Repairing the Housing Market
While Baton Rouge has a high number of vacant dwellings, a large number aren't ready for residents... yet
Housing in Baton Rouge has been a point of focus not only here at BR By the Numbers, but also by a number of local media outlets (WAFB, BR Proud, Baton Rouge Business Report). The Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors’ (GBRAR) March 2022 monthly indicator report points to some worrisome trends in our region’s housing market. From March 2021 to March 2022, the number of homes for sale fell 44% and, subsequently, homes are 18% less affordable now than they were just a year ago.
Vacant housing units represent an important component to a region’s housing stock. Nationally, 11.6% of all housing units – which includes both homes for rent and purchase – are vacant. “Vacant” indicates that a housing unit is unoccupied. Some vacant housing units, such as seasonal homes, unoccupied rental units targeted to college students, and short-term rental properties may be in good condition and are only considered “vacant” because neither a homeowner nor a renter occupies the property full-time, or the property is unoccupied at the time of the survey/interview. In other cases, vacant housing units are unoccupied because they need updates or are somehow uninhabitable. Vacant homes in this category can represent both cheaper and quicker opportunities to bring additional housing stock back into the region than new residential construction.
In order to better understand the vacant housing unit landscape across Baton Rouge, this brief takes a deep dive into Census data to help us understand what’s going on with Baton Rouge’s unoccupied housing units.
Vacant Baton Rouge
Vacancy rates across the Baton Rouge Metro are, well, high. According to American Community Survey 2020 five-year estimates, the vacancy rate in Baton Rouge is nearly 4% higher than the national average, and at least 2% higher than all our peer metros.
In 2020, there were an estimated 56,868 vacant housing units across the Baton Rouge Metro. About 30,500 of those were in East Baton Rouge; Ascension and Livingston combined for another 13,300. The Census Bureau breaks down vacant housing into seven categories:
For migrant workers
Rented, not occupied
Sold, not occupied
For sale only
For rent
For seasonal, recreational, or occasional use
Other vacant
In Baton Rouge, categories 5-7 above were estimated to account for nearly 86% of all vacancies in 2020, with “Other vacant” cited the most often at 49% of all vacant units.
Thanks to data available from the Current Population Survey / Housing Vacancy Survey, we can glean a little more information about “Other vacant” housing units. While the data below are determined at the national level, they can be useful for estimating local conditions. In Q4 2021, 29% of housing units listed as “Other vacant” were not occupied because of personal/family reasons.
While “Personal/family reasons'' is still ambiguous, “Needs repairs” and “Being repaired” paint a clearer picture. If the breakdown from this national estimate were applied to the estimates of vacant units across Baton Rouge, that would project to 8,917 housing units across the Metro are vacant because they either need repairs or are being repaired, with 4,782 in EBR alone. This would mean the number of homes that are either being brought back into a livable condition, or that could be brought to such a condition through remodeling, would be about eight times the metro area’s current inventory of homes of about 1,100.
More like Vacation Baton Rouge
Separating the number of vacant units by census tract paints an even clearer picture of the vacant housing landscape in Baton Rouge. Within EBR, a significant number of vacant units can be found around LSU. Another cluster of vacant homes can be found in Livingston’s southeast corner. High numbers of vacant units can also be found at the intersection of East Baton Rouge/East Feliciana/St. Helena, east of False River in Pointe Coupee, and in the Denham Springs area.
The map above displays only the quantity of vacancies, not the type. Drilling even deeper into these areas of high vacancies can give us a better sense of the types of vacancies prevalent across the region.
What’s clear is that many of the regional pockets with the highest concentration of vacant units serve strong recreational purposes. False River, Amite River, Tickfaw River, and many of the associated bayous seem to provide ample opportunities for seasonal and recreational housing as indicated by the high percentages shown above. Around LSU, it’s likely fans and alumni hold seasonal apartments or homes meant for use during football seasons or other occasions on which they’d like to visit the state’s flagship university. A notable part of the higher vacancy rate in the metro area is due to the high number of recreation options in the Capital Region, namely abundant outdoor activities, as well as many popular teams at the state’s flagship higher education institution.
At the intersection of East Baton Rouge/East Feliciana/St. Helena, however, 80% of housing units are included in the “Other vacant” category, pointing to a high number of homes in this area that may need repairs, are being repaired, or are vacant due to the ambiguous “family/personal reasons” mentioned earlier.
The vertical strip of high vacancies straddling East Baton Rouge/Livingston may point towards the lasting impacts of the 2016 flooding across the region. 60% of vacant units in this area are classified under “Other vacant” with another 21% listed for rent. Notably, the census tracts west of the Amite River, which are in East Baton Rouge, have considerably lower vacancy rates than the census tracts immediately east of the Amite, which are in Livingston. While this brief won’t dive into the reasons behind these differences in vacancy rates, they’re interesting and may be worth a future analysis.
Final Thoughts
While some of the areas with the highest concentration of vacancies are likely due to recreation, others with a moderately high concentration (shaded grey on the map above) are in neighborhoods that have experienced significant disinvestment, making it more likely that the vacant homes there fall into the “needs repairs” and “being repaired” categories. Examples include census tracts in Pointe Coupee, East Feliciana, and areas around the Zion City and Merrydale neighborhoods in East Baton Rouge, among others.
As BRAC has highlighted several times in this Substack, housing issues quickly become talent issues. Rather than focus solely on new construction, regional leaders should take an all-of-the-above approach regarding increasing the housing supply, which would incorporate renovating existing homes and placing them back into commerce. Work to revitalize neighborhoods that have experienced disinvestment is crucial not just to avoiding a housing crisis, but also in raising the quality of place in Baton Rouge generally.