APRIL 2015 Baton Rouge Home Sales Down, Home Prices UP and Short Supply Continues by Baton Rouge's Home Appraiser, Bill Cobb
Downloadable pdf of charts.
BE SURE TO READ IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER ON INFLATED PRICES AND FALSE EQUITY WITHIN BATON ROUGE REAL ESTATE.
Yes, it's an incredible excting time to be a part of Baton Rouge Housing and the Baton Rouge Real Estate market in 2015 is fantastic with reports of homes selling in 1 day due to shortage of supply, but not exactly to the extent of the hype in the news or on Facebook. Yes, April 2015 house sales were down, which is contrary to some of the hype in the news and the numbers don’t lie, which is why I like see the actual numbers.
Yes, home prices are way up, which is good news for homeowners but really bad news for those saving to buy a home. For Louisiana, home prices are very high. 
GREATER BATON ROUGE HOME SALES: DOWN 9.7% and lower than both 2014 and 2013.
April 2015, as reported on 05/12/2015, were only 741 versus 821 in April 2014
April 2015 home sales were down 9.7% versus April 2014
April 2015 home sales were down 9.0% versus April 2013
GREATER BATON ROUGE HOME PRICES: UP 10%
AVERAGE SALES PRICE: UP!
The average sales price was UP 10.25% from $201,928 in April 2014 versus $222,633 in April 2015.
MEDIAN SALES PRICE: UP!
The median sales price was UP 10.1% from $172,500 in April 2014 versus $190,000 in April 2015.
GREATER BATON ROUGE DAYS ON THE MARKET: UP 10.6%
The average days on market increased from 94 to 104 days, up 10.4%
GREATER BATON ROUGE SUPPLY OF HOMES ON THE MARKET: DOWN 16%
The supply of homes on the market is down 16% from 4,149 in April 2014 to only 3,487 in April 2015. 
GREATER BATON ROUGE HOME SALES VOLUME: DOWN SLIGHTLY!
Home sales volume was down slightly from $165,783,253 in April 2014 to $165,000,980 in April 2015. So, I said above home sales were down but sold volume is almost equal to April 2014, how does this make sense? Because of the 10% increase in home prices.
WHY DID THIS SELLER HAVE TO PAY $14,000 IN SELLER PAID CONCESSIONS TO SELL THIS MIRABEAU GARDENS HOME FOR $203,900?
Disclaimer: Some of the numbers below could be overinflated due to grossly excessive seller paid concessions (sellers paying buyer's closing cost) and even the Wall Street Journal agrees with me that there is some False Equity in this market, see Report Says
“False Equity is on the Rise” in Housing Market"
and notes Louisiana as an overheated market. It used to be customary for sellers to pay $3,000 to $4,000 to help a buyer with closing cost, however, I'm seeing $6,000, $7,000, $9,000, $12,000, $15,000 where sellers are having to pay buyers to buy their home. This is absolutely out of control and is leading to somewhat of an over inflated Baton Rouge Home Price Market. 
Why? Because when several homes sell where the sellers paid $7,000, $8,000 to $9,000 in concessions, the next Agent pricing a new listing pulls their MLS CMA (comparative market analysis) and says to themselves, "Wow! Home prices are UP!" In reality, prices are up because of excessive seller paid concessions. And, Fannie Mae instructs Appraisers to correct this issue within home appraisals by deducting excessive seller paid concessions. If a comparable sale an Appraisers is using has $8,000 in concessions, then the Appraiser will deduct $5,000 for that comps excessive concessions where $3,000 would be normal. I even did an appraisal recently in the $480,000 range where the buyer needed $3,000+/- in closing cost help, which is totally abnormal in that price range.
Report by Baton Rouge's Home Appraiser, Bill Cobb 225-293-1500
Based on information from Greater Baton Rouge Association of REALTORS®\MLS for period 04/01/2005 to 04/31/2015, extracted on 05/13/2015.
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