Home After Home

I was out the other night at the poker tables when the player next to me found out that I am a REALTOR. She asked, "What's the average price per square foot for Baton Rouge?" What a question! I figured it would be good to answer that question in a blog post.

First, let me say that Baton Rouge hasn't been hit hard by the failing economy around the rest of the country. We have not had the bottom fall out of our real estate market. In fact, while we have felt the repercussions of weakened economy, the impact has been minimal.  Throughout 2009 we felt the impact of fewer sales. Coupled with fewer sales there has also been a slight drop in home prices.  As the lending practices have tightened, the sales have slacked up.  Here's a chart that shows the number of sales in Jan and the number of sales for the whole year for the Baton Rouge Real Estate Market over the past few years.

Here in 2010, we've had 204 transactions for January.   This number actually surprised me when I looked at it. What we are feeling is an increased demand in the movement of buyers and an increase in the number of sellers ready to list.

But that's just the "number" of transactions in Baton Rouge. Now, let's look at average sales price over the same period.

Those numbers show some movement and stabilization in the market.  You can see that our prices haven't just bottomed out like some other markets around the country.  Now, my prediction - not that I'm an expert in statistics - is that we'll see prices graduate upward a bit in 2010.

So, now that we've covered the background here are some rough numbers for a few neighborhoods around town. This is not intended to be a market analysis for your home. Your home should be compared to homes that have similar finishings, similar size, and similar age.  These are averages based on the past year of of all sales in each area.

For information on your home or a home you are looking to buy talk to your realtor about specific data that pertains to your subject property.

The important point in all of this is not just that real estate is local. It's more than local. I could provide you with an average price per square foot for Baton Rouge, but what would that tell you? I say it would tell you absolutely nothing about Baton Rouge. The ranges vary greatly from neighborhood to the next. All of the neighborhoods on the list above are very desireable areas with lots of activity, but still there is a great variance from one part of town to the other.

Well, I had a great vacation on the beach in Navarre, FL.  It's clear that there are some areas of the country that are suffering due to a weak economy.  In fact, I was able to get a much better price on a beach front condo for a week as a result of the soft national economy.  But back home in Baton Rouge, LA the real estate market was hopping!

I left Linda with a great deal of work to handle. One of our sellers receieved two offers on his home for sale this past week.  We are working on two closings for Monday and Tuesday.  We have inspections for one of our buyer-clients on Monday.  And we're talking to new buyers/sellers everyday.  It's all proof that the real estate market in Baton Rouge is quite a healthy market.

For sellers who have their homes properly priced, there are plenty of buyers.  For buyers with good credit there's plenty of lenders out there ready to lend.  And for first time homebuyers there's still time to get a home before the first time home buyer tax credit of $8,000 expires (December 1, 2009 is the expiration date).

So, if you're wondering if now is a good time to move, it is!  In fact, now is a great time to make that move. The market will probably cool down after school starts, but there is still some time left to strike while the iron is hot.

Happy House Hunting/Selling!

-Bridget