www.rustonleader.com/news.php?id=3441 -
[Cached Version]
Published on: 1/1/2007
Last Visited: 1/3/2008
And the outlook for 2008 seems just as good, said Dicky Nealy, owner and president of ERA Lincoln Realty.
"The year 2007 reflected solid growth for the real estate industry in our neck of the woods.The obvious commercial and economic development in our area leads me to believe the 2008 market is going to be just as strong and aggressive as the 2007 market," he said.
The Ruston market has a history of remaining healthy, said Warren Post, vice president of mortgage loans for the Bank of Ruston.
"We're in a unique situation in that our community generally doesn't reflect what goes on nationally," he said."We're very fortunate in that.
...
Nealy attributes the discrepancies in those numbers to the stability of the Ruston market."It's because we're still a small community; our supply and demand for housing, new construction and existing property is pretty stable," he said."We have an equal buyer-seller, supply- and demand-market."
A more stable market results in higher average home prices, he said."Buying here may be slightly higher on average, but there's still a good appreciation rate here you may not get buying in a cheaper market," Nealy said.
Information analyzed by ERA Lincoln Realty over eight years shows a growth in residential real estate values in the Ruston/Lincoln Parish area of more than 8.5 percent per year.The Monroe and Shreveport areas have more industry and economic factors that can affect the real estate market, Nealy explained.
For example, the closing of the State Farm office in Monroe in 2004 had a negative impact on the overall economic condition of that market."Our home prices are slightly higher mainly because we've had stable growth and we haven't had any downturns," he said.
Another factor in the real estate market's 5 percent jump in sales over 2006, according to Nealy, are the local lenders' stable mortgage practices.
"Because of our stable mortgage lending practices, the much hyped sub-prime mortgage debacle has had little to no effect on our local economies and mortgage lenders," he said.Post and Nealy both said it's important for prospective homebuyers to sit down with a lender in a face-to-face meeting.