Corner lot home with lake views! What more can you ask for in this beautiful 4 bedroom 3 bath home located in Central’s newest up coming neighborhoods. Large open floor plan with lake views from the living, kitchen, and master bedroom. Huge kitchen with gas appliances, a butler’s pantry, built in spice cabinet, and custom wood cabinets you must see. Master bedroom is plenty large enough for a king size bed with a room to the side that can be used for more seating. Master bath features his and her vanities with vessel sinks and a seperate tub and a rain shower with two nozzles. Outdoor patio faces the lake and has gas connections. There are too many amenties in this home to list! This is a must see!

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Freddie Mac reported Thursday that mortgage interest rates have done a 180 and are now starting to climb, buoyed by positive housing data over recent weeks which show the market ended 2011 on a high note. Still, interest rates on home loans remain extremely low by historical standards.

For the week ending January 26, the 30-year fixed-rate mortgage averaged 3.98 percent (0.7 point), reversing its previous three-week trend of setting all-time record lows. Despite the jump, this marks the eighth consecutive week the 30-year fixed rate has remained below 4.00 percent.

The 30-year rate jumped 10 basis points over the past week, up from 3.88 percent reported by the GSE last Thursday. As a point of comparison, though, last year at this time the 30-year averaged 4.80 percent.

By Steve Sanoski

 

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

 

 

]]> http://www.timhouk.com/b-r-home-sales-end-2011-on-positive-run/feed 0 http://www.timhouk.com/2-lots-for-sale-in-central-108-charleston-17168-pin-cherry http://www.timhouk.com/2-lots-for-sale-in-central-108-charleston-17168-pin-cherry#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:54:01 +0000 admin http://www.timhouk.com/?p=1141

108 Charleston
$40,000

17168 Pin Cherry
$130,000

Great 3 bedroom 2 bath family home in desirable area in Central’s school district. This home is in excellent condition and is great for a growing family. Warm paint colors throughout this house give a very cozy feel. Wood floors in the living with built ins make it great for entertaining family and friends. The backyard is the best part about this house though. Huge backyard with a covered patio where you could grill for friends and a great place to relax and watch the kids play. Hurry and see this one because it won’t last long! Homehas been pre inspected and priced on recent appraisal!

The Federal Reserve has launched a potentially controversial push to revive the battered U.S. housing market, calling on other government officials to act after largely exhausting its own tools to support the fragile economic recovery, Reuters reports. After the Fed slashed interest rates to near zero more than three years ago and amassed $2.3 trillion in bonds to spur growth, the U.S. economy showed some momentum toward the end of 2011. But many analysts are doubtful the recovery will achieve take-off velocity in 2012, and housing is one of the biggest drags. U.S. house prices have fallen 33% from their 2006 peak, resulting in an estimated $7 trillion in household wealth losses, the Fed said last week as it took the unusual step of making an array of recommendations on housing policy to Congress. Fed officials are trying to use the central bank’s influence to overcome political resistance to expanding the government’s role in housing, which has been an important driver for the U.S. economy as it emerged from past recessions. That resistance is likely to be strong as this election year progresses, and could produce a backlash against the Fed and the Obama administration. The Fed’s push also runs counter to Chairman Ben Bernanke’s vow when he took office in 2006 to keep the central bank’s focus on monetary policy issues after his predecessor, Alan Greenspan, had drawn fire for wading into political debates over taxes and spending. Read the full story here.

Source: Baton Rouge Business Report

Baton Rouge is ranked No. 7 on the Forbes list of Where Jobs Will (And Won’t) Be in 2012, with an estimated 12% of the metro area’s employers expecting to add jobs. Baton Rouge tied with five other metro areas: Atlanta-Sand Springs-Marietta, Ga.; Bradenton-Sarasota-Venice, Fla.; Indianapolis-Carmel, Ind.; Tampa-St. Petersburg-Clearwater, Fla.; and Wichita, Kan. Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla., and Lakeland-Winter Haven, Fla., tied for first, with net hiring outlooks of 17% in the coming year. Houston-Sugar Land-Baytown is third, at 14%. In compiling the list, Forbes tapped employment services firm ManpowerGroup to survey more than 18,000 employers in 100 metropolitan areas to find out who’s hiring, who’s firing and who plans to maintain their current staff levels in the first quarter of 2012. See the full list and read the complete story here.

Source: Baton Rouge Business Report

This is the one you have been waiting for. Beautiful 4 bedroom 3 bath home located minutes from interstate, shopping, and much more. This home features two stories with tons of storage and large bedrooms.Large open living and den makes this home great for entertaining your friends and family. Outside there is a storage room perfect for a man’s workshop or could just be used for extra storage. Hurry and show this one before its too late.

A 0.05% decrease in Baton Rouge’s foreclosure rate in September, when compared to the same month a year ago, more than reversed a 0.03% increase in August and kept the local rate significantly lower than the national average. According to data released by CoreLogic today, 2.43% of outstanding mortgage loans in Baton Rouge were in some stage of foreclosure in September. Statewide, the foreclosure rate stood at 2.5% in September, and the U.S. rate for that month hit 3.48%. Those rates reflect a 0.16% decrease in Louisiana foreclosures in September, while the U.S. saw foreclosures rise 0.18% on the month. Meanwhile, Baton Rouge’s mortgage delinquency rate—that is, the percentage of home loans that are more than 90 days delinquent—fell to 5.54% in September, from 5.91% a year ago. The Louisiana delinquency rate fell to 6.02%—a drop of 0.5%—and the U.S. rate fell to 7.17%, from 7.85% in September 2010. For historical comparison on foreclosures, Baton Rouge’s rate was 1.28% in January 2009, 2.08% in January 2010, and 2.79% in January of this year.

Beautiful 3 bedroom 3 bath home in the Shadows Lake subdivision. Wood floors throughout the home with large windows that allow tons of natural lighting. The best part about this home is that the master bedroom overlooks the lake with large french doors opening to the backyard. There is also an unfinished bonus room above the garage that would be great for a game room for kids or could be used as a fourth bedroom. Kitchen features include granite counter tops with a large island that allows extra seating for your dinner guests. Master bathroom features a jacuzzi tub with a separate walk in shower and his and her vanities.The large backyard has a covered porch which would be great for entertaining your friends and family.