[B]Which neighborhood in Mandeville, Madisonville, Covington?[/B] (New Orleans, Kenner: sale, 2010)

[UtahSkiBum]

We are looking in Quail Creek Subdivision of Mandeville, 2 areas of Madisonville (off the 22, Guste Island and by the Target off the I12) and above the I12 in Covington (North of the Hospital). Is one area better to be or better for re-sale? The drive time seems the same give or take 10 minutes.

We just got back from a lengthy visit to Northshore. The Mandeville/Madisonville/Covington areas are just fantastic, thank you for the suggestion to look there! I was literally jumping up and down when I got out of the car. There is beauty everywhere in the US, but the Northshore is REALLY REALLY pretty. I LOVE the river & lake, WOW. We ate at Zea, another WOW, sadly I know I'll be gaining weight eating such incredible food!! Hopefully some of that road construction will be clearing up soon, it helped us get lost alog Thanks again in advance for thoughts on the 3 areas.

[alon504]

You've picked good ones, but, I've always taken a leaning towards Greenleaves, although it is getting a bit cluttered in the last few years. Good luck with the move.

[christebo]

You didn't mention a price range... You also didn't mention what you are looking for in your neighborhood?

You did mention Quail Creek so I am assuming that you are looking in the sub $300K range?

I like Quail Creek but I would look at other neighborhoods for resale value.

Mandeville:

Stay north of Florida street, although some areas south are okay. You avoid all known flooding from Katrina north of Florida street.

Meadowbrook is very nice but you will be looking at listing that are in the $299 to $320K range as a minimum; you can probably bargain down. This was our first choice in neighborhoods balancing quality of life and our price range. Buying a smaller house in a neighborhood with larger homes is a good way to go for resale. The neighborhood states that it is gated but the guards are only there at night. The Pelican Club is just outside the neighborhood and is a great facility. I think you mentioned working at the hospital and you would be very close from here as you would turn left onto LA 22 and either take the frontage road up to the hospital or go up Causeway and exit Fairway Drive.

Greenleaves:
Nice neighborhood with no community pool. Houses tend to be older than Meadowbrook but you have a mixture of price ranges. Some sections are better than others due to construction quality and house sizes. Be careful here as homes tend to follow the per square foot of Meadowbrook and really shouldn't. It is just down the road from Meadowbrook.

Woodlands:
Very similar to Meadowbrook and pricing is similar too although there are homes built in the last few years which drives their prices up. Starting point on pricing is about the same as Meadowbrook. A little further out and residents will go to the new high school which is an unknown quantity right now. Quail Creek will send to the same high school too.

Beau Chene:
More expensive but you can find good deals. Homes are older but it is a golf course community with other amenities. Guarded gates 24/7; you will pay more for home-owner's association dues but it includes water/sewer/trash pickup in the fees. Resale has been traditionally good.

There are some neighborhoods off of Sharp road that are nice too. Pricing is a bit less but should be considered. I won't mention them all but go to latter-blum.com and do a search with a map view and it will show various neighborhoods from an aerial/map view. Sharp road is VERY convenient to commuting to the hospital as you can connect to the frontage road that will take you to the hospital.

Covington:
I can't say much here other than I would stay away from the LA 21 and IH-12 area as the shopping center and road widening is not complete there. Once complete, I am sure that traffic will flow more smoothly but the proof of this won't be seen until 2010 when the shopping center and road projects complete. There are some nice neighborhoods this way but traffic is an issue for me but maybe not for you? Also, the further north you go on Causeway, the more traffic as you have about 8 - 10 bigger stores north of IH-12 in Covington (Lowe's, Home Depot, Wal-Mart, etc.)

The neighborhoods we looked at were in the 300K range and I don't have much experience with a lot of the neighborhoods as we tried to stay closer to the Causeway Bridge for my job commute to the New Orleans area. If this range is okay, check out Northpark; which was our second choice in neighborhoods behind Meadowbrook.

Versailles was too close to IH-12 for us as was River Oaks (inside Ih-12).

Country Club Estates is older but a nice neighborhood. A mixed bag on the home styles as they were all custom built. I don't know if you will find much that doesn't need some sort of repairs but it is worth considering. This is the southern most Covington neighborhood I believe and is on the opposite side of Causeway from Lakeview Hospital.


Hope this helps,

Chris

[STLNolaWoj]

christebo---

I'm looking to move in August to the North Shore from Chicago because I will be attending Southeastern LA Univ. to finish college. I went to school for almost 3 years here in Chicago a while ago but never finished. I lived in Kenner for almost 6 months not too long after katrina doing roof repair but the group i was working with moved to Atlanta so I had to move back to Chicago. Now being 26 years old I wanted to finish school and was looking at Loyola(went to Loyola in Chicago) and Tulane but they are just way too expensive. So I planned on Southeastern however being 26 I think thats a little too old to be living on campus with much younger people and I like to have my privacy/freedom anyways. The problem is I heard a lot of bad stories about Hammond lately and so I started looking into Covington/Mandeville. I dont mind the extra distance for having a bit more convenience/enjoyment. Living in Kenner for the time I was in LA I probably passed through the north shore 2 or 3 times so I'm not too familiar with it. I was leaning more towards Covington just because it seems a bit closer to Hammond and a bit safer as far as flooding goes(and maybe a bit cheaper because its farther from the lake?). Anyways I heard there were a few 'seedy' areas in covington but like i said i'm not too familiar with the area. I'm looking to spend maybe 600-800 a mo. on a decent 1 bdrm apt. but i can be flexible if my choices are limited. Just wondering if you had any advice about Covington or Hammond for that matter (maybe I'm wrong about it being bad?) Also how is the availability on apt. rentals for someone like me looking for something decent, somewhat safe and quiet, and doesnt have to be huge or anything. Its kind of hard to come down from Chicago whenever i feel like being like 1000 miles away. You think in August I will have to worry about not being able to find a rental? Thank you so much for any advice.

[christebo]

Originally Posted by STLNolaWoj

christebo---

I'm looking to move in August to the North Shore from Chicago because I will be attending Southeastern LA Univ. to finish college. I went to school for almost 3 years here in Chicago a while ago but never finished. I lived in Kenner for almost 6 months not too long after katrina doing roof repair but the group i was working with moved to Atlanta so I had to move back to Chicago. Now being 26 years old I wanted to finish school and was looking at Loyola(went to Loyola in Chicago) and Tulane but they are just way too expensive. So I planned on Southeastern however being 26 I think thats a little too old to be living on campus with much younger people and I like to have my privacy/freedom anyways. The problem is I heard a lot of bad stories about Hammond lately and so I started looking into Covington/Mandeville. I dont mind the extra distance for having a bit more convenience/enjoyment. Living in Kenner for the time I was in LA I probably passed through the north shore 2 or 3 times so I'm not too familiar with it. I was leaning more towards Covington just because it seems a bit closer to Hammond and a bit safer as far as flooding goes(and maybe a bit cheaper because its farther from the lake?). Anyways I heard there were a few 'seedy' areas in covington but like i said i'm not too familiar with the area. I'm looking to spend maybe 600-800 a mo. on a decent 1 bdrm apt. but i can be flexible if my choices are limited. Just wondering if you had any advice about Covington or Hammond for that matter (maybe I'm wrong about it being bad?) Also how is the availability on apt. rentals for someone like me looking for something decent, somewhat safe and quiet, and doesnt have to be huge or anything. Its kind of hard to come down from Chicago whenever i feel like being like 1000 miles away. You think in August I will have to worry about not being able to find a rental? Thank you so much for any advice.

I can't speak to Hammond, sorry. The apartments that we are in, Cypress Lake, in Mandeville are on the expensive side in my opinion. We are paying $920 for a 2 bedroom. If I were you, I would look into renting a house and splitting the bills with someone. You did mention liking your privacy so a roommate may be out? I think Ponchatoula is close to Hammond too? Don't know what is out that way. We are moving into a rent house as am not sure we will be staying in the area. We will go up in rent but go down in per square foot cost by about 40%. We are looking at about $1500 for a 2100 square foot house. This works our to about 70 cents a square foot and we are paying about 1.10 a square foot now for the apartment'; really a bad deal but we thought we would only stay in the apartment for a few months.

I did some searches on Craig's list before moving to the area. I was able to find a room to rent here in Mandeville until my family moved down here too. You might want to consider broadening your search to west of Hammond too. The trouble with the Covington area is that it is not as cheap as some others. You are looking at about 22 miles with your commute, I think? Do check out Hammond as I know there are nicer areas there. I would assume closest to school to have some crime issues just like near most universities.

Good luck!

Chris

[UtahSkiBum]

Hey all We ended up in Mandeville and really like it. There is plenty to do here on the Northshore but also a whole lot to fill up our weekends across on the South Shore, the best of both worlds! Thanks for the inputs! (especially you Christebo, your input was very helpful!!) We 'got in' to Beau Chene to drive around and check it out and WHEW, that is a fancy and beautiful place!

STLnolaWoj, humm...don't know what to say because I'm not familiar with Hammond. I've only been to a Wendy's there, and that was at night so sadly I don't have much of an opinion on it. Covington is great though. I agree, latter and blum is a good reference to find a rental...that and check the picayune paper because it will have apartment listings. One thing that spun me for a loop was the price to register our vehicles here - It was $800 MORE than it would have been to just re-new our registration in Utah. That was a bit on the depressing side The weather is beautiful, sunny and warm so 'come on down!' Funny story: my husband left the back door open while he got the mail the other night and a FROG hopped right in our house! He hopped into our kitchen so maybe he was hungry Sorry I didn't reply sooner - since we got here I've been 'out of the loop' as far as city-data goes but I need to try to 'pay it forward' and give my 2 cents to help out!! Best of luck and if I can suggest anything else that is more helpful, let me know!

[SouthernBelleInUtah]

Doesn't LA still have the homestead exemption? Your property taxes should be much lower - it all evens out. I'm contemplating a move to TX and they have no state income tax but very high property taxes. You might have to file to get the homestead exemption - it's been too long since I had to deal with that.

[BRMan]

Originally Posted by SouthernBelleInUtah

Doesn't LA still have the homestead exemption? Your property taxes should be much lower - it all evens out. I'm contemplating a move to TX and they have no state income tax but very high property taxes. You might have to file to get the homestead exemption - it's been too long since I had to deal with that.

Yes, the homestead exemption is still here. Filing the homestead exemption is not a big deal - just find time to go down to the assessor with home sale documentation in hand and you can get it taken care of. And it's a one time thing - you don't have to go to the assessor again unless you sold your house and now need to put the homestead exemption on another Louisiana home.