NOLA's paradox of housing prices

Sunday's Times-Picayune reported that home prices in the New Orleans metro area are dropping for a fourth consecutive year with one notable exception.

Orleans Parish is the bright spot, the only place that has continued appreciating since Hurricane Katrina, with per-square foot prices rising 24 percent since the storm.

What's happening there? Is the City of New Orleans, which has lost nearly 30% of its population since the flood, boldly "bucking the trend" in a region that has lost 86,000 jobs over the same time period? Or are we just getting better at shunting the poor out to the suburbs?

Meanwhile in other "bucking the trend" news, don't miss Louisiana Budget Project director Edward Ashworth's op-ed from that same Sunday where he talks about a booming Louisiana industry.

Louisiana has one of the country's highest concentrations of payday lenders. That makes sense. Louisiana has the country's second-highest poverty rate. What doesn't make sense is the lack of oversight or regulation, which allows payday lenders to take advantage of people in need.

The business arose as banks across the country left the inner cities, leaving in their wake a growing predatory lending industry of payday lenders, check cashers and pawnshops to supply the continuing demand for cash and credit. With more than 900 stores -- compared to 228 McDonald's restaurants -- payday lenders are now prevalent in every major Louisiana city.

If the housing price data is any indication, I'm guessing we'll see that boom move out to the burbs as well.