From Baton Rouge Business Report

Through the first six months of the year, Capital Region home sales are running 7.7% ahead of last year’s pace. According to the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service, 3,576 homes have been sold in metro Baton Rouge for the first six months of the year. That compares with 3,320 MLS sales through June 2009. The average sale price is slightly down, reflecting the first-time sales that have spurred most of the activity. The average sale price was $193,107 as of June, compared with $193,683 in June 2009.

Livingston Parish has seen the biggest increase in sales. There were 658 homes sold in the parish during the first six months of the year, compared with 522 as of June 2009. The average sale price was $161,793, down slightly from the $164,793 average in 2009.

Ascension Parish has also seen a double-digit increase in sales. There were 749 homes sold in the parish during the first six months of the year, compared with 630 as of June 2009. The average sale price was $198,170, down from $209,524. East Baton Rouge had the highest average sale price, despite reporting a drop in year-to-year transactions. There were 1,918 homes sold in the first six months of the year, compared with 1,970 sales as of June 2009. The average sale price was up, from $199,593 to $204,474. In the other category, which includes MLS sales in parishes such as West Baton Rouge, Iberville and the Felicianas, there were 251 sales, for an average of $173,228, compared with 198 sales in 2009 for an average of $160,635.

Sales of new homes collapsed in May, sinking 33% to the lowest level on record, as potential buyers stopped shopping for homes once they could no longer receive a government tax credit. The bleak report from the Commerce Department is the first sign of how the end of short-term federal tax credits could weigh on the nation’s housing market. The credits expired April 30. That’s when a new homebuyer would have had to sign a contract to qualify. “We fear that the appetite to buy a home has disappeared alongside the tax credit,” says Paul Dales, U.S. economist with Capital Economics. “After all, unemployment remains high, job security is low and credit conditions are tight.”

New home sales in May fell from April to a seasonally adjusted annual sales pace of 300,000, the government says. That was the slowest sales pace on records dating back to 1963. And it’s the largest monthly drop on record. Sales have now sunk 78% from their peak in July 2005. Analysts were startled by the depth of the sales drop. “We all knew there would be a housing hangover from the expiration of the tax credit,” says Mike Larson, real estate and interest rate analyst at Weiss Research. “But this decline takes your breath away.” Sales in the South dropped 25%.

Forty-seven percent of people who responded to a Real Estate Weekly poll say Prairieville has the strongest residential real estate market out of seven Capital Region cities. Twenty-eight percent of people who took the survey say Zachary has the strongest market, and 11% selected Denham Springs. Nearly 125 people participated in the survey.

Bustling business: Sales of new homes posted another large gain in April as buyers rushed to sign contracts before government tax credits expired. The Commerce Department says sales of new single-family homes jumped 14.8% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 504,000 units. The April gain followed a 29.8% surge in March, the biggest monthly increase in 47 years. Activity in both months was pushed higher by a stampede of buyers trying to sign sales contracts before tax credits expired on April 30.

The LSU Property Foundation has purchased a 38.6-acre tract next to its South Campus for $3.86 million. David Hardy, an attorney for the foundation, says the purchase extends the university’s holdings between GSRI Avenue and Nicholson Drive. The land is adjacent to a 60-acre tract LSU bought in late 2007 for $6 million. Officials with the LSU Foundation say it will be up to the university to decide what to do with the land.

The number of houses sold in metro Baton Rouge in April was up nearly 18% from the year before, as first-time homebuyers flocked to cash in on a tax credit for buying properties. There were 691 houses sold in April, according to figures from the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service, compared with 586 MLS sales in April 2009. And despite an increase in first-time buyers, the average sale price was also higher than the year before, from $185,641 to $192,974. Livingston Parish saw the biggest sales gain, jumping up by 67%, from 83 sales to 139. The average sale price in Livingston was slightly lower, dropping from $171,237 to $169,038. Ascension Parish home sales increased from 114 in April 2009 to 124, while the city-parish had the highest average sale price at $217,216, a 7% increase from the year before. East Baton Rouge had the highest sales volume, at 383 MLS deals, compared with 352 from April 2009. The average sale price was $198,061, compared with $182,540. The other category, which includes MLS sales in parishes such as West Baton Rouge, Pointe Coupee and the Felicianas, saw a gain from 37 sales in 2009 to 45 last month; the average sale price dropped to $156,813 from $193,002. Local Realtors say the Capital Region’s market has rebounded to post-Katrina levels. Through the first four months of the year, home sales are running ahead of 2009, with 2,100 MLS transactions taking place, compared with 2,017 the year before. The average sale price was also up slightly, from $191,015 in 2009 to $192,602. —Timothy Boone

The percentage of Baton Rouge homeowners falling behind on their mortgage payments and facing foreclosure continued to rise in March, but still at a slower rate than the state and national averages. The percentage of local homeowners who were more than three months behind on their mortgages was 6.64% in March, according to Core Logic, compared with a 4.21% delinquency rate in March 2009. During that time, the percentage of Louisiana homeowners more than three months behind on their mortgages rose from 4.76% to 7.36%, while the U.S. average delinquency rate was 8.93% in March, compared with 5.79% in March 2009. The local foreclosure rate was 2.27% in March, compared with 1.38% in March 2009. That’s below the state average of 2.53% and the national rate of 3.23%. Core Logic gets its data from public sources, including property and tax records and appraisals.

Baton Rouge builders will get to show off their handiwork for two weekends, beginning Saturday at the Capital Region Builders Association’s annual Parade of Homes. The event, which takes place Saturday and Sunday and May 22 to May 23, is the largest showcase for area builders. This year there are 52 homes in the parade; in previous years there have been between 60 and 80 homes in the parade. Lynda Evans, executive vice president of the CRBA, blames the drop on a lack of inventory. But Evans says there’s a “good mix” of homes, ranging in price from $120,000 to nearly $1 million. “There are a lot of first-time homebuyers who go out to this event looking for a home,” she says. “There are homes out in every price range.” For more information about this year’s event, including a list of homes that will be in the parade, click here.

While 2009 was a dismal economic year, cities that had concentrations of government workers and government-subsidized industries, such as health care and colleges, fared better than others. Only Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C., finished higher than Baton Rouge. In all categories, the Capital Region finished 15th in the Forbes rankings. Adam Knapp, BREC president and CEO, says the Forbes report confirms that the Capital Region economy is one of the most competitive in the U.S.