Housing slowdown? The number of houses sold in metro Baton Rouge was down 28% when compared with a year earlier. There were 430 houses sold in the Capital Region last month, compared with 598 in February 2008, according to figures from the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service. Despite the sales drop, average sale prices were up slightly across the region. The average house sold for $196,585, 2% more than the average sale price of $192,652 in February 2008. But those gains came from East Baton Rouge Parish, where the average sale price increased by 9.6% from month to month, going from $194,583 in February 2008 to $213,315 last month.
Don’t change: The state’s largest business lobby will oppose raising Louisiana’s homestead exemption in the next legislative session. The Louisiana Association of Business and Industry says the exemption should remain at $75,000, and says a proposal to raise the exemption to $150,000 will only shift more of the tax burden to businesses, renters and homeowners with more valuable homes. “We’ve got a lot of things that need to be fixed in Louisiana. This isn’t one of them,” said LABI president Dan Juneau, speaking at a legislative issues conference in Baton Rouge last week. Juneau also expects to see legislation proposed that would require greater accountability for unelected taxing bodies that seek to roll millages forward when property values increase.
Big jump over the month: The foreclosure rate in Louisiana remained below the national average in February, despite a big jump in seizures from the previous month. According to RealtyTrac, one out of every 2,742 Louisiana homes was in some state of foreclosure last month, compared with the national average of one for every 440 homes. That put Louisiana 40th in a ranking of foreclosure rates by states and the District of Columbia. Foreclosures were up 40% from January, but only 4.3% when compared with February 2008.
