Now that 2009 is over, let’s compare the residential market in the Baton Rouge metropolitan area from 2008 to 2009.
As the chart below indicates, there were 7,363 sales [regardless of age, and including condominiums and townhomes] reported to the Multiple Listing Service in East Baton Rouge, Ascension and Livingston parishes in 2008 and 6,908 in 2009, a 6.2% decrease. The average sale price dropped 5.1%, from $201,505 to $191,254. The current inventory fell 16.2%, from 5,129 in 2008 to 4,298 in 2009.
East Baton Rouge Parish had most of the negative MLS numbers. Sales decreased 10.6%, from 4,467 in 2008 to 3,993 in 2009. The average sale price dropped 5.7%, from $209,447 to $197,448 in 2009. And the current inventory fell 16.2%, from 2,883 in 2008 to 2,416 in 2009.
Ascension and Livingston parishes had sales increases. Ascension sales went up 3.1%, from 1,236 in 2008 to 1,274 in 2009. Livingston sales improved 3.4%, from 1,194 in 2008 to 1,235 in 2009. Ascension had the highest drop in inventory, a 19.8% decrease from 931 in 2008 to 747 in 2009.
New-home sales exhibited similar statistical information, decreasing 31% in East Baton Rouge but increasing 25.5% in Ascension and 17.9% in Livingston. The average price decreased 14.8% overall: 10.2% in East Baton Rouge, 14.9% in Ascension and 10.1% in Livingston. And current inventory dropped 36.1% overall: 41.3% in East Baton Rouge, 36.1% in Ascension and 23.3% in Livingston.
To summarize, sales volume was down, prices overall went down, but inventory is being reduced. Slowly but surely, the metropolitan area is absorbing the residential inventory.
CVS purchases Zachary site
La. CVS Pharmacy has purchased a 60,000-square-foot site at La. highways 64 and 964 in Zachary from Old Scenic Highway for $1.2 million, or about $20 per square foot. The seller was Old Scenic Highway, which developed an apartment and retail mixed-use property at the intersection. The retail development included a shopping center with outparcels. CVS plans to build a drugstore on the site within the next year.
Lots purchased in bulk
DSLLD, represented by Sean Sullivan, purchased 20 lots in Windsor Place subdivision on La. 64 just east of La. 964 in Zachary for $830,000, or about $41,500 per lot. Average lot prices in the subdivision, developed by Walter Bankston & Associates, are $55,000 to $60,000.
