Housing Market Baton Rouge

It is surprising to me that BR can sustain such high housing prices with the relatively small white collar job market here. People are willing to pay to move away from the ghetto.

Whenever the time comes, I want a modest house with a small backyard for a dog, kids to play, grill. Not have to drive 45 minutes daily through shitastic traffic from the burbs.

To do this though it would seem that I must completely turn a blind eye and hope for the best with regards to my retirement, or education of children, or other things of actual value and just take on a mountain of stress and debt.

The weird thing is that I actually make decent money but, I can also add, and it is not near enough. Either I don't make decent money, or everyone else cannot add and have no regard for their retirement or sanity.

Does anyone forsee a time of a major correction in housing prices or is the value pretty fairly priced?

It's all about supply and demand. The better areas house prices will stay high because everyone wants to live there. The closer to North Baton Rouge will continue to see a decrease in prices most likely. For example, I would expect Broadmoor prices to continue to drop even though they have some really nice houses in there.

I think the market is inflated from post Katrina changes and the flood a few years ago. It drove the already desirable, non flooding locations up even further. CCL and Bocage are incredibly expensive and the area on Pikes lane and burden lane are crazy expensive. The lakes area and south downs are pricy as well. I think prices will plateau since the interest rates are rising but I don’t think they will fall unless there is a significant market downturn. That being said, most people who live in these wealthy areas will likely hold onto their property until prices come back up because most don’t have to move.

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prices are leveling off this year. Baton Rouge's problem was the lack of inventory over the last few years but with the large amount of houses being built the market is cooling off.

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There are very few houses being built in desirable areas simply due to the lack of vacant land. You can expect to pay $200K and up for one of the few vacant lots. In areas like Southdowns, University Gardens, Hundred Oaks, Capital heights, Magnolia Woods etc, houses Priced at 200K or less are becoming teardowns for the property.

Just off of Hooshootoo in BR has gone up significantly. Feels like you live in Prairieville but still close enough to everything in BR. There is currently 4-5 new developments going up on hooshootoo with lots going from 150k for small lot to 500k for acre lots.

Just an opinion but I think prices will remain high as long as the oil and gas/petrochemical/agrochemical and industrial sector in general remains in good shape. A lot of these companies have expansion projects coming up as well. Obviously rising interest rates may hamper the appreciation of these properties some. However, since most homeowners are locked into mortgages with very low interest rates, they will be less likely to sell and take on another mortgage with a higher interest rates. I think the lack of inventory will buoy prices as the interest rates rise. That's not to say that you can't find good deals. For me, the key was focusing in on the neighborhoods that I liked and had my realtor contact me as soon as a home came up on the hotsheet. That was located in one of the neighborhoods that I was interested in.

Yeah it is a little nuts.
NOLA is the same way. Makes no sense at all what the housing market is doing