I’ll see about determining the elevation of the house.  

You may want to stay at the lower elevations (such as the Grand Junction - Montrose corridor) due to average temps and growing seasons.

Does the elevated crime rates of a particular suburb truly reflect rental sentiment for example. 

See here:  http://www.qpublic.net/la/orleans/est.phpInsurance is also higher in Orleans Parish, and the flood zone and elevation of the property make a big difference in the cost of the flood insurance.I've got a couple great insurance providers I can recommend.

We have an apartment building with one elevator that's going to be down for 6 weeks early next year for modernization.

That means elevating the entire structure for parking under ($$$). 

In Portlandia were are see price concession and or free rent etc on some of the new build real high end 2500 dollar elevator buildings on the east side.. this is happening now.form what a friend of mine who owns a management company with 6k plus doors was telling me at lunch.a few buildings are stressed right now.take this scenario.. you buy the land 3 to 5 years ago it takes at LEAST 2 years to get through permitting then another year to build.. cost of building in this time has gone up 10% or more.. land is static .. and your proforma show this ever increasing rent.. you now come on market and your 4 story elevator building now cost you 400 a foot to build.so your in a new apartment 400k.. you need 2,500 a month just to hit your investor grade 4 to 5 cap.. and now rents start to pull back as they are or lease up is very slow at those values.. so you have full amount of debt on the building and of course everyone these days has max debt.. so debt service and DCR ratios start to go out of wac  you have annual reporting and loan covenants .. you no longer meet your covenants and you have a cash call to your lender  along with negative cash flow.. this is what I mean by some are stressed..

Check the neighbourhoods around the city centre: La Saidia, Patraix, Les Corts,...Buy as cheap as possible, if it's for long term is better to buy a property without elevator, but with some space to be installed --> 30-40k maximum. 

is the property actually elevated several feet above ground floor? 

A basement may be used for habitable rooms or a dwelling unit, regardless of the depth of the floor below grade, if the floors and walls are impervious to leakage of underground and surface water and are protected from dampness, and if the required minimum window area is located entirely above the finished elevation of the grade adjoining the basement wall in which the windows are located.