After two months of declines, total home sales across the eight-parish Capital Region rebounded in June, shooting up 10.6% compared to the same month last year.
At the same time, though, the June sales report released today by the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors shows inventory continued to shrink while the average sale price continued to rise and the average months supply fell again—all indicating the Baton Rouge area is firmly in seller’s market.
The Capital Region’s three largest parishes all posted big sales gains last month. East Baton Rouge recorded 547 home sales, a 12.3% increase, while Ascension posted a 7.8% increase and sales in Livingston were up 16.4%. All told, the eight-parish region recorded 994 home sales last month, a 10.6% increase over the 899 sales recorded in June a year ago.
Halfway through 2015, year-to-date sales in the region stood at 4,647—234 more than were completed during the first six months of last year, a 5.3% increase.
The average home sales price shot up 8.5% last month to $226,249, up from $208,536 in June last year. The number of homes on the market was drastically lower in June this year, at 3,690, compared to 4,299 in June last year, a 14.2% decline. That placed the measure of months supply—the number of months it would take to sell all of the homes on the market at the current sales pace—at 4.6 months. Last June, the months supply figure was at 5.9 months. Realtors typically view any reading under six months to indicate a seller’s market.
The sales increase in June comes after home sales fell 7.6% in May and were off by 4% in April.
Along with East Baton Rouge, Ascension and Livingston, GBRAR tracks home sales data in West Baton Rouge, East Feliciana, West Feliciana, Iberville and Pointe Coupee parishes.
Access the complete report from GBRAR.
—Steve Sanoski
