March home sales top 2009 figures

For the first time this year, more houses were sold locally in a month than were sold the year before. There were 596 homes sold in March, according to figures from the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service, compared with 594 MLS sales in March 2009. The average sale price also increased slightly, from $194,321 in March 2009 to $197,042. The gain was entirely driven by Ascension Parish, where there were 142 MLS sales in March, compared with 105 in March 2009. Average sale prices were down somewhat in Ascension, from $213,600 to $201,082. Sale prices were also down in Livingston Parish, where there were 91 sales, three fewer than in March 2009. The average sale price in the parish was $154,782, compared with $165,404 in March 2009. East Baton Rouge sales were down from 351 to 320, while the average sale price rose from $202,975 to $206,061. And in the other category, which includes MLS sales in the Felicianas, West Baton Rouge and Pointe Coupee parishes, the average sale price jumped up to $206,020, from $141,057, while the number of sales was virtually unchanged, from 44 in March 2009 to 43 last month.

Through the first quarter of 2010, 1,402 MLS sales have happened in the Capital Region, 2% less than the 1,431 sales in the first three months of 2009. The average sale price is $192,709, down slightly from the $193,216 figure in the first quarter 2009.

Trends seminar making changes for 2010

The annual Trends seminar, which provides a snapshot on the state of the local real estate market, promises to be slightly different this year. For one, the event, which will be held Thursday morning at BREC’s Independence Theater, will have slightly more of a national outlook, says Whitney Greene, 2010 Trends chairwoman. Richard Juge, a New Orleans resident who is the current president of the Certified Commercial Investment Member program, will be one of the speakers. Greene says while the Trends seminar never wanted to fly in outside speakers, it made sense to tap a local expert to provide information on the national real estate market. "He was well suited for this," she says. And while the Trends seminar will be divided once again into sections discussing finance, single family residential, multi-family housing, the office market, retail space and industrial space, there will be some wrinkles in the presentation. Dan Borne, president of the Louisiana Chemical Association, will be on hand to talk during the industrial real estate portion. Borne will be able to address employment trends and expansions with the big petrochemical companies, Greene says, something that is a major driver in the industrial real estate market. The finance and the single family programs will open up to include panel discussions instead of a single speaker. Brian Andrews of Andrews Commercial Mortgage, who will host the finance program, and Tom Cook, an appraiser with Cook Moore and Associates, who hosts the single family program, want to get "a little more opinion going," Greene says. Registration for Trends is running "a little bit behind last year’s" mainly because of a reduction in the number of real estate agents locally, Greene says. For more information about Trends, click here. —Timothy Boone

Deadline looms for housing tax credits

Real estate experts are unsure what the end of the First Time Homebuyer tax credit will mean for the housing market at the end of this month, yet so far more than 32,000 Louisianans have collected $224 million through program, according to the New Orleans office of the IRS. Overall, 1.8 million taxpayers have benefited from the expanded program through the stimulus act, according to the Treasury Department.

Purchasers must have a binding contract to buy a home by April 30 and must close on the home in the next two months to qualify for the $8,000 credit for first-time buyers; certain other purchasers can qualify for $6,500 credits.

If Louisiana housing history is any guide, a recovery in the market is due by 2011, but there is a significant hole to climb out of, according to First American CoreLogic. The firm recently said its Loan Performance Home Price Index showed a peak-to-current plunge in national prices of 29% from April 2006 to January.

"The cumulative loss in home prices . . . is more severe than the next worst housing recession of 24% cumulative decline, which began in Louisiana in the mid-1980s," says Mark Fleming, chief economist for First American CoreLogic, in a statement. "It took Louisiana five years to recover from the bottom; we expect this recovery to take at least as long."

Yet through March, the average sales price of a home in the greater Baton Rouge area was $192,782, according to Realtor data, while in 2006, the average price was $186,035. Speculation on how much of a "shadow inventory" is out there— foreclosed-on houses that banks have not put on the market yet—is another factor in gauging the hoped-for recovery. That fuzzy figure varies wildly in the media between 1 million and nearly 18 million units. —Todd R. Brown

Local architecture firms honored for outstanding work

The winners of the American Institute of Architects Baton Rouge's Rose Awards will be honored at an event next week by businesses in the design and construction industry. The Rose Awards recognize members for design excellence. The 2009 winners are:

• Remson Haley Herpin Architects for OneEleven.

• PLUSone for the Laurel Street condos.

• Holly and Smith Architects for Our Mother of Perpetual Hope Chapel/Saint Scholastica Chapel and Consolidated Gravity Drainage District #1 Office Building.

• Grace and Hebert Architects for the Iberville Parish Veterans Memorial.

• Trahan Architects for the LSU Softball Complex and First Presbyterian Church of Colorado Springs.

• Chenevert Architects for 232 Third Street and the Kress, Welsh-Levy & Knox building

• Pistorius Associates for Northshore Eye Associates.

The event will be held April 22 at Harvey Honore Enterprises.

This story has been corrected since it was first published

Poll: Most expect homebuyer tax credits to be extended

Fifty-nine percent of people who responded to a Real Estate Weekly poll say they expect Congress to extend the already extended tax credits for homebuyers when they expire at the end of April. Thirty percent say the tax breaks won’t be renewed and 11% were unsure. Nearly 125 people participated in the poll. The tax credits have been a factor in improving home sales nationwide.

This week’s question: Which sector of the local real estate market is the strongest?

Tom Cook: Trends event reveals interesting numbers

The annual Trends in Real Estate Seminar will be held Thursday morning at Independence Park Theater. I will be presenting the residential portion of the program. While analyzing data, I found several statistics of note. The largest increase in the volume of sales took place in Livingston Parish in the $100,000 to $150,000 price range. From March 2008 to February 2009, there were 107 sales in this price range. From March 2009 to February, there were 221 sales in this price range. This represents an increase of 106%. Homes in the $200,000 to $250,000 price range decreased in volume by nearly 9% from March 2009 to February. Home sales in the $200,000 to $250,000 price range fell 22% from March 2008 to February 2009. These statistics and much more will be presented in the statistical analysis of the residential real estate market in the Greater Baton Rouge area.

(Appraiser Tom Cook owns Cook Moore and Associates. Reach him at 293-7006 or TCook@cookmoore.com.)

Real estate recap: Bank, pharmacy planned for Pecue and Airline

Tied to Woman’s Hospital building: All Star Automotive Group has dropped plans to build a car dealership at Airline Highway and Pecue Lane and instead will allow a bank and drugstore to develop on the site. Matt McKay, president and CEO of All Star, would not disclose what bank and drugstore plans to build on the site. The businesses will play off of the new Woman's Hospital campus, which is being built nearby. "We see things moving along pretty soon," he says. The site is being cleared. Plans to realign Pecue with Woman's means there will be two hard corners on the All Star property.

Editor's note: Brian Andrews is off this week. His column will return in Real Estate Weekly next week.