Home sales in Baton Rouge up 21% in April

From the Baton Rouge Business Report With 616 sales recorded as of this morning, 20.8% more homes were sold in April across the eight-parish region tracked by the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors compared to the same month a year ago, GBRAR reports. Last April, a total of 510 home sales were recorded. East Baton Rouge, Ascension, Livingston and the five other parishes lumped into GBRAR's "other" statistical category—West Baton Rouge, Iberville, East Feliciana, West Feliciana and Pointe Coupee parishes—all posted year-over-year sales increases. The average sales price, however, continued a downward year-over-year trend in April, decreasing about 4.3% to $188,441, compared to $196,877 in April 2011. Nonetheless, the increase in overall sales pushed total volume up 15.5% to $409.9 million on the month. A strong April builds on first-quarter figures in 2012 that were the best since 2008. Year-to-date, total sales now stand at 2,213, up 18.2% over the 1,873 sales recorded through April last year. For historical comparison, 2,128 homes were sold through April in 2010, while 2,003 were sold over the four-month period in 2009 and 2,535 in the same period of 2008. You can check out the complete sales report from GBRAR here.