Quiet Louisiana enclave becomes a magnet for wealthy buyers as luxury home prices have doubled

Forget the Hamptons.The smart money is heading to a stretch of Louisiana most Americans couldn’t find on a map.The Northshore of Lake Pontchartrain, anchored by the towns of Covington, Mandeville and Slidell, has become one of the hottest luxury housing markets nobody’s talking about. Prices for the priciest homes in Covington have shot up 94% over the last decade, while Mandeville isn’t far behind at 80%, according to fresh data from Realtor.com. Compare that to the national luxury market, where top-tier home values have climbed a comparatively modest 57% over the same stretch.Realtor.com senior economist Anthony Smith says the seeds of the boom were planted two decades ago, in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.“Households who wanted to stay near New Orleans moved north across the lake,” Smith told the Daily Mail.

“Over the years, St.Tammany Parish stopped being a suburb and became its own metro, though it keeps close ties to New Orleans.”These days the buyers pouring in aren’t just locals.

Out-of-state money is flowing in from Dallas and Chicago, where house hunters are cashing out on markets that no longer stretch as far as they used to. In Louisiana, that same budget buys a lot more square footage, along with the kind of old-money aesthetic that’s made cities like Charleston and Savannah into buyer magnets.“The area also has the Southern charm ingredients buyers look for: walkable downtowns, historic cottages and old oak trees lining the streets,” Smith said.“Buyers here can capture the same character for less.”Covington has crowned itself the region’s luxury capital.

The median price for the top 10% of homes there now sits at $1.13 million.Climb into the top 5% and that number jumps to nearly $1.87 million.

At the very top, the top 1%, homes are trading for an average of $3.74 million. Roughly 11.2% of Covington’s listings, or 82 homes, are currently priced above the million-dollar mark, the highest share on the Northshore...