B.R. home sales end 2011 on positive run

Home sales in the eight-parish Capital Region ended 2011 on a seven-month run of increases over 2010 figures—with annual sales up 3%—and area realtors expect 2012 numbers to be even better.

“Normally we start trending down in September and October, but this year we kept pace and even saw increases. It was pretty amazing,” says Laura Smith of Re/MAX First Partners Team. “2012 has been great so far. Our showings are up already, and we’re even starting to see more interest and sales on some of our higher-priced homes, which is a really good indicator that people are feeling better about buying.”

Smith says her office closed on 30% more properties in 2011 than it did in 2010. Though she admits that kind of increase is unlikely to be repeated this year, she does believe 2012 sales will outpace last year’s, given the historically low mortgage rates and increasing consumer confidence.

Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors Executive Vice President Herb Gomez says he also expects marginal increases in 2012 as the market slowly and steadily recovers. Both Smith and Gomez say the worst effects of the recession are over, and the sales reports from GBRAR seem to support that sentiment.

Total sales in 2011 were 6,581, a 3% increase over the 6,386 sales in 2010. That’s still a 4.6% decrease from the 6,899 homes sold in 2009. Nonetheless, the later half of 2011 proved a complete reversal from the first half. At the end of May, the area had seen five straight monthly declines in sales, and year-to-date figures were off 16% compared to 2010.

Among East Baton Rouge, Livingston and Ascension parishes, Livingston was the only parish to see sales decline in 2011 from the year previous, though the drop amounts to just 12 fewer homes sold on the year.
East Baton Rouge Parish recorded 3,603 home sales in 2011, a 2.6% increase over the 3,510 sold in 2010. Ascension Parish saw a total of 1,290 homes sold last year, 43 more than the year before and a 3.4% increase.

GBRAR lumps sales in West Baton Rouge, Iberville, East Feliciana, West Feliciana and Pointe Coupee parishes into the “other” category in its reports. This category saw the greatest increase in 2011: 14.1%, or 72 more sales than the 512 recorded in 2010.

The average sales price in the eight-parish region dipped in 2011 to $190,340, down from $195,594 the year previous. Nonetheless, total sales volume was up, from $1.249 billion in 2010 to $1.252 billion in 2011.

“I don’t see prices increasing anytime soon,” Smith says. “There’s a lot of competition out there, and people are going to have to outprice the competition if they’re going to sell.”

Source: Baton Rouge Business Report