Business News

2014: Biggest year ever for Lafayette real estate market

For the real estate market in Lafayette Parish, 2014 has proven a record-breaking year.

In his monthly blog, Coldwell Banker Pelican Real Estate COO Steven Hebert writes that 2014 is a “best-ever year in real estate” for the parish, eclipsing last year’s record of $674 million.

Hebert writes that this year is projected to close out with 3,300 homes sold at about $710 million — a 29 percent increase from 2013, which also was a record setting year, breaking a previous record of $548 million set in 2007.

“This level of sales has sustained for just about three years now, so it is no fluke,” writes Hebert. “Much of the reason for our real estate run-up is certainly the new home market. New home construction has shot up over the last three years, aided by the presence of national home builders that can and have quickly added competitively priced inventory to satisfy the widespread demand for new housing. New construction sales this year alone are up 23 percent through November, compared to 2013, and will also set a new record for 2014.”

Yet, with the recent sudden drop in oil prices — going from a high of $114 in June down to about $66 this month — could this be the end of Lafayette Parish’s upward real estate trend?

According to Hebert, there will be an impact, but how much of one is still hard to say.

“I have read and heard many different interpretations of how this will affect us, but the only thing I can say at this point is that it certainly will,” he writes.

For more, check out Hebert’s blog here.