Advancing Information Equality in Southeast Louisiana through Financial Literacy Services

Supporting and developing first-time homeownership is one of the key strategies being undertaken by public and private entities to spur post-Katrina housing recovery in New Orleans, LA. Homeownership counseling and education combined with Federal housing subsidy funding, usually in the forms of down payment assistance and soft-second mortgages, have aided renters to become homeowners. While Housing Education programs are making a difference to these families and positively impacting the regional economy, limited research has been made available to details of these effects.

This study represents one of the first robust examinations of where first-time homebuyers are investing their money and the financial impact of this investment. By analyzing the first-time homebuyers who have completed Neighborhood Development Foundation’s (NDF) Homebuyer Education and Financial Fitness training programs between 1986- 2018, this report provides a representative sample of all first-time homebuyers in New Orleans during this period. The NDF study is part of the New America Financial Inclusion & Citizen Participation project using “public and private participation geographic information systems” (p3GIS). The non-profit business community information (NDF Homebuyer Training program sales), public (municipal spatial) data with private sector philanthropic support (Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth Technologist) identified new data streams to evaluate wealth potential in low-impact communities.

The University of New Orleans Planning & Urban Studies Department continues this research by expanding the scope of homeownership data and deepening the analysis through socio-economic impact analysis complemented by Mastercard anonymized and aggregated transaction data. To learn more about this research, please contact Dr. Michelle M. Thompson, former Mastercard Center For Inclusive Growth Public Interest TechnologyFellow from 2017-2018.

You can read the full report by clicking the download link in the upper lefthand corner of the page.