LAFAYETTE, La. (AP) — Home sales in March set a record for the month, and sales for the first quarter of the year are running more than 30 percent higher than the same period a year ago, according to data gathered by local real estate firms.
The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/Xu9Iu1) that home prices also are rising, with the media sale price climbing from $164,600 in the first quarter of 2012 to $173,950 in the first three months of 2013.
That’s an increase of 5.7 percent, according to a market analysis by Van Eaton & Romero Chief Executive Officer Bill Bacqué.
Bacqué said it appears likely the upward trend will continue at least the next couple of months, based on the number of pending home sales.
Bacqué said the 262 reported home sales in Lafayette Parish for this March are the highest for that month since he began tracking sales in 1990.
The figures for this year are similar to the record housing market of 2007, just before the national housing market crashed.
Local sales and home prices lagged for a few years before picking up steam again last year.
Bacqué said he believes Lafayette’s current housing market is fueled in part by historically low mortgage interest rates and in part by home buyers who are confident in the Acadiana economy.
“Their jobs are stable. Their paychecks are good,” he said.
Bacqué said the sales figures for the first quarter of 2013 indicate buyers are showing a strong interest in new homes.
“They are blowing and going in new construction,” he said.
Of the 676 homes sold from January through March of this year, 217 were new homes, a 53 percent increase over the same period last year, according to Bacqué.
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Information from: The Advocate, http://theadvocate.com
