"Now, the second-homers are all over the city"

Nobody actually lives here. But real estate is booming so who cares.

Eric Bouler, a Gardner Realtors agent who has focused on condos since 2004, said second-home buyers, typically ages 50 to 70, are prevalent on the market, and they have expanded their interest beyond the French Quarter and St. Charles Avenue.

"Now, the second-homers are all over the city," Bouler said. "They've been exposed to the Lower Garden District, the Marigny, Uptown, University, Lakefront."

Their willingness to look everywhere has begun to price out some condo buyers looking for a primary residence, he said.

Another growing trend: Wealthy families buying condos, especially larger two-bedroom units, as a place to spend a few months out of the year and invite friends along.

Prices are up. Bouler said. For example, a condo purchased for $175,000 in 2005 just sold last week for $283,000. Most of the demand is focused on a price range of $300,000 to $500,000, he said.

As interest in French Quarter listings has increased, driving prices up, the demand has rippled out into all part of the city, he said.

Not a mystical accident of "the market," by the way.  It's what the people who make the policy have wanted all along.  It's their Boutique City now. They don't think you're good enough to live in it anymore.