BATON ROUGE- The number of houses sold in metro Baton Rouge rose 5.7 percent in August from a year ago despite a drop in activity in Livingston Parish.
    
In figures released Monday by the Greater Baton Rouge Association of Realtors' Multiple Listing Service, there were 914 homes sold in August in the nine-parish area. That compares with 865 sales in August 2014. This was the third month in a row sales have gone up year-to-year.
    
The Advocate reports (http://bit.ly/1NZaPf8) the median home sales price in the area rose by 4.1 percent in August to $185,306 from $178,010.