BATON ROUGE (AP) — The number of houses sold in metro Baton Rouge rose 5.7 percent in August from a year ago despite a drop in activity in Livingston Parish.
In figures released Monday by the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors' Multiple Listing Service, there were 914 homes sold in August in the nine-parish area. That compares with 865 sales in August 2014. This was the third month in a row sales have gone up year-to-year.
Ascension Parish had a 9.2 percent increase in home sales to 167 from 153.
Livingston Parish had a 9.1 percent drop in home sales, falling from to 186 in August 2014 to 169.
The Advocate’s Timothy Boone reports the median home sales price in the area rose by 4.1 percent in August to $185,306 from $178,010.
The number of pending sales in metro Baton Rouge, a sign of future activity, increased by 15.6 percent from 851 to 984.
Although the local housing market has performed well this year, with rising prices and increased sales activity, a lack of housing inventory has put a damper on the market.
The supply in months was 4.4, based on the current rate of sales, compared with 5.9 months in August 2014. Six months is considered an ample supply.
The number of days a house stayed on the market dropped from 77 to 66 in metro Baton Rouge, aided by some older listings in Livingston and Ascension finally getting off the market.
Through the first eight months of 2015, there were 6,603 home sales in the metro area, compared with 6,150 through August 2014, a 7.4 percent increase.
