Dear Louisiana Real Estate Community,

While I haven’t had to look for housing for the last four years, I know that Louisiana’s real estate professionals perform an invaluable service for a critical part of our state’s economy. Real estate is a cornerstone of so many other professions, including title companies, appraisers, lenders, inspectors, movers, and furnishers. Together, those industries contributed $40 billion to our state’s economy.

By connecting families and businesses to the homes and offices they need, your work helps secure and sustain the growth that our economy has experienced during my administration.

And as our economy continues to grow, housing starts and home sales will grow with it. Commercial real estate will expand while businesses move to Louisiana to benefit from the investments we have made in infrastructure and education. Forecasters predict that Louisiana will add 23,400 jobs in 2019 and an additional 36,100 jobs in 2020 – jobs that will help people buy homes. The future is bright for real estate in Louisiana.

In the second year of my administration, I signed SB-259 into law, which updated Louisiana’s real estate laws to keep pace with a changing industry. I understand the importance of keeping Louisiana up-to-date with new industry standards, and I will keep working in my next term to make Louisiana’s housing market the strongest it can be.

Though housing markets in some of our major metropolitan areas are expanding, there is still work to do. In my next term, I will continue to make sure that the benefits of our growing economy, largest-in-history GDP, and record personal incomes reach every doorstep and office block in Louisiana.

We still have work to do, but we are moving in the right direction.

Sincerely,

Governor John Bel Edwards