Wade Ragas, a professor at the University of New Orleans who for decades was "the face of real estate" and New Orleans' go-to expert on metro area home prices and other property trends, died Thursday, according to family members.
He was 76 and succumbed to a progressive brain disorder called Lewy body dementia.
Ragas was a professor in the economics and finance department at the UNO, joining the faculty in the mid-1970s when it was known as Louisiana State University — New Orleans. Early in his career he founded the university's Real Estate Market Data Center, holding positions as both professor and director until Hurricane Katrina in 2005.
He was a prolific researcher and publisher of academic works. Through his semi-annual "New Orleans Real Estate Market Analysis," he became a widely sought after expert and was often seen on television and other local and national media commenting on the market.
Together with colleague Ivan Miestchovich, who joined the department in the late 1970s, Ragas established the university as a hub of real estate learning. The annual symposium they started still attracts hundreds of eager real estate professionals and college students.
"They created the field and set the standard for the city of New Orleans," said Walter Lane, current chair of the economics and finance department at UNO. "A lot of the things that were started by Wade we still have going on in the program."
Ragas learned real estate at the knee of his father, Wade Louis Ragas, who worked as both a real estate agent and executive at the J. Aron coffee importing company in the French Quarter, according to Yvette, Ragas' wife of 53 years.
The younger Ragas had an academic bent. After both he and Yvette earned their masters degrees at UNO, they decided to head to The Ohio University, where he earned a doctorate in real estate finance. Despite attractive offers from the University of Notre Dame, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and others, they chose to return to New Orleans.
Ragas was very proud of his deep Louisiana roots, Yvette Ragas said.
"His ancestor, Domingo Ragas, came from the island of Majorca off the Spanish coast, and was one of the first Europeans to settle in Louisiana, at Pointe à la Hache," she said.
After he retired from full-time teaching in 2005, Ragas retained his emeritus professor title and advised the university on real estate transactions, including its major development of The Beach office and research complex by Lake Pontchartrain, Lane said.
He ran a consultancy, Real Property Associates, and continued to publish regularly and to comment publicly on the sector.
Real estate agent Lynda Nugent-Smith said Ragas had worked with her on the conversion of the old Jefferson Downs racetrack into the 1,000-unit Gabriel Properties estate, a project that spanned 18 years.
"He was one of those people who wouldn't just look at the numbers, he liked to talk to people to make sure he understood what was really going on," she said. "He will be missed."
A funeral mass will be held on Friday, May 3, 2024 at noon at St. Philip Neri Church in Metairie. The family asked that donations in lieu of flowers be made to the Lewy Body Dementia Association.