The total supply of commercial real estate for sale in New Orleans is approximately $726,000,000 with vacant land being the largest sector valued at almost $242 million, followed by office property valued at $175 million.
There are two databases that house information on most of the commercial property for sale in the New Orleans area. The largest, Loopnet.com, claims to have 3,000,000 registered users nationally who spend an average of twenty minutes searching through 640,000 listings.
LACDB.com is the other database, a Louisiana host for the Catylist Network, which claims access to 100,000 commercial agents nationally and is used by approximately 800 Louisiana commercial real estate agents. Most commercial agents make sure their property for sale is listed in both databases, and some also use the MLS database to increase visibility to residential agents. LACDB.com provides data on the actual sale price of properties which can be compared to the original list price of properties to provide useful information on the actual value of commercial real estate.
This price trend is determined by a variance, called the Demand/Supply Gap. For example list prices for warehouses ranged from $10-$20/sf in New Orleans East to $60-$70/sf in Elmwood, but averaged $35 per square foot overall. Since actual sale prices averaged $26 per square foot, sellers were willing to accept 31% less than originally expected. This gap is a measure of strength or weakness in a market. As shown in Table One and the Supply/Demand Gap Chart, retail sector prices had to fall 34% before buyers were interested.
| Listed | Actual | Variance | |
| Industrial | $35.06 | $26.85 | -31% |
| Office | $72.93 | $67.89 | -7% |
| Shopping Center | $60.37 | $71.87 | 16% |
| Retail-Commercial | $94.25 | $70.36 | -34% |
| Multi Family | $50.19 | $56.92 | 12% |
In the New Orleans MSA, which includes Metairie and Kenner, there is a higher supply of land, office, retail and industrial property versus any other sector, but the average price of land for sale is $1.1 million compared to the average shopping center priced at $2.2 million. The total market of commercial real estate for sale totals $726 million.
Table Two: Value of Commercial Sectors In New Orleans MSA |
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| Property Type | Total Value | Listed |
| Industrial | $94,481,600 | 77 |
| Office | $175,583,362 | 115 |
| Shopping Center | $33,500,140 | 15 |
| Retail-Commercial | $122,664,722 | 123 |
| Vacant Land | $242,866,435 | 221 |
| Multi Family | $57,094,550 | 53 |
| TOTAL | $726,190,809 | |
COPYRIGHT 2012, www.louisianacommercialrealty.com. / orig.pub.jan. 2009.
