Fall 2026 Market Update for the New Orleans Metro

By Gregg Tepper

I have been married to my wonderful wife Letha for 30 years. We have 3 children: Max, Alexander and Charlotte. I have been a licensed Realtor in the New Orleans area for 21 years and am the Operator of The Tepper Group with Keller Williams Realty in Mandeville. Our team services the entire New Orleans and Baton Rouge metro areas. Our team of partners has well over 70 years of experience. In the last 2 years we helped 269 families buy, sell and lease homes, land and commercial investments.

Our fall 2026 market update covers the New Orleans metro, from the Northshore to the Southshore and out to Tangipahoa. It picks up where our September video left off, when we asked whether this is a buyer’s or a seller’s market and landed on neither.

The parish-by-parish numbers tell the real story.

A balanced market with crosscurrents. New listings were down across most of the metro in September, with Tangipahoa the exception at about 11% above a year ago. Inventory fell everywhere, but that hasn’t meant a seller’s market, because there are fewer buyers, too. Orleans prices rose 9.7% year over year while Jefferson, St. Tammany, and Tangipahoa slipped. Month’s supply dropped and time on market rose almost everywhere, the mixed signals you see when neither side is in control.

Why the busy season came early. Pending sales usually peak in late spring and summer, yet this year they topped out in March, or April in Tangipahoa. Rates had dipped below 6%, buyers came off the sidelines, and activity surged. Then rates climbed back up, and many buyers already holding low rates chose to wait, so pendings have trended down since.

What steady prices actually mean. Average prices have stayed fairly flat, but the average hides a lot. A home that shows beautifully still draws top dollar, while one that needs updating sits longer and becomes a real bargain. With sales above and below average, both buyers and sellers can come away happy from the same market.

The case against waiting on rates. Plenty of buyers are on the sidelines, unwilling to touch a rate in the sevens, but they are all waiting for the same thing. When rates fall, they return at once, and bidding wars follow, just like the March surge. Any savings from a lower rate can vanish into a higher price, and you cannot refinance the price. As we always say, marry the house and date the rate.

The bigger national picture. Nationally, last year’s existing-home sales came in around 4 million, the lowest level in roughly three decades, well under the historical pace closer to 5 million, and this year is tracking in that same range. That is still a lot of homes, so this is not the sky falling. Closer to home, new industry from SpaceX to a North Louisiana data center to new steel and ammonia plants tends to lift local economies and home prices where it lands.

You can watch the full video above, or feel free to skip to the topics that interest you most using the timestamps below:

00:00 — A Balanced Market
01:12 — Listings and Inventory
02:11 — Pending Sales
03:57 — Why Buyers Paused
05:19 — Prices and Days on Market
09:10 — Marry the House, Date the Rate
11:59 — The National Picture

If you want to know what your specific home or neighborhood is actually worth in this market, you’ll need a closer look than any metro-wide average can provide. Reach out to us at (985) 218-5445 or TGroup@kw.com, or visit findnolahomes.com. We’ll give you a read grounded in your parish, your street, and your home.