Mortgage Banker Study

Interesting numbers:

Repairing flood damage to 95,000 single-family homes in New Orleans is expected to cost $8 billion to $10 billion, but flood insurance will cover only half these costs.

***

The pre-Katrina market values of all 95,000 flood-damaged single-family structures in the city totaled $17 billion to $18 billion.

The study says around a third of those damaged homes might not be worth the repair:

As many as 35,000 single family structures on New Orleans' East Bank, which contains the Lower Ninth Ward, may not be economically repairable, given the potential for post-Katrina value declines, the study said.

In some ZIP codes such properties constitute as much as 68 percent of homes.

And then there are my favorite numbers of all:

At a Senate Banking Committee hearing to consider possible companion legislation, Donald Powell, the Bush administration's Gulf Coast rebuilding coordinator, said the federal government's recovery spending commitment would top $108 billion, including $18 billion to be included in a 2006 supplemental spending package and $8 billion in tax relief passed last year.

And the $108 billion number comes without including the new $3 billion that the NFIP was authorized to borrow the day after Powell testified at the hearing. I guess the new number will either be $110 billion or $111 billion depending on which numbers the White House decides to round up.

So, to save the media some time, here’s the White House’s talking point to be used in any article discussing federal funds headed to the Gulf Coast:

Congress has already committed over $110 billion dollars to rebuild the Gulf Coast.

Feel free to cut and paste.