(December 22, 2010, New Orleans, La.)- A class of University of New Orleans Department of Planning and Urban Studies (PLUS) students completed a comprehensive analysis of the Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans (NHS) homeownership training program, providing valuable data about the city’s post-Katrina housing recovery.
The study represents one of the first robust examinations of where and how first-time homebuyers are investing their money and the economic impact of this investment. The analysis of first-time homebuyers who have completed the NHS homeownership training program between 2006-2010 provides a representative sample of all first-time homebuyers in New Orleans during that time period.
Supporting and developing first-time home ownership is one of the key strategies being undertaken by public and private entities to spur post-Katrina housing recovery in New Orleans. Homeownership counseling and education, combined with millions of dollars in subsidies, have helped hundreds of families to attain homeownership. While these programs are clearly making a difference to these families and positively impacting the regional economy, little research had been done to examine the details of these effects.
Some of the key findings of the study include:
• 145 homebuyers in Orleans Parish with a median investment of $144,456 in their homes.
• More than $20 million in total investment. $14 million in first mortgages from private lenders was leveraged by the other $6 million in other sources, much of it public dollars.
• More than $1 million in total assessed (taxable) property value.
• Home purchases were evenly distributed across the city and council districts, with most purchases being made in areas flooded by the 2005 levee failures.
• All homeownership properties were in good condition and, in many cases, the properties were “bringing up” their blocks where properties in worse conditions were common.
The students who conducted the study were enrolled in the course “Information Technology for the Planning Profession,” taught by Michelle Thompson, UNO professor of planning and urban studies.
“This course opens the door to integrated thinking where students transform into GIS (Geographic Information Systems) analysts, providing mapping services that will be a foundation for their future as professional planners,” Thompson said.
“It is our hope that this report will encourage public policy makers to support NHS and other nonprofits who are striving to increase homeownership rates in New Orleans and throughout the region,” said Lauren Anderson, CEO of Neighborhood Housing Services of New Orleans. “We are indebted to Professor Thompson and her students for providing NHS with a report that reinforces our beliefs that the work of NHS is, in fact, advancing our mission.”
NHS provides education and financial assistance to first-time homebuyers in an effort to restore and revitalize the city of New Orleans by increasing homeownership.
To view the report visit:
http://planning.uno.edu/publications.cfm