Home sales in metro Baton Rouge are down 23% in the first quarter, and the average sale price fell by 5% when compared with the same period in 2008. As of Monday afternoon, 1,412 homes have been sold in the first three months of the year, according to figures from the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service. That compares with the 1,824 sales that happened in the first quarter 2008. The average sale price in the first quarter was $193,001, compared with $203,393 in 2008.
MLS sales in East Baton Rouge were down 25% by volume, from 1,094 in the first quarter 2008, to 826 in 2009. The average sale price had fallen from $213,055 to $202,324. A similar drop was reported in Livingston Parish, where the number of houses sold went from 318 to 237. The sale price was down from $168,788 to $163,100 this year.
Ascension Parish had a 16% drop in home sales, going from 303 in the first quarter of 2008, to 256 in 2009. The average sale price was down to $211,200, compared with $214,201 a year earlier. The other category, which includes MLS sales in parishes such as West Baton Rouge, Iberville, East and West Feliciana reported a drop in home sales from 109 during the first quarter of 2008, to 93 in the first quarter of 2009. That category saw a dramatic drop in home prices, possibly because of the small number of properties involved, going from an average price of $177,335 in 2008 to $136,299.
