re: Will the astronomical rise in homeowners/flood insurance empty out the Southshore?

quote:

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If it’s not the lack of economic opportunity and crime it’s the cost of living. Such a sad thing to sit by and watch honestly.

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It's a combination of both - the Southshore (at least the core East Bank of Jefferson & Orleans upriver from the Industrial Canal) has prices that are in line with other places, but that have a labor market where the pay is enough to afford that housing. Enough folks have to make the pay-housing (including insurance) analysis to say "it's not worth it", so that there is enough of a labor shortage to boost wages up to a level to afford it.

That said, except for Slidell, the Northshore will have cheaper insurance (especially if the house is in flood zone X - the updated zones, of course), so folks can still live around here, just not on the Southshore unless they want to pay the price - or live in a new construction house that can take a Cat 5 storm. I think the problem is all the existing construction not being strong enough, or not high enough above grade, etc. (this presumes no Betsy/Katrina levee failure ).

Maybe this will motivate the poor people (who will experience much higher rents as the landlords will pass on the cost of insurance) to go somewhere else like Houston, and all the poor neighborhood housing can be demolished and replaced with super-strong housing. One thing that is for sure is that older houses will have such a high, extraneous cost (relative to a new house) will decrease in value.