TODAY’S PARADES maps, 2B
METAIRIE: Little Rascals, Noon l NEW ORLEANS EAST: Nefertiti, 1 p.m. l SLIDELL: Antheia, 1 p.m. l MARIGNY: ’Tit Rex, 4:30 p.m.
N O L A.C O M
|
S u n d ay, F e b r u a ry 1, 2026
$2.50X
Mayor Helena Moreno’s whirlwind sprint through Washington Mardi Gras about making connections, including a meeting with Trump
‘A JAM-PACKED
48 HOURS’
Area housing prices flat in 2025, sales activity up Data suggests slight recovery after three bad years
BY STEPHANIE RIEGEL Staff writer
After three years of sluggish sales and falling prices, the housing market across the New Orleans area in 2025 showed faint signs of coming back to life, fueled, market analysts say, by a respite from soaring insurance premiums and lower mortgage rates. Across the metro area, home sale activity picked up last year over 2024, according to data from the New Orleans Metropolitan Association of Realtors, with slight increases in the number of closed sales, up nearly 2%, and pending sales, up more than 3%. At the same time, prices leveled out, with ä See a map half the area’s ZIP codes showing home prices seeing slight gains in in the New Orleans their median sale price and the other half see- metro area. PAGE 6A ing slight dips. In 2024, homes in two-thirds of the metro area fell in value. Still, the overall increase in the median sale price to $279,000 — a gain of 2.4% — wasn’t enough to keep pace with the rate of inflation, which averaged 2.7% last year. Also, it took longer to sell homes, with average days on the market increasing to 67 days from 62 days the year before. HOME PRICES IN THE NEW ORLEANS METRO AREA
JEFFERSON
70065 $159 $155
70006 $1 164 $17 70
Kenner
10
70003
70062
$166 $161
$154 $159 9
61
Mississippi Riv er
River Ridge
ä Stephanie Grace:
BY BLAKE PATERSON
Congressional delegation shares a little of what’s on their minds. PAGE 8A
Staff writer
Mayor Helena Moreno stepped off the elevator and into a swarm. Louisianans were spilling out of the Washington Hilton’s two lobby bars, one renamed “The 65th Parish” for the week of meetings and parties known as Washington Mardi Gras. When they saw the popular new mayor of New Orleans, they made a beeline. Demetria Brazile Kendrick, sister to famed Democratic political strategist Donna Brazile, slid her arm around Moreno’s waist to say hi. Larry Dale, head of the Jefferson Business Council, grabbed a handshake and suggested a meeting about regional coordination. About a dozen more well-wishers buzzed around her. Moreno, dressed for the evening in a glittering
Municipal Association, the talkative Grand Isle mayor told her. He reminded her about their first meeting, two decades ago, when as a young reporter, she did a story about him and FEMA trailers. “If you need a guy to break into your trailers, New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno, right, talks with let me know,” Camardelle House Majority Leader Steve Scalise, R-La., left, as he joked. stands with his wife, Jennifer, and Donald T. Bollinger, “I know you can do it,” Moreno replied, hugging chairman and CEO of Bollinger Shipyards, Inc., during him before dashing from her stop at the Kennedy Center for the King’s Luncheon the lobby. during Washington Mardi Gras on Wednesday. So went a whirlwind 48 hours last week in Washblack blazer, had a recep- twirled his finger in the air ington, D.C., for Moreno tion to attend at the Ken- — spousal sign language as she joined what seemed like the entire political nedy Center with Saints for “time to go.” As she neared the re- class of Louisiana in their owner Gayle Benson and Ochsner CEO Pete No- volving door, David Ca- annual sojourn north. At Washington Mardi Gras vember. She needed to get mardelle made his move. to a waiting car. Moreno’s Moreno needed to join husband, Chris Meeks, the board of the Louisiana ä See MORENO, page 9A
$170 $174
70001
70005 $252 $240
70122
$248 8 $253 3
$167 $175
$229 9 $234 Mid-City
70116
70125
70118 $263 3 $2 295
$183 3 $20 00
70115 $33 36 $32 29
$375
$382 $353
70113 $186 $24 47
$3 349 $338
$91 1 $99
70117
$155 5 $169 Byw y ater
Lower 9th
Ward Missi ssip pi R iver 70114
Algiers
CBD
70130
510
70129
90
New Orleans East
r ay astal Waterw Gulf Intraco
70119
70112 $382
$200 $1 193
Bridge City
$10 05 $108
610
10
$193 $195
70126
Gentilly
Lakeview
Metairie
$1 103 $107
$112 $109
10
70124
70128
70127
NEW ORLEANS
Lake Poontchartrain
Bucktown
70121 Jefferson
70123 $1 188 $19 91
STAFF PHOTOS By CHRIS GRANGER
70002
61
Harahan
New Orleans Mayor Helena Moreno visits with U.S. Rep. Troy Carter at his Washington, D.C., office during her trip for Washington Mardi Gras on Wednesday.
Causewa y
For the third year in a row, housing prices were flat across most of the metro area, with about half the neighborhoods notching small gains and half seeing small losses. Prices reflect the median price per square foot for single family homes that sold from Jan. 1-Dec. 31, 2025.
70032
$159 9 $16 69 Arabi
70043 $1 148 $149
Chalmette
$13 34 $138
Gretna
M
70131
ä See PRICES, page 6A
Parents sound alarm as summer camps turn away kids
Catholic preschoolers lose spots because of new state law BY PATRICK WALL Staff writer
With plans to send her two children to camp at their Catholic school in New Orleans, Laurie Martin thought she might escape the dreaded scramble to secure summer child care. That changed when she got the email. Days before Christmas, the Christian Brothers School informed families that, due to a new state law, the school would not accept children under 5 into their Little Falcons Summer Camp. Now Martin has no idea what to do with her 4-year-old daughter, Colette, when she’s out of school this summer but Martin and her husband are still working full time.
ä See CAMPS, page 4A
Longtime club celebrates 100 years of Black society young Men Illinois looks toward the next generation of debutantes
the Young Men Illinois Club held its first ball. Built by a then-new Black upper class that formed after the Civil War and Reconstruction, the club has been a beacon for New Orleans high society, bringing joy and celebration through the inequality BY DESIREE STENNETT of segregation, pride and cultural resilStaff writer ience through integration, and a sense of In shimmering, gleaming ball gowns tradition and connection over 10 decades. Now the club is bringing a renewed foand extravagantly sized hats heaped with brightly colored feathers, a new genera- cus on legacy-building for future generation of young Black girls recently debuted tions as it looks to the next 100 years. in New Orleans society 100 years after “If you can imagine the difficulties
WEATHER HIGH 46 LOW 32 PAGE 8B
and challenges that Black people had in their lives in 1926, and for them to have orchestrated a ball nearly every year for 100 years, not just to party and have fun but to introduce young women to society for them to begin to... establish outreach and important opportunities for furthering the race and the community, that’s an outstanding contribution,” said Karen Becnel Moore, who built a decadeslong career in higher education and served as Young Men Illinois queen in 1966.
STAFF PHOTO By ENAN CHEDIAK
Queen Sydney Mason is escorted by her father, Judge Omar Mason, during the young Men Illinois Club’s ball ä See CLUB, page 22A at the Convention Center in New Orleans on Jan. 23.
Business ......................1E Deaths .........................4B Nation-World................2A Classified ..................... 2F Living............................1D Opinion ........................6B Commentary ................7B Metro ...........................1B Sports ..........................1C
13TH yEAR, NO. 173