Home sales in the greater Baton Rouge area decreased 3.7% in June over the same month last year, an indication that low inventory is squeezing sales.
Closed sales in the nine-parish region were down to 1,005 this month, despite increasing 7.1% year-to-date to 5,067, according to the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors’ monthly sales report.
New listings in the Capital Region fell 8.5% in June to 1,243 from 1,358 for the same month in 2015, as pending sales for the month surged nearly 10%.
Inventory levels shrank 15.1% to 3,384 units, while houses spent only 67 days on the market in June of this year compared to 80 days in June 2015.
At the parish level, East Baton Rouge followed a similar pattern. Closed sales for the month of June fell 6% to 544 units. New listings fell 15.5% to 647 units, and inventory also declined in 16.8% to 1,820 units.
“Sales and prices have been going up in most areas, while the number of homes for sale and total months’ supply of inventory have been going down,” says GBRAR’s monthly sales report.
Livingston Parish is showing all the signs of shrunken inventory, the GBRAR report says, adding that the number of available houses on the market dropped 18.4% to 546 units. New home sales declined to 1.5%.
In Ascension Parish, new sales increased 7.7%, though inventory there fell 16.5%.
—Alexandria Burris
