Mischa Angel, of Prudential Preferred Properties’ Bossier City office, is having the best year she’s ever had.“I believe the market is strong,” Angel said of residential home sales. “We’re busy, and we have a lot of buyers (who) are looking for houses.”
At the end of June 2006, Angel — who called herself aggressive in the real estate market — closed on 36 homes, she said. During the same time this year, she closed on 51 homes.
“We do have quite a few people come in from out of town, more than people realize,” making up 40 percent of her market, Angel said.
The rest are buyers who are scaling up or down. They include baby boomers downsizing to smaller houses and families moving to different neighborhoods.
Based on factors such as home prices and property taxes, the Shreveport-Bossier City area ranks No. 7 on the list of top cities for relocating families for small metros with populations of 350,000 to 575,000. Worldwide ERC and Primacy Relocation, a third-party employee relocation provider, released the list last month.
Prices appear to be holding steady for houses in the Shreveport-Bossier City area despite the presence of more available residential property than buyers, according to industry experts.
In the first quarter, the median price of a home in the Shreveport-Bossier City area was about $129,000, up about $200 from a year earlier, according to figures from the National Association of Realtors, a trade association that represents those involved in the residential and commercial real estate industries. Locals in the industry said the average home price in the area was about $148,000…
By Velda Hunter, The Times
