The summer’s historic flood continued to impact the Baton Rouge area real estate market in September, as pending home sales skyrocketed upward by 46% for the month, the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors says.
“It appears many sales have been delayed by the flood, whether the property was flooded or not, as title companies, closing attorneys, agents and others have to recover from the flood,” GBRAR’s monthly sales report says.
Pending homes sales in the greater Baton Rouge area increased to 1,105, up from 883 in August and from 757 for the same month one year ago.
Closed homes sales, meanwhile, were down 1.6% in September, from 896 one year ago to 882 this year.
The number of closed sales rose in East Baton Rouge and Ascension parishes, two of the region’s three biggest markets. East Baton Rouge saw a modest bump of 0.6% in closed sales for the month of September, while closed sales in Ascension increased 5.4%.
In Livingston Parish, closed sales plummeted 21.3%. The parish, though, also accounts for the greatest increase in new listings, which were up 36% year-over-year for the month.
An already tight real estate market in the greater Baton Rouge area was further squeezed by the historic flood as the region’s month’s supply of inventory—an indicator of how long it would take to sell all the current inventory in the market—dropped 25% from 4.8 months for the same month last year to 3.6 months in September.
“Across the country, as anticipated at the outset of the year, demand has remained high through the first three quarters of 2016, propping up sales and prices despite heavy reductions in inventory and months of supply,” GBRAR’s monthly report says. “With rental prices and employment opportunities in a consistent climb, year-over-year increases in homebuying are probable for the rest of the year but not guaranteed.”
