Source: Wikipedia.
New Orleans is one of the few major cities in the country that’s not currently experiencing a seller’s market. Inventory may be falling in the city but prices are going down too so it’s actually quite a level playing field for both buyers and sellers. If buyers can move quickly on a home they like they could get themselves a good deal, while sellers should be accepting reasonable offers.
New Orleans Defies the Norm
New Orleans seems to be defying the norm when it comes to inventory and median list price. Whereas most cities in the country are seeing a huge drop in inventory and a fairly substantial rise in median list price, New Orleans is not. There are definitely fewer homes on the market but this isn’t having the same effect as we’re seeing elsewhere – prices are actually remaining low in New Orleans, and over the past couple of months have been at some of their lowest in five years.
The current median list price is $153,300 which is 3 percent less than it was this time last year when the median was $157,900. Today’s figure is a very slight increase from last month’s median list price of $152,900 (less than 1 percent change). A slight change like this from last year’s median isn’t exactly big news, but the fact that inventory is falling and prices aren’t rising is strange.
Total inventory in New Orleans is 23 percent down from last year when there were 1,833 homes listed for sale. Today there are only 1,405 and this is a 2 percent drop from this time last month when there were 1,430 homes listed. This is following a trend that New Orleans has been seeing over the past five years and inventory is now at its lowest point in five years.
Median price per square foot has also gone down, by 7 percent from last year. Then the figure was $92 per square foot, while today it’s $86 which is a further 1 percent drop from last month’s figure of $87 per square foot.
Listings Are Selling Faster
The only way that New Orleans seems to be keeping up with the rest of the nation is with its median days on market. With inventory falling, you would expect homes that are listed to sell faster, and that’s exactly what’s happening. Even so, the change isn’t that dramatic – last year median days on market was 92 whereas today it’s 85 – that’s just an 8 percent drop and in fact today’s figure is a 5 percent increase from last month when median DOM was 81.
We need to go back a couple months to see the real change in median days on market in New Orleans. In the period from end of January to end of March the median suddenly plummeted from 112 to 86, so now those figures are actually just evening-out a little. So is New Orleans seeing a buyer’s or a seller’s market right now? Well, with prices falling and inventory falling this is one of the only major cities in the country to be on the cusp it’s neither a buyer’s nor a seller’s market really!
Louisiana Mortgage Rates on Par With National
There haven’t been any big surprises in mortgage rates in Louisiana, where the rates have been fairly accurately mirroring the national averages. From their low point at the beginning of May rates have been steadily rising and actually saw a slight drop towards the end of this week. Currently the Louisiana mortgage rates remain stable at 3.87 percent which is just 1 basis point higher than the national average of 3.86 percent.
