September 2022 Housing Market Update

 

This that a little bit of FALL that I feel this morning walking out of the house?  Traditionally this is a great time to start looking at your options if you want to have your family in a new home before the holidays! This is also typically when the market cools off a little as well from an activity point of view! 

I wanted to bring this edition of my monthly market reports as a SPECIAL edition and as a tribute to my dad who passed away on August 16th after being in the hospital and ICU for a combination of about a month. For those who didn't know, my dad was the first Director of the North Baton Rouge Economic Development district and the first African American to appear by himself on the cover of the Greater Baton Rouge Business Report! I wanted to dedicate this edition to my father! 😇🙏🏾


Number of Homes Available for Sale Comparision     

The chart above shows something that we rarely ever see and the only reason that you can seem to contribute the numbers to is the Covid-19 pandemic.  Generally in our market, even with an enormous natural disaster (see August 2005 - June 2006 on the chart) like Hurricane Katrina, you may have a year or so with a drop in inventory in the market. The thing that Covid has been able to strangely provide us with is a longer timeframe the number of homes available dropped. Back in '05, it took the market about a year to recover and "top out". With the fact that the market has taken twice as long to bottom out compared to other times of uncertainty, I believe it will be a two-year period of time that it will take for the market to peak again as far as finding a peak or plateau to get back into a balanced between buyers and sellers.

 

Median Number of Days on the Market

 

I wanted to slightly change things up for this chart instead of showing you my favorite stat of months of inventory, I've decided to give you insight into the median number of days that a home is staying on the market. Now I want you to understand that a 20-40 day timeframe is what I generally would consider as describing a balanced market. Even with the increase in interest rates, and the number of homes on the market increasing to provide buyers with more inventory and options, the timeframe that a home is staying on the market is still considerably low compared to a normal and balanced market. I think this is probably one of the most telling stats that we can use to tell how much of a slowdown the market is having whenever buyers. Another thing that I've been harping on for OVER A YEAR is the notion that the market is going to slow down considerably and crash which people have been predicting for some time since Covid started. If you look at the data and numbers, as I have for some time, that will not be the case. Our market, unlike many others in the nation, is on the lower value side. Even if a house is peaking at $250k for example, the drop in price for that home won't be tens of thousands of dollars if and when the market does have a heavy correction.


 

Median Sales Price in Each Parish

This chart shows the biggest reason why I've been so assured that a major market crash of foreclosures wasn't going to happen. Not only is our government putting major pressure on the financial lending institutions to make sure that we don't have the humiliation of the financial crisis of 2008 happen again, but unlike that period of time, the value of homes has increased greatly. Having that additional equity has allowed many people who may have been in a tough spot given the pandemic options to better control their finances and ultimately maintain so that they have been able to avoid having to go through the foreclosure option.
 

To wrap up this market report that is dedicated to my father Rinaldi Jacobs Sr., I wanted to thank all of the people who have called, texted, emailed and messaged my family and I asking about ways to help. I have been extremely appreciative of the outreach and interest in our well-being. I can also tell you that some of the things that have given me a considerable amount of comfort are all the resolutions and words of encouragement from the Mayor-President of East Baton Rouge Parish, to the senators and members of the house of representative members, to the friends of our family. I truly am grateful and appreciative of every single one of you.

 

As always, I want to make you aware that I've created a special website section where you can view interactive charts of historical data for the Greater Baton Rouge real estate market! I'm continuously striving to raise the bar for REALTORS® by providing quality communication, and great customer service, combined with valuable information, data, and statistics for anyone who needs it! The charts and graphs in our Market Data Center are always live and updated automatically monthly. You can see the real stats for what's going on in the Greater Baton Rouge 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!

If you would like to get in touch with me please feel free to text me (225) 330-7059 or you can schedule an initial consultation call HERE!

Please wear your mask and stay safe,
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