Baton Rouge home sales down. I see this as opportunity!
Saturday, November 15th, 2008According to the Baton Rouge business report:
Home sales post 27% monthly drop
Tuesday, November 11, 2008
The Capital Region continued to post a big decrease in home sales, with the number of houses sold in October down 27% from one year ago. According to figures from the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service, there were 528 homes sold in October compared with 724 sales the year before. While those numbers aren’t pretty, there are a couple of bright spots. For one, the sales bounced back from a September in which Hurricane Gustav pushed the number of transactions down 43% from the year earlier. The second is that the average sale price for a home was $196,424, a modest increase over the $193,002 average in October 2007. That’s not bad considering all of the national economic uncertainty and difficulties in obtaining credit.
Ascension Parish had the strongest market, with 103 houses selling last month at an average cost of $216,156. That compares with the 135 homes that sold in October 2007 at an average cost of $215,164. East Baton Rouge home prices increased the most over last year, from an average of $194,665 in 2007 to $204,591 in October. The number of houses sold dropped from 419 to 309. Both Livingston and the “other” category, which includes MLS sales in West Baton Rouge, East and West Feliciana, Iberville and Pointe Coupee parishes, saw average sale prices drop. The biggest drop was in the outlying areas, where the average sale price fell 23%, from $193,994 to $148,903. The number of home sales was off from 46 to 33. The average price dropped only modestly in Livingston Parish, from $162,883 to $160,426, but the number of homes sold was off 33% to 83. Year to date, home sales in the Capital Region are down 22%, from 8,268 through the first 10 months of 2007 to 6,408 as of October.”
This to me spells OPPORTUNITY! Sellers MUST sell. If you are a buyer that needs to buy or just looking to invest now is the time. Inventory is high and there are homes that will be foreclosed on. There are deals out there waiting to be had. Call me today for a consultation on baton rouge and prairieville properties that are ready to move!