Nikki Calmes, with Keller Williams Realty, has a new really nice listing in Watson Denham Springs. This 1.5 story home offers 2,230+/- living area, 4 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms on a 70′x 140′ fenced lot.

Nikki says, “Make this home in desirable Lakes at Belle Terre subdivision YOURS! This home has 3 bedrooms PLUS extra bonus room and gives plenty of space! The home offers a grand entrance into the spacious den featuring a corner fireplace and a fabulous wall of windows looking out to the patio. Living room leads to large open kitchen that features lots of cabinets and countertop space with granite breakfast bar! Enjoy the view of the large backyard while sitting in the dining area. This home also has tons of storage space including a huge laundry room with a storage closet inside. Master bedroom features vaulted ceilings, storage closet, and has a side entrance to the patio. Master bathroom offers his and hers vanities, walk in closet, a deep corner jacuzzi tub for relaxing and a seperate shower area. There is also a huge two car garage and extra storage in the back of the home. The fourth bedroom/bonus room upstairs is currently being enjoyed as a game room. Warm, neutral paint colors throughout the home. Schedule a private showing today. This home is a MUST SEE!

See this home and other listings by Nikki Calmes at Denham Springs Homes For Sale!

Tags: denham springs homes, denham springs homes for sale, denham springs houses, denham springs housing, Denham Springs Real Estate, denham springs real estate agents, denham springs realtor, denham springs realtors

Description From YouTube:

“26041 Stonehenge Dr Denham Springs, LA Sterling Hall Emerge Properties of LA http://www.realestatebook.com/homes/l… The last new construction home available in this awesome subdivision Westminster in Denham Springs, the Vincent floorplan is amazing! Featuring 1863 square feet with 3 bedrooms/ 2 bathrooms and a bonus room! Walk in and you’ll notice the awesome bonus room to your right that can be used as a playroom, an office, a workout room, or even a formal dining room. The windows in the bonus room are a great architectural feature! The awesome kitchen is the heart of the home and in this house you know it! Featuring an island, dark stained varied height cabinetry, and new black GE appliances the kitchen overlooks the dining area and also has a huge bar for even more seatingit’s perfect for entertaining! The kitchen/ dining/ living room areas are open but separated enough to define each space as it’s own. You’ll find many fantastic nooks and archways throughout this amazing floorplan giving fantastic architectural detail! This is a great split floorplan with great sized bedrooms and closets. The master suite has an awesome bath with dual sinks, garden tub, separate shower, linen closet, and amazing walk-in master closet. There’s also great storage throughout and the laundry room is located just off the garage! On top of all of the wonderful features of this amazing home, the seller will give you up to $4,000 towards closing costs and pre-paids if you use a preferred lender and title company! Call today for your private showing!”

Solds In Beau Chene Subdivision Denham Springs from 1/2010 to 12/8/2010 revealed:
Average Sales Price: $120,000, An REO Foreclosure ($140,300 in 2009)
Average Sold Price Per Sq. Ft.: $101/sf ($113/sf in 2009)
Median Sold Price: $120,000 ($139,900 in 2009)
Number of Sales: 1 (3 in 2009)
Average Number of Days On Market: 33 (82 Days in 2009)
Low To High: $120,000 ($138,000 to $145,000 in 2009)
Number of Sold REO/Foreclosures Noted In MLS: 1.
Current # Listings: 7, 0 Are Foreclosures.
Current Listings Prices: $138,900 To $146,625

Overall, there have been no market sales in Beau Chene in 2010, which is odd for this “bread-and-butter” type housing development. This trend reflects the broad market where there has been a major slowdown in home sales post federal tax credit expiration.

WOW! Seven (7) Active Listings and NO PENDINGS is a lot of Listings in this smaller subdivision. And, I know why none of these 7 listings are currently Pending or Under Contract! Here’s what I don’t understand. THIS IS A WEAKER MARKET IN 2010 AND NATIONALLY! It’s a buyer’s market for sure. The 2009 support level was at $113/sf in this subdivision. Yet ALL 7 listings priced above 2009 support from $115/sf up to $123/sf in this weaker market? I often wonder why homes are listed above support, in a known weaker buyer’s market.

NOTE: Based on information from the Greater Baton Rouge Association of REALTORS®\MLS for the period of January 1, 2009 to December 8, 2010. This information was extracted on 12/08/2010.

Each Saturday, the NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF REALTORS® hosts the “Real Estate Today Radio” show with award-winning broadcaster, Gil Gross. The “About” section says:

“Real Estate Today opens doors for buyers and sellers with critical and credible information on the real estate market. It’s fast paced and fact packed with experts, interviews, call-ins, field reports, and timely market conditions.

On radio stations, satellite, and podcasts… even cell phones, Real Estate Today is your instant connection to the American Dream of home ownership.”

The Blog for this show is located at http://www.retradio.com/blog/ .

Today’s show covers the topics listed below:

Listen to today’s show, click the play button below!

If you’ve driven through the PCC Homebuilders and/or DR Horton Developments around Denham Springs, it’s likely that you’ve seen homes just like the one above with the garage converted to living area. As I drive through these developments for home appraisals, it seems like it makes sense to convert into this manner because a lot of these residents use their garages for storage and don’t park their autos in the garages. BUT, Is this a wise investment in terms of re-sale?

Continued. Let’s investigate here! This home was built new in 2002 and sold with 1,751sf. From the interior photos, the living conversion appears to have been completed “properly” to where this addition area was counted as living area, ie., the slab was raised to original home sale height, the flooring matches flooring in home, walls are sheetrock, decor is similar to original home and the central heat/air was upgraded for this additional 360sf to 400sf. There doesn’t appear to be a window unit in this living area.

Continued. After the “proper” conversion, this home has 2,131sf living area and recently sold for $164,900 or $77.38/sf in June of 2010. NOTE: It took over 295 days or approx. 10 months on the market to sell this home because the listing price began at $189,900 and was reduced to $178,900, $174,900, $171,900, $168,900 and finally $162,900. Apparently, the sellers had quite a sum invested into this home with the “proper” living area conversion cost. While the actual cost of the enclosure isn’t known, an estimate is somewhere in the $6,000 to $8,000 range.

Continued. I did some research of similar quality homes in similar developments noted in the title of homes in the 1675sf to 1775sf range and found an approximate value of $154,900 for a similar 1,751sf home. By this home in the photos selling for $164,900, this leaves a $10,000 spread. If the cost for the conversion was $8,000, then the seller might have either broke even or profited by $2,000, which may or may not have been worth the effort. NOTE: This appraiser could only find 2 examples of home re-sales with a similar conversion.

Continued. This South Point home with a similar conversion sold in elevated Post Hurricane Katrina era of 2007 for $167,500, when the market was stronger. This home originally had 1,613sf and sold with 2,010sf.

Continued. I did some research of similar quality homes in similar developments noted in the title of homes in the 1580sf to 1700sf range and found an approximate value of $148,000 for a similar 1,613sf home in that era of time. By this home in the photos selling for $167,500, this left a $19,500 spread, which indicates seller made a good profit. However, this was a different housing market back then in 2007.

Conclusion. Based on these two examples above, it appears that “properly” converting your garage to living area has resulted the sellers at least selling for enough to cover their cost and possibly even making a little extra for their effort.

Bill Cobb, Appraiser

AUGUST 8/1/2010 to 8/31/2010: Only 1 GBRMLS Sale. 12309 Pinebrook Dr, with 1,620sf sold for $144,000 or $88.89/sf.

YEAR-TO-DATE SOLDS:

Solds In Woodland Crossing from 1/1/2010 to 8/31/2010 revealed:
Average Sales Price: $149,057
Average Sold Price Per Sq. Ft.: $93.80 (Avg through 8/09 $90.74)
Median Sold Price: $147,535
Number of Sales: 40
Average Days On Market: 94
Low To High: $118,900 to $210,000
Number of Sold REO/Foreclosures Noted In MLS: 2

NUMBER OF SALES IN 2010 VERSUS 2009: -15% Decline

In The Number Of Sales From 1/1/09 – 8/31/09 to 1/1/10 – 8/31/10. In 2009 there were 47 sales at this point and in 2010 there have been 40 sales. So, there are 7 less sales or -15% in home sales volume.

CURRENT LISTINGS AS OF 9/8/2010:

Current # GBRMLS Listings: 42, 4 REO/Foreclosure Listing
Current Listings Prices: $115,900 To $199,900, Average $89/sf.

NOTE: Data Used With Permission of the GBRAR GBRMLS. Data was extracted on 9/8/2010 from periods 1/1/2010 through 9/8/2010.

Click Below To Enlarge The Numbers!

To Read The LBOR 2010 Newletters, Click Below!

This morning, “The Guys” from TBWS reported existing home sale fell 27.2%, the lowest number of sales since 1968, see the video below.

The Baton Rouge Business Report is reporting on a National Assocation of Realtors housing study and I quote: “Sales of previously occupied homes fell to the lowest level in 15 years last month as the economy weakened. The National Association of Realtors says July’s sales fell by more than 27% to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 3.83 million. It was the largest monthly drop on records dating back to 1968. June’s sales pace was revised downward to 5.26 million. Home sales picked up in the spring when the government was offering tax credits. But the market has struggled since the tax credits expired on April 30. It would take 12.5 months to sell off the 4 million unsold homes on the market at the current sales pace. The median sale price was $182,600, up 0.7 percent from a year ago.” I have included three charts below from Mortgage News Daily’s July Existing Home Sales: Recap and Charts to help put this in perspective. I then discuss the local Baton Rouge Housing Market Numbers.

While the NAR study covers the entire U.S., how do the local Western Livingston Parish housing sales numbers compare? By Western Livingston Parish, I’m defining Denham Springs, Watson and Walker, MLS Areas 81, 82 and 83, the more active portion of Livingston Parish. The answer is that I see Western Livingston bucking the national trend. Within the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors data extracted from 1999 through August 25, 2010, covering almost 12 total years, the lowest yearly rate of home sales was in 1999 with 759. As of 8/25/2010, there have been 654 home sales. If this pace of home sales continues, 2010 projections will be approximately 980 sales, which would conclude a healty housing market.

The chart below, extracted from data from the GBRMLS on August 20, 2010, shows that the median sales price in MLS Area 81, Denham Springs north of Interstate 12, has continued to remain stable to increasing slightly. The chart actually shows an increase in median sales price from 8/2009 to 8/2010 of +3.49%. The chart also shows a fairly low 7.4% REO or Foreclosure Rate for this market as well, 235 foreclosures out of 3,175 homes sales since 1/1/2004.

HOWEVER

I want to responsibly point out that just because the NATIONAL “number” of home sales have been declining in 2010 doesn’t mean the LOCAL “housing prices” are equally declining significantly! And, this is an important point. As a home appraiser, the one thing I hear from local homeowners is a misunderstanding of the local market. They say things to me like, “I know this is a horrible time to be refinancing and getting an appraisal with the housing market the way it is, but we just couldn’t pass up the low mortgage rate”. I hear this constantly from locals and you can’t watch the national news and apply that to our local market. Linda Fredericks, former President of the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors, is correct when she delivered the message that housing marketings are “local” and you can’t apply the national news headlines to a one size fits all local housing market!

Take The Baton Rouge Business ReportPoll: When will the U.S. housing market recover? So far results are:

NOTE: Data Used With Permission of the GBRAR MLS. Data was extracted on 8/25/2010 from periods 1/1/2009 through 8/25/2010.

Tags: Western Livingston Parish, Denham Springs Housing Study, Denham Springs Real Estate, Watson Louisiana Housing Study, Walker Louisiana Housing Study

The Baton Rouge Business Report Daily PM Report is report a Capital Region home sales plunge of 21% in July 2010. “The number of homes sold in metro Baton Rouge fell by 21% in July compared with the year before, as the market corrected itself after being bolstered by the federal homebuyer tax credit. There were 523 homes in the Capital Region sold in July, compared with 665 sales in July 2009, according to figures from the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors Multiple Listing Service. An $8,000 tax credit for homebuyers expired earlier this year, and transactions had to be under contract at the end of April to qualify for the money. That led to Capital Region home sales posting 21% and 28% increases in April and May over last year. The average sale price in July was $197,076, down from the $203,735 average in July 2009. Sales were down nearly 31% in Ascension Parish in July, from 111 in 2009 to 77. Livingston Parish saw a 25% drop, from 114 homes changing hands to 85. In East Baton Rouge, there was a 24% drop in home sales, from 414 to 313. The other category, which includes MLS sales in West Baton Rouge, Iberville and the Feliciana parishes, actually saw an 85% increase, from 26 to 48. Through the first seven months of the year, home sales continued to run slightly ahead of the 2009 pace. There were 4,107 homes sold through the end of July, up 3% from the 3,985 sales total at the end of July 2009.”