The New Orleans Index: Tracking Recovery of New Orleans & the Metro Area
The Brookings Institution Metropolitan Policy Program and the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center
November 2007

Abstract:


This index analyzes post-Katrina population, housing, economic, and infrastructural statistical information. Noted are the facts that population and college enrollment throughout the New Orleans region have increased overall, fair market rent has stabilized but remains significantly higher than pre-Katrina levels and home repair permit requests have decreased in number. Tax revenue and employment have increased in the New Orleans area as well, but less improvement has been seen in areas related to city infrastructure. Twenty-one public schools were reopened in New Orleans in the fall of 2007, bringing the total to 79, but the number of buses, hospitals, police facilities, and child-care centers has remained relatively stagnant.