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In fact, that's the second quarter in a row that New Orleans was the top-performing metro area in the country.
The Brookings MetroMonitor report measures factors like unemployment, home prices and gross metropolitan product (output), measured against a city's lowest economic point.
That gives New Orleans a decided advantage.
For most of the country, the baseline for economic recovery is the great recession that began in 2007, and most other U.S. metros bottomed out during the recession in 2009.
But, for New Orleans, the economic shock was delivered by Hurricane Katrina, and the city's recovery is measured from the first quarter of 2004.
"For New Orleans' purposes, the recovery began after Hurricane Katrina," says Brookings data manager Alec Friedhoff.
So, New Orleans got a jump on other cities, with its recovery measured from Quarter 1 of 2004.
Friedhoff says the huge influx of recovery money after the storm gave New Orleans' recovery quite a kick start, actually before the great recession began.
He says post-Katrina New Orleans is experiencing an unprecedented rebuilding effort that's created new jobs and is spurring economic growth.
"Anytime a place deals with such a severe trauma, its bounce back is going to be quick, by normal standards," says Friedhoff.
"That gives New Orleans a longer time period to recover, therefore it appears at the top of our ranking."
But, New Orleans still has quite a story to tell, and the City is doing just that.
Responding to the Brookings report, the City pointed to a 20.9% growth in employment and a 23.6% growth in output since 2004.
And, Friedhoff doesn't begrudge the city that claim.
"While the unemployment rate is still quite high, by normal standards in the region, it's still lower than the national average."
"The region is recovering," says Friedhoff. "Though it's still not where it was pre-Katrina."
The local housing market is another plus for the area.
"There are thirteen places that are not currently at the bottom of their housing market, by our data," Friedhoff says. "New Orleans is one of those places that has actually begun recovery in the housing market."
The Brookings report does contain cause for concern, though.
"The pace of job growth and the pace of output growth has been slowing, and we see that across metropolitan America. So, that points to a recovery that is losing steam, essentially."
