Distressed home sales shot up 25% in the Baton Rouge metro area during the third quarter, according to a new report released today by ATTOM Data Solutions, which curates the nation’s largest multisource property database.
Nationally, the sale of distressed homes—foreclosures and short sales—dropped to a 10-year low of 12.5%. But Baton Rouge is one 29 metro areas out of the 146 ATTOM analyzed that posted year-over-year increases in the share of the distressed sales. There were 1,852 distressed home sales in the Baton Rouge area in the third quarter, which accounted for 16.3% of all sales. New Orleans had 2,385 while the Shreveport-Bossier area had 754.
“Distressed sales nationally are now the exception rather than the rule, and we would expect the distressed sale share to return to the pre-recession norm of single-digit percentages within the next year given the current downward trajectory,” ATTOM Data Solution Senior Vice President Daren Blomquist says in a statement. “Distressed sales have become more localized in nature, with some of the biggest increases from a year ago in markets experiencing regional economic weakness or a natural disaster event that has triggered a jump in foreclosure activity.”
Baton Rouge—which saw severe widespread flooding in August 2016—had the fourth highest increase in the share of distressed home sales. Corpus Christi, Texas, had the biggest jump, at 33%, followed by Indianapolis at 30% and Cedar Rapids, Iowa, at 29%.
