Neighborhood guide · Lower Coast Algiers · 70131
English Turn Real Estate
A manned gate, a Jack Nicklaus course and roughly fifteen minutes to downtown. English Turn is one of the few gated communities inside the New Orleans city limits, and buying here works differently from buying anywhere else in the city.
Where it is and what it is
English Turn sits on the west bank of the Mississippi in Lower Coast Algiers, inside the New Orleans city limits and about ten miles from downtown by way of the Crescent City Connection. The name comes from the bend in the river where Bienville turned back an English expedition in 1699. The community itself is a master-planned development built around the golf course, laid out as roughly fourteen smaller enclaves behind manned gates, with lagoons, walking paths and heavy landscaping between them.
The English Turn Golf and Country Club opened in 1988 with a Jack Nicklaus-designed par-72 course measuring 7,078 yards from the back tees. It hosted the New Orleans PGA Tour event from 1989 through 2004 and again in 2006. The club is private, with tennis, a fitness center, pool and dining alongside the golf.
HOA dues and club membership are two different things
This is the point we spend the most time on with buyers new to English Turn. Owning a home here means paying homeowners association dues that fund the gates, the roads, the landscaping and the common areas. Club membership at English Turn Golf and Country Club is a separate matter with its own cost and its own categories, and levels range from social membership up through full golf.
Buying a house inside the gate does not by itself hand you a golf membership. Before you write an offer we get you the current HOA dues in writing, the association’s governing documents, and the club’s current membership structure and initiation terms directly from the club, so the monthly number you are planning around is the real one rather than an estimate from a listing sheet.
The architectural committee, not HDLC
English Turn is well outside any locally designated historic district, so the Historic District Landmarks Commission has no role here. What governs your exterior instead is the community’s own architectural review, run through the association under recorded covenants and restrictions. Those covenants can reach further into daily life than a city historic district does, covering roofing material, paint, fencing, landscaping, driveways, parking and rental use.
Because the community includes undeveloped lots, some buyers come here to build. If that is you, the covenants and the architectural review process are the first documents to read, ahead of talking to a builder. We also cross-check whether the plan needs anything from the City of New Orleans, since the property is still in Orleans Parish for permitting and assessment.
Appraisals and thin comparable sales
English Turn is a defined, gated community with a limited number of homes and a modest number of sales in a given year. Appraisers looking for comparable sales tend to stay inside the gate, because nothing immediately outside it is genuinely comparable. When recent sales inside the gate are few, or when they cluster in one of the fourteen enclaves rather than the one you are buying in, an appraisal can land in a place neither party expected.
We plan for that in advance. On the buy side that means an appraisal contingency that is written with this specific issue in mind. On the sell side it means giving the appraiser a documented package of the sales that actually support the price, rather than hoping the right ones surface. Homes here also sit in Orleans Parish for tax purposes, so the Orleans Parish Assessor and the Orleans homestead exemption filing are what apply.
Looking at the wider area? The West Bank guide covers what surrounds the gate, and the new construction guide covers building on a lot.
Common questions
English Turn, answered
Both descriptions are correct. English Turn is in Lower Coast Algiers, which is part of the city of New Orleans on the west bank of the river. It is in Orleans Parish, so city and parish offices handle permitting and assessment even though it sits across the bridge from downtown.
Homeowners association dues and country club membership are separate. The HOA covers the gates, roads and common areas and comes with ownership. Club membership at English Turn Golf and Country Club has its own cost and its own membership categories. We get the current terms for both directly from the association and the club before you make an offer.
Dues are set by the association and have changed over the years, so any figure quoted online is likely out of date. We request the current amount and what it covers in writing as part of due diligence, along with the association’s financials and recorded covenants.
Jack Nicklaus. The par-72 championship course opened with the club in 1988 and measures 7,078 yards from the back tees. It hosted the PGA Tour stop in New Orleans from 1989 through 2004 and again in 2006.
Yes, lots do come available, and the community was planned to accommodate custom building. The recorded covenants and the association’s architectural review process control what you can build and how it must look, so those documents come before builder conversations. City of New Orleans permitting still applies because the property is in Orleans Parish.
Because the pool of genuinely comparable sales is small and stays inside the gate. With few recent sales, or sales concentrated in a different enclave than the subject property, an appraisal can come in away from the contract price. We write and negotiate with that possibility in mind rather than treating it as a surprise.
Roughly fifteen minutes in normal conditions, about ten miles by way of the Crescent City Connection. Bridge traffic is the variable, so peak commute times run longer.
Contact us for a consultation.
Keep exploring
Nearby areas and guides
Let's talk
Let’s get inside the gate.
Tell us what you are looking for and we will line up showings along with the documents that actually decide this purchase.