St. Landry Parish is struggling with home sales this year as oil prices continue to remain stagnant.
As The Advertiser reports, the Realtor Association of Acadiana’s Multiple Listing Service shows St. Landry sales down 17.7% this year through April.
“The past two years have been really good,” says Dianne DeJean, a sales agent for Van Eaton & Romero in Opelousas. St. Landry had, at one point, enjoyed some sales in newer subdivisions, she says, adding that some homes sold in the $250,000 range.
That’s changed. DeJean says she has as many as 10 sales pending, but none for more than $165,000.
St. Landry homes are selling on the low end. Almost two-thirds of homes sold this year have been in price ranges below $150,000. Some 29% of sales in the parish through April have been in the $150,000 to $299,999 range, which is the most popular range in neighboring Lafayette Parish. Only a half-dozen homes have sold for more than $300,000 through the year’s first four months in St. Landry.
“People may be scared a little bit,” says Matt Rodrigues, another Van Eaton & Romero agent. Most mortgage rates have risen past 4%, he says. Historically, that’s a low interest rate, but buyers have been looking at lower interest rates for some time.
DeJean, Rodrigues and St. Landry Parish President Bill Fontenot all say St. Landry’s economy has suffered from the oil and gas downturn since late 2014.
However, unemployment was higher in July 2014, at 8.4%, than it is today, and oil prices were above $100 a barrel at the time. For the first four months of 2017, unemployment has been above 7%, reaching nearly 8% in January. It has been as high as 9.3% during the downturn.
