry very different flood premiums, and belong to entirely different buyer pools. An automated estimate treats them as near matches. A valuation built by hand does not, and the difference can be substantial in either direction.

What I build instead

I start with closed sales, because a closed price is the only number a buyer has actually proven. I look for homes that genuinely compare to yours: the same neighborhood or nearby blocks, similar size, age, and construction, sold recently enough to reflect this market. Asking prices and active listings tell me what your competition looks like. They do not set your value.

Then I adjust, comp by comp, for the things that separate your house from each sale: condition and renovation level, square footage, lot and parking, elevation, and the specific block. When I give you a number, I show you the sales behind it and the adjustments I made, so you can see exactly how I got there and question any line of it.

If the comparable sales do not support the price you had in mind, I will tell you before you list, not after your house has sat on the market. The selling FAQ walks through what happens next, from pricing to the closing table.

Flood zone and insurance are part of your value

Buyers in New Orleans price the whole monthly payment, not just the mortgage. A high flood premium follows your house to its next owner, and it shrinks the pool of buyers who can carry the house at your price. Your flood zone, your elevation, and your insurance history are therefore pricing facts, not paperwork details.

Some of those facts can work in your favor. An elevation certificate documents where your floor sits relative to the base flood elevation. A FORTIFIED roof designation can lower the wind portion of a buyer’s premium, which supports what a buyer is able to pay. My home insurance guide explains how carriers look at all of this, and I factor it into your price rather than discovering it after an offer arrives.

Your tax assessment is not your value

Sellers often anchor on the number on the parish tax record. That figure is set for taxation, it is calculated by formula, and it lags the market by design. The homestead exemption changes the taxable amount on a primary residence without changing what a buyer would pay for the house. Assessed value and market value answer two different questions, and only one of them prices your sale.

The same caution applies to what a neighbor’s house listed for, and to what you paid for yours. Neither one is evidence. Closed sales of comparable homes are evidence, and that is what I bring you.

What you receive, and what happens if the appraisal disagrees

You receive the comparable sales I used, the adjustments, a pricing range, and my recommendation for where to position the list price inside it. You also receive a net sheet estimating what you would actually keep after your mortgage payoff, closing charges, and prorated taxes, because the sale price is not the number that lands in your account. The valuation costs you nothing, and requesting one does not obligate you to list with me or to list at all.

One more reason to price from real comps: after you accept an offer, the buyer’s lender orders an appraisal, and a low appraisal can reopen the whole negotiation. Renegotiating the price, the buyer covering the gap in cash, or a challenge supported by better comparable sales are the usual paths, and the comp file behind your valuation is exactly the material a challenge needs. Pricing inside the evidence from the start is how you avoid that fight. Historic properties add their own wrinkles to all of this, and my historic homes guide covers them.