The New Year may bring with it a sign that the city is recovering. According to new local population estimates by GCR and Associates, New Orleans’ population could soon surpass 300,000 people.

Demographer Greg Rigamer said signs of life have popped up all over the city in the two-plus years since Hurricane Katrina.

"We were saying at this time last year that if the community could get up to 300,000 that would be quite an accomplishment,” Rigamer said. “When you look at the cost of living here and you look at the degree of difficulty of living here…I think it's a real comment to the commitment to the city that we're back up to 300,000 so quickly."

The city’s repopulation looks a lot like it does in Broadmoor. It's steady, according to Rigamer, with about 3,000 to 4,000 people moving back every month. And the population in the metro area is rebuilding day-by-day.

According to Rigamer, 87 percent of the metro area's pre-storm population is back: New Orleans at 65 percent, Jefferson Parish at 98 percent and St. Tammany Parish has even surpassed its pre-storm population, with 105 percent of what it was before Katrina.

“Once again, those areas that did not flood as significantly are the areas that are very densely populated and are really prospering,” Rigamer said.

But he said the latest numbers show growth even in the hardest-hit areas, such as Broadmoor.

Rigamer adds that the eight parish metro area now has a population of more than 1.2 million people, and that most of the growth isn't new people moving to the area, but evacuees returning home.