Greater Baton Rouge Home Appraiser, Bill Cobb, Reports On Realtors, Builders See Quickly Recovering Local Housing Market
Source: The Livingston Parish News Online
Realtors, builders see quickly recovering local market
By Mike Dowty
The people who make their living developing and selling real estate in Livingston Parish have seen cycles before, but perhaps never before have they witnessed so much negativity in the midst of a market they view as increasingly positive.
So last month, the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors and the Capital Region Builders Association launched a public relations campaign to get the word out to potential buyers, sellers and investors that the sky is not falling.
Since January Realtors have been reporting a pickup of activity and this month they seized on some new evidence when CNN Money listed both Baton Rouge and New Orleans among the Top 10 hottest housing markets in the United State.
“Smart money would invest now to take advantage of this market,” said longtime Livingston Parish resident and builder Joe Didier, president of the Capital Region Builders Association. “Interest rates are as good as I’ve seen in my lifetime. Six months ago, you couldn’t find labor. Now it’s readily available. Materials are down. This is the time to act.”
The homebuilders, along with the Realtors have formed the Baton Rouge Growth Coalition, representing 3,500 regional professionals in the housing market, to reassure potential customers and clients in the face of daily gloom and doom headlines elsewhere in the U.S.
The Livingston Parish and the Baton Rouge market may have slowed somewhat since the boom after Hurricane Katrina, but they are not part of some of the infamous national market trends and, in fact, offer evidence that real estate markets are local rather than national in nature, with no two exactly alike, said Linda Fredericks of ReMAX First and president of the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors.
“We want to take the fear out of the equation,” Fredericks said. “I know that six months to a year from now, when the national market is projected to begin ‘recovering’ and the pendulum begins to swing back, that local buyers are going to say, ‘I wish I would have invested sooner.’”
Though Louisiana real estate activities slowed in 2007 and may have caught some post-Katrina developers getting ahead of themselves, that slowdown also eased labor shortages and out-of-sight materials prices, the builders said.
The median home price of $170,000 in the Baton Rouge region is 38.3 percent above where it was five years ago and 5.7 percent higher than last year. It is projected to rise this year by 1.9 percent, a far cry from the double digit plummeting seen in other markets that ballooned and, for a time, appeared to leave Metro Baton Rouge behind. As it turns out, the area’s saner valuation growth has been safer for buyers who might otherwise have become caught in the many financing traps that have created headache and heartache in other regions like Nevada, Florida and California.
That’s good news for buyers, sellers, builders and Realtors, but not exactly a surprise for the Livingston Parish veterans.
Didier pointed out that the healthy inventory at present and low interest rates give buyers options and the fear of becoming overextended if home prices fall is an unfounded one. In fact less than one homeowner per year has defaulted on a mortgage in Livingston Parish, Didier said, pointing to statistics.
Few of the common headlines across the country about struggles to buy, sell, finance or pay home mortgages apply here. Yet they have an impact here, because they create fear and hesitation, experts say. And few people know the truth, such as the fact that the mortgage default rate in Livingston Parish is currently less than one per year.
A former Watson resident who now lives on the upscale Amite River Diversion Canal, Didier has watched the value of riverside lots soar to unprecedented levels and building has never stopped.
In fact, of all the parishes in the Baton Rouge region, Livingston enjoys the healthiest building economy. Between East Baton Rouge, Ascension and Livingston parishes, the latter issued the most building permits in 2007.
“I was shocked at that,” Didier admits.
The communication campaign spearheaded by the housing industry professionals notes the benefits of the current market, but it also stresses the value that homeownership brings to communities. The “Homeownership Builds Stronger Communities” message reminds investors that greater investment in the local market further drives and strengthens the local economy, and as more individuals and households begin to own homes, they also become greater caretakers of their neighborhoods and/or communities.
“Investing in a home is such a positive thing for an individual and the local community. We all benefit from a strong, affordable housing market,” Fredericks said.
Michael McDuff, executive director for the Greater Baton Rouge Growth Coalition, noted that many local land developers and business investors are moving forward with a varied selection of new developments, including traditional residential development, new subdivisions, retail projects and condominium developments in the metropolitan region’s nine-parish area.
“This continued investment is a strong indicator of the current status of our market, as well as the near future of the market. We have a diverse selection of housing in the Baton Rouge Capital Region,” McDuff said.
“Much of the retail and industrial expansion we are experiencing is driving the local market. As more jobs are created, more people will continue to locate to this area, as well as upgrade their quality of life within this region. All indicators show that now is a great time to be in the Baton Rouge Capital Region,” he said.
Greater Baton Rouge Real Estate.TV
