America's Talking - New Orleans Population Numbers Remain Lower 20 Years After Katrina

Episode Date: August 29, 2025

(The Center Square) – Before Hurricane Katrina ravaged the coast, the New Orleans population was about 460,000. Twenty years later, the city has dropped to about 380,000 as it continues to rebuild. Katrina still ranks as one of the deadliest and costliest storms to hit the United States in history. With more than 1 million displaced and 1,833 deaths, the population in New Orleans was severely impacted by the natural disaster.Support this podcast: https://secure.anedot.com/franklin-news-foundation/ce052532-b1e4-41c4-945c-d7ce2f52c38a?source_code=xxxxxxRead more: https://www.thecentersquare.com/louisiana/article_0c16ef99-5fc9-4bd2-b268-ffdf058b5d48.html Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Hello and welcome to America's Talking. I'm Alan Wooden, managing editor on the East Coast for the Center Square. With me today is Emily Calametti. She is in Louisiana. And today we are revisiting Hurricane Katrina. This was a powerful storm reached Category 5 status while it was in the Gulf, and Atlanta fall was Category 3, absolutely devastated several Gulf Coast states. And in particular, New Orleans.

Emily, as you've gone through and done some reporting this week, all the stories are at thecentersquare.com. But tell us, what is the big takeaway that you had in your reporting this week? Hi, Alan. Thank you so much. So really just that New Orleans is still rebuilding today. You know, 20 years later, they are still not where they were before and, you know, slightly after Katrina. I mean, population is still lower. Property value. and numbers are still lower within the city. People left and they haven't returned. People aren't making as much money.

I mean, there's employment numbers are down. There's a lot of things that were impacted that even two decades after such a devastating storm are still not rebuilt today. Let's talk a little bit about some of the things you found. People didn't come back. I mean, if I recall, I believe the number was about $380,000, is population down about 80,000? Is that right?

Yes. And so before Katrina hit, New Orleans sat at around 460,000. And, you know, that's the more generalized area, not the broader metropolitan area. But after now, two decades later, we're sitting at about 380,000. So a significant drop in that. Is part of the reason because their homes are not there or because they're scared? What did you find? Definitely, the housing unit seemed to be an issue within New Orleans. It's just not there anymore. The numbers are drastically lower when it comes to what is sitting in there in New Orleans.

And blighted properties are also a huge issue in New Orleans. I mean, after there was 59,000 by June. of 2009, so a few years after Katrina. And then right now for blighted properties, there are, I believe, about 28,000 that are vacant within New Orleans. And so there's 190,000 housing units there. I mean, you'd take that in comparison to 380,000 people. I mean, there's nowhere to live. So that's definitely been a significant issue as far as people returning and having to rebuild. But also, when Katrina hit, there was a huge spike in the real estate market. I mean, people were going in, rebuying these properties that needed to be rebuilt.

And in a metropolitan area like New Orleans, it was skyrocketing the pricing. So I think about 25% of the homes right now are selling and valued for upwards of half a million dollars in New Orleans. And, you know, compare that to people who median income is about 50,000 per household. You know, that sits significantly lower. And I would say about 23% are valued at about 200 to 299,000, which is still, I mean, that's a pretty expensive home for people who are coming in. I mean, single family or single person living in New Orleans, median income was about 30,000, 40,000 within the, I think in 2023. So, you know, that definitely impacts some people coming back. One of the things that I saw in your reporting was that

there was a bottoming out, if you will, maybe about seven years after Katrina, somewhere around 2012, give or take. And that also would have been right after the housing bubble crisis nationwide. But there's been some numbers that have come back in the last 10, 12 years. Is that accurate? I would say yes. In 2012, like you mentioned, I believe the property value was about 184,000. So the value of homes is it is going up. There was a small spike right before Katrina hit when it came to property value. Of course, there was a a dip and now there's a big increase. Medium property value for New Orleans right now is about 296,000. So, you know, you're getting back up there into those bigger numbers. But after Katrina, it dropped, not dropped, but it was about 215,000 after Katrina, which was up for 21% from 2004. So

we have seen a significant, you know, steadily rise within property value there. But it's, you know, kind of slowed. 296,000 compared to 215,020 years. You know, that's not a huge jump. But it is, you know, it is coming up. And population seems to be stable right now, too. I think they've had their dip and their buildback. And it doesn't seem to be necessarily climbing right now.

If anything, maybe diminishing just a little bit. Over the past three years, there has been a slight dip, again, within the population. So they were on the rise. Things were doing good. And then, of course, when the pandemic hit back in 2019, New Orleans saw another kind of significant drop within their population. And now I would say during the past three years, it's still been slowly declining. And researchers have various opinions on why that might be. Maybe it's the housing. Maybe it's the crime, but overall, there isn't any pinpoint reason on why it has a slight drop right now, but it is, it is still, you know, kind of declining.

And in our final minute or so here that we have, you did attend a press conference earlier this week. We would be remiss if we don't talk a little bit about FEMA. FEMA is always a bit of a punching bag when natural disasters hit. There is the need to have the red tape. so you don't have waste and fraud and things like that. But also the guy standing on his porch and he's lost everything, he doesn't want to hear about all the hurdles he has to jump through.

What was the takeaway from the press conference? I know there were people that were in position about 20 years ago. But what was it, what was the take there? Overall, you know, they had the former mayor of New Orleans. They had the former FEMA administrator. People are a little worried on the official side. They're worried about the funding cuts. They're worried about all of these things that are being put in place by the current administration

that could take away from helping families that like the people in New Orleans who experience things with Katrina rebuild after these natural disasters. So they all said that they think there's still work that needs to be done. They're still continuously working with partners to ensure that families still have the resources that they need to rebuild. and do these things after natural disasters. But there's a lot of people, especially within the New Orleans administration area, that are really concerned right now about funding cuts and things that are happening within FEMA.

Hurricane Katrina struck New Orleans on August 29, 2005, 20 years ago. Emily Kalimetti in Louisiana, thank you for joining us on America's Talking. I'm Alan Wooden, the East Coast Managing Editor. We hope you'll find these and other stories. at the center square.com.