It's great that there is a lot of new home construction in places like Gentilly.  However, in the past two months I've had two appraisals in Gentilly of new homes that did not appraise.  In fact, they were way off.  In both instances the owners were very excited about the prospect of their new homes and ended up paying $125-$135 per foot for construction alone.  That can't work in Gentilly where you can buy a well renovated 1600 square foot home for $160,000.  Here, the values required were in the $180,000-$190,000 range, which would have worked in marketing areas like Lake View, but not Gentilly.  Keep in mind the ratio between price per square foot and lot value.  The "normal-typical" land to building ratio is one-third.  While that's not fixed calculation, alarm bells should ring when your building a $185,000 home in a marketing area where $160,000 is the highest sale in the past year.  In this area of Gentilly, lots were selling too low to justify the construction of these more high end homes.  Contractors will of course go to great lengths to extol the virtues of their homes, but check with a realtor or appraiser to see what homes are selling for first in the area.