Rebuilding in New Orleans has been a slow, uneven process. After Hurricane Katrina, many people left town and have yet to return--the population today is about 100,000 lower than it was the month before the storm. But for those who did come back, affordable housing has been in short supply. Unaffordable housing costs plague...
58 percent of renters
Indeed, almost 60 percent of renters spend more than 35 percent of their pre-tax income on housing costs, the Brookings team behind The New Orleans Index at Five found. That compares to 45 percent in the New Orleans suburbs and 41 percent nationwide. It's also way up from 2004, when a still-above-average 43 percent of New Orleans renters had unaffordably high housing costs. The picture for homeowners is better, but that figure offers little solace for people too poor to own a house.