We came to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. We did not come to buy a house.
Within a week of arriving, we were sitting somewhere in the French Quarter trying to figure out how to become homeowners in a city we hadn’t planned to live in. The rental we’d booked for two months turned out to be for sale. We found out when we got there. And instead of filing that information away and finishing our meal, we started asking questions.
The deal never fell apart. So we bought it.
That’s not the way you’re supposed to choose a home base. You’re supposed to make a spreadsheet. Factor in the airport, the cost of living, the climate, the time zones. We had been living in Frisco, Texas — suburban, sensible, nowhere near right. We spent the summer traveling, packing up that house, and waiting on a contractor in New Orleans who was operating on a timeline only New Orleans would find reasonable. Labor Day weekend 2025, we moved into the French Quarter.
The city found us before we found it.
Here’s what we’ve learned about New Orleans as a home base for people who can’t stop leaving: it rewards you for coming back.
Most places don’t. Most places are just where your stuff is. You land, you recover, you start planning the next trip before you’ve unpacked. New Orleans is different. The French Quarter at 10pm on a Tuesday is still worth stepping outside for. The food genuinely doesn’t get old. The city has a texture that very few places have — alive in a way that isn’t performing for tourists even when tourists are everywhere.
When we come back from a trip, something releases somewhere between baggage claim and Esplanade Avenue. Not relief that the trip is over — the trips are never something we want to end. Relief that where we’re going is actually worth going to.
That’s the thing most people don’t talk about when they talk about choosing where to live. They optimize for leaving — for proximity to airports, for flexibility, for the next departure. And those things matter. But the home base has to pull its weight too. You spend real time there. It has to be somewhere that makes the return feel like something other than a concession.
New Orleans does that. The French Quarter does that.
We didn’t plan it. We didn’t put it on a list. We were paying attention when the city decided to make its case, and the case was compelling enough that we signed the paperwork.
Some cities you choose. Some cities choose you.
