Katrina creates overnight boomtowns Real estate agents scramble to house displaced families and businesses. Smaller Louisiana cities now have the tightest markets in the country.
Hurricane Katrina’s destruction of Louisiana’s largest city is boosting the fortunes of those that surround it, creating boomtowns almost overnight.
Flooded with 225,000 hurricane evacuees, Baton Rouge, located 75 miles northwest of New Orleans, has almost doubled its population.
The influx has sparked shortages of housing and commercial space and strained the city’s infrastructure, including schools and roads. Homes in Baton Rouge that once lingered on the market are now being snapped up at previously unheard-of prices.
I know my dad has to be peeing his pants in excitement over this boom.