Here at Bedico Creek Preserve, we are about information for our builders, our buyers, our homeowners, our partners, and our vendors. If you are looking for a dependable source of information about real estate in Southeast Louisiana, specifically the Greater New Orleans area, please use our blog as much and as often as possible to read informative and timely real estate information. We promise you, you won’t be disappointed!

Homeownership in 2023

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Whether you are purchasing a home or selling a home, it is a very personal decision. The house you sell or buy is your home that you will spend a good part of your life. It is also a big financial decision that can affect your finances. To make the best decision for you, professionals in the industry reveal what the real estate market looks like in 2023. 

As you begin the search of finding the right home, many start by looking at listings. According to the National Association of Realtors in 2022 almost half (47%) started the process by looking for a home online. Buyers that were younger than 41 had around 60% that purchased a home online. This actually is a good way to handle the process due to the frenzy and fury of buyers in the market. As of April 2023, the median home price for existing homes was $388,800 which was a decline from a year ago. Even with the decline, the stats were up from recent months.

Once you find a home you want to buy, you have to secure the finances. Getting a pre-approval from a mortgage lender will help you in the buyer’s market. This also goes along with a down payment which can be daunting. It was reported that 26% of first-time home buyers agreed that saving up for a down payment was the hardest part of the home-buying process.

Baby Boomers have been at the forefront when it comes to purchasing a home, but there is a new generation, the millennials who have taken over. In 2022 millennials were noted as the largest home buying age group at 43%. Sixty percent were married couples while single women were next at 19%.

If you are in the market to purchase a home, contact a local realtor who can help you through the process. A Realtor can also recommend a mortgage lender who can help you with the financing aspect of purchasing a home.

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Best Regions for Owning or Renting a Home

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According to the Bureau’s Home Vacancies and Homeownership report, the Midwest region of the country has the highest homeownership rate at 70.3% in the first quarter of 2023 and the South followed with 67.3%. If you are in search of a home to rent, then your best bet is to look in the South or Midwest regions of the US if you need to rent something in a hurry.

The U.S. Census Bureau agreed, reporting these two regions have the highest homeownership rates. The remaining regions reported were the Northeast with 62.7%, and the West with 61.9% which was up 1.7% from the same time last year. In fact, the rental vacancy rates were higher in the South at 8.3% and Midwest at 7.5% than the West at 4.3% and Northeast at 4.1%.

If you are looking to rent or purchase a home, contacting a local Realtor is the best way to go. A Realtor will be able to help you with what the best way to go for you might be. They also are familiar with the housing market and the Bureau’s report Owning or Renting the American Dream.

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Is a Raised Garden Bed Right for You?

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A raised garden bed can look lovely but there are things to consider before making the decision to install one. A raised garden bed takes planning and can be a bit pricey. To save on costs, you will want to get it right the first go around. Before you jump into the project, here are some questions to ask when considering a raised garden bed.

1. How do you decide where to put your raised beds?

The location of your bed will depend on what you are growing in your raised garden bed. For example, if you choose vegetables, you will need a spot that gets at least six hours of sunlight. So you will want to choose the location of your bed according to the amount of sunlight the area tends to get in a day. There are sunlight calculators you can use or even an app on your cell such as Sunseeker or Lumos.

2. What type of soil do you need?

Since a raised garden bed is elevated off the ground, you will want to use a soil mix that will hold water and nutrients. Absorbent soil can be a little costly especially if your bed is large. Recommended is a topsoil mixed with compost and peat moss.

3. How deep should you build your raised beds?

If your raised garden is sitting above fertile soil, then it should be raised 12 inches or less from the ground. The reason for this is because plant roots will have access to a foot or so of nutrients below bed level.  For soil that is not as fertile, you need to raise the bed higher as high as three feet off the ground.

4. What size should raised beds be?

The length and width of a raised bed will depend on a couple of things. If you want to be able to reach comfortably from both sides, you will need to measure from your arm to shoulder to fingertips and double the length of your arm and then subtract six to eight inches. So basically a popular size is 3 to 4 feet wide by 6,8 or 10 feet long.

5. What’s the best material for raised bed gardening?

The most popular materials include wood, plastic, aluminum and galvanized metal. If you choose to do wood, you will need corner reinforcements and cross bracing. The best types of wood to use include cedar, cypress, redwood, or white oak. You do not want to use treated lumber because it contains toxic chemicals.

Take time to carefully plan out your raised garden. Also, answer these five questions to see if a raised bed is really right for you and your garden.

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A Gain in Single-Family Starts Seen in May

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The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development and the U.S. Census Bureau’s data shows a positive outlook when it comes to single-family starts. A good part of this is to give credit to limited existing inventory and improving supply chains.

May saw an increase of 21.7% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.63 million units.The May reading of 1.63 million starts is the number of housing units builders would begin if development kept this pace for the next 12 months. This caused the single-family starts to increase 18.5% which is still 6.6% lower than seen a year ago.

According to a NAHB/Wells Fargo HMI survey, builder confidence and housing starts are improving because of improvements to the supply chain. The start of the year though still puts it down 24% on a year-to-year basis. Single-family completions are only down 1.2% which is good news for the inflation.

Even though on a regional and year-to-date basis it is down in all four regions overall permits increased. Each region came out as 21.7% lower in the Northeast, 24.7% lower in the Midwest, 16.5% lower in the South and 24.1% lower in the West. Permits went up 5.2% to a 1.49 million unit, single-family up 4.8% to and 897,000 unit rate, and multi-family up 5.9% to an annualized 594,000 pace.

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Growing the Perfect Lawn

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The spring is the perfect time to get your lawn ready for the harsh summer heat. Many need to know how to go about lawn care, weed prevention, fertilizer, mowing practices and just any tip that can help create a beautiful yard. Louisiana Nursery gives us many examples for us to learn.

Bare-Bones Scenario

This is perfect for someone who has nothing to start off with or has a yard that is in poor health. Louisiana is known for an uneven mixture of loose dirt and packed clay which makes up the soil. If you are a new homeowner who inherited an unhealthy yard, you do not know what type of grass the previous owners used, which can be a problem. If you need to patch some areas, you might have to use a seed or grass sod that does not match the rest of the yard. If you have the means to do so, redoing the whole yard will give you the best-looking lawn.

If you want the best-looking lawn possible, you will need to start from scratch and actually remove the old sod. This can be done with a sod cutter which can be a maulan or gas-powered cutter. If you have low points in your yard once the sod is up, then fill them with river silt. Also, add topsoil and mix it in to create a healthier soil base.

Once you have added your grass by seed or sod, then add a lawn-starter fertilizer which will help with the rate of growth and the root system will be stronger. Water is also a must. You need to soak the lawn so that you can go two to three days in between.

If you choose to seed your yard, you will need to ask around or go to the professionals in your area that will tell you the best seed to plant for your climate zone. The only downfall to choosing to seed your yard is the long wait to see results. The benefit of doing it this way is that seeding takes fewer tools and a smaller budget than sodding your lawn.

Remember experts like Louisiana Nursery are a great place to start when it comes to a beautiful lawn. You can join their Garden Club which gives rewards to the members and weekly newsletters with pro tips.

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Tips to Clean Stubborn Windows

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No homeowner likes to take a Saturday to wash their homes’ windows but it is a chore that has to be done. Most of the time once you are finished, you see that they seem to never be completely clean. Here are some tips from the pros that can help you get them to sparkle and shine.

Get Rid of the Streaks

The trick is in the squeegee. You want to use a window-washing squeegee that has a smooth and soft rubber edge or if this is not an option, you can count on the trusty newspaper to do the trick. To use a squeegee you need to first dry the top or side of the window about an inch in and start to squeegee there. Another thing you want to do is make sure to wash windows in the shade and not in direct sunlight. If there is never shade, then choose to wash your windows on a cloudy day or in the evening.

Dusty Blinds and Midlewy Frames

If you dust your blinds to find them dusty again the next day, this is for you. In order to keep the dust at bay, spray your blinds with antiseptic spray. A good example is Static Guard. Using this on your window blinds immediately after dusting will keep them cleaner longer. When it comes to dusting your shades, you will need to do this once a month. Using a soft cloth or a Swiffer does the trick. If you do not have one of these, using a vacuum and its dusting brush will also work.

Mildew is a homeowner’s nightmare. To get rid of black or gray mildew spots on your window frame, use this cleaning solution. Take two ounces of household bleach and one ounce of laundry detergent in a quart of water and start cleaning. Remember when using this bleach-detergent solution, you should wear rubber gloves. To also keep your window sills clean, apply a coat of floor wax on them or spray them with a coat of WD-40 which will protect them as well.

Prolonging the Length of Clean Windows

If you notice that your windows seem to get dirty quickly, then you might want to think about changing your HVAC filters. Doing this once a month is the best practice because our homes today trap in a lot of dust, pollen, dander and other burdensome particles. Secondhand smoke is another problem that can shorten the life of a clean window. To clean you will need an ammonia solution that is the only thing that will cut the nicotine film. To make the solution you take one cup of lemon-scented ammonia in two and a half gallons of water.

These tips will help reduce the ever-annoying window cleaning problems. Not only do windows have these problems, but kitchen glass can also use these tips. Remember if you do this monthly you will keep a nice home with pretty windows.

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