Corridor housing market is good news, bad news

The corridor housing market offers a little bit of good news, and a lot more bad news. The good news comes out of Lake Charles, where the average price of single family homes was nearly 11% higher in April than the average price a year ago, reversing a three-month trend of falling prices. The year-to-date average price has now risen by .2% from the same period last year. However, the number of homes sold so far this year is about 25% fewer than the same period in 2008, resulting in a lower dollar volume of single-family home sales. Home sales are also somewhat encouraging in the River Parishes of St. Charles, St. James and St. John, where the average selling price increased slightly to $179,405 from $178,933 a year ago. But only 50 homes sold in April, down from 58 a year ago. By comparison, the number of houses sold in the Capital Region fell by nearly 20% in April, compared to the year before. According to figures from the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors Multiple listing service, there were 570 houses sold locally last month, compared with 711 in April 2008. At the same time, the average sale price fell by 15.4%, from $219,123 in April 2008, to $185,288. Home prices also continue to drop in St. Tammany and Jefferson parishes, according to statistics from the Gulf South Real Estate Information Network published earlier this week. Orleans Parish was a mixed bag, with sales prices up on the East Bank and down on the West Bank.