February 2021 Housing Market Update

We've already made it through the rush of the first month of the year in 2021! I hope that you and your family have been able to continue to stay safe and healthy throughout the new year! We've elected a new president and there's a lot of interesting things going on throughout the country but without further ado, let's jump into the Greater Baton Rouge Housing Market update for February.

January provided a brand new historical low on the number of houses available on the market for sale in the housing market. When you check out the chart below, we had a pretty consistent rise in the number of houses available. The inventory reached a high point in July - September capping out around 4500 houses available on the market. The trend of a low housing inventory started in March with the COVID-19 pandemic and the trend has only continued from there. It's very possible that next month we could see somewhere below two thousand (2000) homes available for buyers to look at. 

   

Number of Home Available for Sale Comparision          

With so few options available buyers are either going to have to quickly identify what they are looking for and make an offer quickly to secure the property they want or wait for the market options to provide more homes to get a home that fits their needs. If you are on the other end of the spectrum as a seller, it's a great time to list your home on the market though. With the supply being so low, and demand still being at a high level, we're getting at or more than the list price on many homes that are put on the market. The goal that we set for our clients who are looking to sell is to get as many buyers into the home as quickly as possible to create urgency and multiple offers on the home. We then can give a final round of offers or bids to see if we can get the best price and terms available to suit our client's needs. 
 

 

Months Supply of Homes for Sale

 

All areas seemingly are trending at or below two months of inventory at this point! Both Ascension and Livingston Parish are still showing below two months' inventory levels. In a balanced market, we'd like to see these numbers somewhere in between about 3.5 - 5 months of inventory. I put up a five-year comparison so you can see the trends of the market over a decent amount of time. If you compare the data in the chart above from July of 2019, it has been a consistent drop in inventory. That record trend has seemingly continued and doesn't appear to provide any indications to redirect or change at this time.


I wanted to give a bit of a different perspective this month to close out the market update. The bar chart below compares the timeframe that homes are staying on the market before getting a contract accepted by a seller. If you have a home available for sale, it's staying on the market for a timeframe that is anywhere from 50 to 75% less than January of last year or the year before!
 

February Median Days on Market

As always I want to make you aware that I've created a special website where you can view interactive charts of historical data for the Greater Baton Rouge real estate market. The graphs are always live and updated automatically monthly where you can see the real stats for what's going on in the real estate market and not just take someone's word for it! You can check out the data and see what's going on in your area by clicking the button below!


Stay safe and healthy!
Rinaldi Jacobs Jr., e-PRO®, PSA
REALTOR® & Marketing eXpert
eXp Realty, LLC
2900 Westfork Dr, Ste 401
Baton Rouge, LA 70827
Office: 225-412-9982 ext 151
Direct: 225-330-7059
Rinaldi@225avenues.com
Licensed in Louisiana