A new report from the Department of Housing and Urban Development finds that the median price of rental housing in New Orleans has risen from $662 in 2004 to $882 today.
"The HUD report attributes this rise in price to a loss in 'mid-priced' rental units. According to the Times-Picayune, it was not uncommon for families to pay about $300 a month for an apartment before Katrina, but now, 'That's long gone'. If one doesn't think very hard, it seems bizarre that rents should go up in a still disaster-ravaged city-the report estimates there are 72,500 vacant housing units in New Orleans. But this blight translates into scarcity, and scarcity into demand. According to the report, the number of mid-priced rental units in the city went from 66,300 in 2004 all the way down to 19,300 in 2009-less than one-third its previous level. The rental market, among other things, was decimated by the storm."
The report finds that owner-occupied housing has fared better, as has public housing and subsidized housing in maintaining affordable values.
FULL STORY: New Orleans’ Rental Market: Dismal

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Trump deemed the landmark civil rights agreement “illegal DEI and environmental justice policy.”

Planetizen Federal Action Tracker
A weekly monitor of how Trump’s orders and actions are impacting planners and planning in America.

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More than a century ago, San Francisco mobilized to house thousands of residents displaced by the 1906 earthquake. Could their strategy offer a model for the present?

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Report: Zoning Reforms Should Complement Nashville’s Ambitious Transit Plan
Without reform, restrictive zoning codes will limit the impact of the city’s planned transit expansion and could exclude some of the residents who depend on transit the most.

Judge Orders Release of Frozen IRA, IIJA Funding
The decision is a victory for environmental groups who charged that freezing funds for critical infrastructure and disaster response programs caused “real and irreparable harm” to communities.
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