BATON ROUGE, La. (BRPROUD)- Local realtors are explaining why during the new year we will have an increase in home prices due to inflation and a decline in home sales.

Home prices in Baton Rouge are predicted to increase by 7.1% next year. That’s due to an unexpected 5.1% decline in the number of closed sales, according to a recent Realtor.com report.

The owner and realtor for Pennant Real Estate, Leo Desselle says he wasn’t completely shocked by the predicted increase. However, he was shocked by the “sharp” increase and then a gradual one.

Desselle says, “The last couple of years have been crazy, as everyone knows, the real estate market, low-interest rates combined with low inventory, leads to the increase in price.”

The report states that “Nationally, home sales are expected to drop”, to the lowest sale numbers since 2012. Desselle says our market is different than what’s happening across the country. Many of the buyers are coming from California or New York. Where Desserel says “You can get a lot more for your money here, than in those places.”

Desselle explained how the real estate market has been increasing in average home sales each year. He says, “Right now, just on our general market, the average sales price, is $270,000 here in Baton Rouge.”

The average home price in Baton Rouge was $210,000 three years ago. Since the pandemic, the average has been breaking records each year.

Desselle adds “that’s a 60K increase, in just a few years, we haven’t seen anything like that since Katrina.”

Another Realtor with Coldwell Banker One, Matt Noel, says many realtors have been struggling to close a deal due to “supply and demand’ with homes.

Noel says “They don’t have a whole lot of options right now. I’m experiencing that and I know a lot of realtors experiencing that as well.

There are currently 2,400 hundred houses on the market in the Baton Rouge Area.

Noel says due to inflation, the new year could be a good time for sellers, rather than buyers. He states that “I would say in theory, and statistically, not necessarily a good time for buyers, I mean based on value, but still a great time for sellers to put houses on the market.”

Next year, could still be a good time to sell a home in Baton Rouge. However only if the seller can find a buyer willing to pay the expected fixed-term mortgage rate of 7.4%. The report says that the fixed rate could come down by the end of 2023 year.

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