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It was a good year in the Baton Rouge-area high-end residential real estate market in 2024. So good that this year’s publicly recorded most expensive home sale was for $6.75 million, nearly 70% higher than last year’s top transaction of $4 million.
But 2024 didn’t come without its obstacles, notes Quita Cutrer of Burns & Co.
“I think everything was much harder because it was an election year … and the uncertainty around the interest rates,” she says. “Insurance was our biggest problem, with all the insurance companies leaving the state. We had a lot of little obstacles last year that we didn’t have the year before.”
One trend Cutrer noticed was the increase in off-market sales. She says she had four such sales last year, ranging from $1.6 million to $3 million. One reason for a spike in off-market activity is the lack of inventory. Agents were looking elsewhere besides the MLS.
“Sometimes you were calling people that had indicated to you in the past they were willing to sell their home,” she says.
Cutrer adds that the trend appears to be continuing into this year, although the early part of every year is often slow. Most people looking to sell their homes put them on the market in the spring.
Jerry del Rio of Del Rio Real Estate Inc. agrees.
“Homes are going on the market, but they’re not really moving,” Del Rio says. “In the spring, I expect things to change and the market to improve with the upper end. We’re planning a luxury tour in one area of town, anything above $1.5 million. That shows you the agents are trying to move them.”
Both professionals are optimistic about the market for 2025.
“I think people are more optimistic this year that we don’t have a pandemic or a lot of negative [things] going on,” Cutrer says. “I also think that we’ll get more inventory on the market, and that way, you’ll have competition.”
