[newzjunkey]

Usually owners are preferable, yes. New Orleans stats:

Owner-occupied housing units...... 46.53%
Renter-occupied housing units...... 53.47%

Source

[newzjunkey]

I'd like to point out that Los Angeles is 60/40 renter/owner and San Diego is 50/50.

Detroit, not considered a shining example of a metro area has a better renter/owner ratio of 45/55. Houston's is 55 renter 45 owner, actually *worse* than New Orleans' ratio.