The president of Latter & Blum, Arthur Sterbcow, recently sent out an email giving some interesting numbers for single family home sales post Katrina. I thought y’all might enjoy:

I have been getting many local and national media requests wanting to know how single family home sales are faring in Orleans Parish specifically.

An excellent benchmark is to measure the entire MLS closed unit sales for the 3 month period of Dec. 2004- Feb. 2005 sales (pre Katrina) compared to Dec. 2006- Feb. 2007.

Pre Katrina = 868 closed home sales (during 90 day period Dec. 2004 - Feb 2005) Very strong period of housing sales!

Post Katrina = 756 closed home sales (during 90 day period Dec 2006 - Feb 2007)

A decrease of only 12%!

When comparing the ENTIRE metro region of Greater New Orleans (including Orleans Parish) for the same periods, the numbers are even more remarkable - and very telling.

Pre Katrina = 3,090 homes

Post Katrina = 3,197 homes

An actual increase of 3.5%!

People are showing a high degree of confidence and buying in the area. The closed sales numbers are pretty remarkable considering the media’s reported population loss. (1.3 million Pre Katrina vs. 1.1 million currently in metro GNO- a decrease of 15%)

Inventory of homes is at an all time high of 9,310 homes (March 18,2007) in GNO compared to 5,285 (March 18, 2005 - Pre Katrina!)

An increase of 76%! There are some incredible buys on the market. Most of the stockpiles of homes for sale are over $300,000.

However, it is also important to note that NATIONWIDE inventory of single family homes is up 36% over last year due to the real estate slow down in the United States.

If history repeats itself (remember the OIL BUST?) look for record numbers of home sales this year.