(By Emilee Calametti/The Center Square) – Since Hurricane Katrina hit in 2005, the housing market in New Orleans has fluctuated substantially as families rebuild both their homes and the city.

Friday will mark the 20-year anniversary of the destructive storm that is still considered the nation’s most costly and among its most deadly, resulting in $125 billion worth of damages to homes and infrastructure.

After Hurricane Katrina hit the coast, 80% of homes in New Orleans flooded, leaving the city in complete devastation. Of the evacuated residents, 61% returned to the city, resulting in a substantial real estate spike.

In in the latest numbers available from 2023, Data USA reported the median property value in New Orleans was $296,000, with 50% of people owning their homes. The value is up 60.8% over the previous 11 years, after having fallen 14.4% in the seven years after the hurricane.

The value in 2005 just months after Katrina was $215,000, up 21% from a year earlier. By 2012, the media home property value was $184,000.

Around 3% of homes in New Orleans were valued under $50,000 in 2023. The majority, or 25.2%, of homes were valued in the $300,000 to $499,000 range, and 23.9% were valued in the $200,000 to $299,999 range.

Housing volume remains down two decades later.

“We have to continuously work with our partners to ensure that we’re doing everything we can to make it easier for these communties to recover so they don’t face the same challenges that we faced back with Hurricane Katrina,” said former FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell during a press conference on Tuesday.

In 2000, before Katrina, the city had 215,000 housing units. The 2023 data says the decline is to 195,000 – and that number has not fluctuated much over the last 10 years.

Significant is that 28,715 of those were vacant. There were 26,000 blighted properties before Katrina, according to the New Orleans City Planning Commission, and 59,000 by June 2009.

“While some neighborhoods in today’s New Orleans are doing well, others face substantial challenges stemming from both pre- and post-Katrina conditions,” said the commission.