Buying a house near parade routes and festival grounds can bring magical opportunities — and just as many headaches.
Maybe you’re house hunting specifically to be able to hear JazzFest from your porch. Or maybe you bought a property near St. Charles Avenue, only to realize that, come Carnival time, parking and the foot traffic are a nightmare. Here’s what to consider when buying a house near festival grounds and parade routes.
New Orleans is a festival city. We celebrate every type of food we grow and cook in Louisiana — from Creole tomato to gumbo to po-boys — and we also celebrate the many other aspects of the local music, culture, and neighborhoods. We also throw one of the best and longest parties in the world come Carnival time.
But Mardi Gras is more than beads and floats. For real estate pros, it also marks the beginning of a busy spring and summer home-selling season. In part, it’s due to the Mardi Gras revelers from other parts of the country, and the world, coming to enjoy the Carnival but also house-hunt for a vacation home, or find a perfect investment in one of the city’s many historic districts.
Whether you’re looking for a vacation home, a full-time home or condo (or a mansion on St. Charles Avenue) — if proximity to the action is important to you — chances are you’ll want to look near the Mardi Gras parade route Uptown, in Mid-City close to the Fairgrounds, or anywhere in the French Quarter. But with all the Mardi Gras and festival gold — the convenience and the magic — comes frustrations and difficulties.
The Pros
The front-row view to Mardi Gras, for instance, has obvious pros and is an instant upgrade in your social circles, especially if you don’t mind supplying clean bathrooms and the endless stream of King Cake to your friends and the occasional strangers. Who doesn’t want to sit on their porch and have the beads rain on them, or hear the marching bands from their living room?
From a homebuyer’s perspective, proximity to the parade route could be among the top deciding factors. Because most parades follow the same route citywide every year, and many Uptown parades use a similar route, it’s easy to choose the location if you want to base it solely on how close you’ll be to the route.
The Cons
The drawbacks of living close to a parade route include the noise and the bustle that comes with the crowds, accessibility constraints, and parking limitations. You may end up resenting the disruptions of the 24/7 party outside your window, or feeling boxed in and confined to your block. Getting out to buy groceries or commute to work may become problematic. Getting enough sleep and keeping your front lawn clean will also be a challenge.
Parking enforcement during Carnival and other major annual events is strict and efficient. There are temporary signs along parade routes installed in addition to permanent “No Parking” signs, and the vehicles found on published parade routes are ticketed and towed. But in the areas like Uptown, for example, where street parking is hard to find, and garages are virtually non-existent to begin with, finding a parking spot on parade days is pretty impossible. Same goes for Mid-City and Bayou St. John during JazzFest, Voodoo Fest, and Bayou Boogaloo, where desperate residents block off their sidewalks with trashcans or traffic cones, and heated arguments can erupt over the claimed territory.
So, you may want to ask yourself these questions:
- Is location the primary consideration driving my buying decision?
- Do I want to be in the thick of things, on the other side of the parade route, or a few blocks away from the route/festival grounds?
- Do I want to be at the beginning of the parade route, middle, or end?
- Is the festival or parade route accessible by foot or bike from my house?
- What’s the parking situation near my house during the event?
- What is my noise tolerance level?
- How easily can I get out of the house to get to work or to run errands?
- How will these restrictions and limitations affect my houseguests or other members of my family? (This especially applies to children, the elderly, and the disabled).
Although living in the middle of one of the biggest parties in the world can cost a pretty penny and might require developing some genius planning skills, to many homebuyers it’s worth it. To help you decide if you want your own Mardi Gras (or Festival) Gold, consider enlisting the help of an experienced real estate professional.