Inventory remains low in the Baton Rouge area housing market, though home sales have continued to grow since the August flood, according to the latest market statistics from the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors.
New listings in the nine-parish Capital Region tracked by the GBRAR fell by 12.7% in February to 1,052, down from 1,205 in the same month last year. Meanwhile, closed sales rose by 6.5% in February, from 693 in 2016 to 738 in 2017. That’s the fifth straight month of closed sales growth for the region, though the latest numbers aren’t quite as high as previous months.
Pending sales also were up 8.2% from 890 to 963. The median sales price in the market fell marginally by 1.6% from $182,890 to $180,000.
“The low inventory situation and affordability crunch has been particularly hard on first-time buyers struggling to get into the market,” GBRAR’s monthly report says. “Nevertheless, buyer activity is easily outpacing seller activity in much of the country, culminating in relatively quick sales and low supply. Demand definitely remained strong this month.”
In East Baton Rouge Parish, 578 new listings were posted in February, an 11.1% drop from the same month last year. Sales grew, however. Pending sales jumped up by 15.2% from 475 to 547, while closed sales spiked by 11.2% from 357 to 397. The median sales price was down 2.5% from $183,000 in February 2016 to $178,500 in February of this year.
In Livingston Parish, closed sales were up by only 2.1% in February, though pending sales shot up by 13.7%. Livingston also saw a 46.4% decline in the number of days homes stayed on market, down from 69 to 37. New listings in Ascension Parish, meanwhile, were down 31% and pending sales slumped by 21.9%, though closed sales grew by 4.6%.
If no new homes went on the market, it would take 2.9 months for all the homes currently on the market to sell, GBRAR’s numbers show, a 31% drop from the same month last year.
Kyle Peterson, a Keller Williams broker who is presenting residential market statistics at the upcoming Trends in Real Estate Seminar, told Daily Report last month the average number of days homes stayed on the market last year dropped significantly. He also said home prices dropped, citing the number of homes going on the market “as is,” or unrepaired following the flood.
Other brokers have said the trends are largely neighborhood-to-neighborhood. Some neighborhoods that flooded have been built back and are selling at much higher prices than before, while others sit gutted or have been bought up by investors looking to flip the homes.
—Sam Karlin
