New Orleans Rent Performance Slumps as Baton Rouge, Shreveport Surge

Once Louisiana’s top-performing apartment market, New Orleans has seen a notable slump during the COVID-19 pandemic, while Shreveport and Baton Rouge have progressed. Back in March, New Orleans was the only Louisiana market seeing any kind of meaningful year-over-year effective asking rent growth at 1.4%. In comparison, Shreveport managed an uptick of only 0.2%, while Baton Rouge operators were cutting rents a minor 0.1%. Fast forward to September, and that trend has reversed. Shreveport and Baton Rogue both saw significant jumps in annual rent growth, which reached 2.9% and 2.4%, respectively, by September, while New Orleans is barely in the black with 0.1% annual growth. Apartment occupancy has also followed this pattern, strengthening in Baton Rouge and Shreveport by more than 130 basis points (bps) in the last year. Meanwhile, New Orleans occupancy is about even with the year-ago rate.