Northwest Arkansas Homes Sales Steady

Northwest Arkansas' residential real estate market looks much like it did a year ago.

Real estate agents sold 722 homes last month, down four homes from July 2013, according to MountData, a real estate marketing firm. The total value of homes sold in July in Benton and Washington counties was $144.1 million, up almost 3 percent from a year earlier.

The median sales price of home sales in Benton and Washington counties increased to $160,000, up from $158,000 in July 2013, pushing the sales total up, said Paul Bynum, owner and director of MountData.

"I think we are on track for a good year," Bynum said. "Will we beat last year? Maybe, but right now it is too close to call."

Todd White, senior vice president of national production at Gateway Mortgage Group, said the Northwest Arkansas market is showing a little inconsistency, being up one month and down the next, but is strong overall. Gateway is a privately held mortgage company with offices in Rogers and Springdale.

"Despite the slight swings, June and July were our two best months in terms of production," he said. He declined to provide sales figures. "We've had a really good summer and seen applications pick up."

One development that could hurt sales is the shrinking area of Northwest Arkansas eligible for rural development loans. The U.S. Department of Agriculture's Rural Development housing program backs home loans to people in rural areas making 115 percent or less of their area's median income. The loans require no down payment.

The 2014 federal Farm Bill makes areas with a population of up to 35,000 and rural in character eligible for the loans. The eligibility maps haven't been updated since 2000, and many areas considered rural will no longer be eligible for the financing after maps are implemented Oct. 1.

The population in Benton and Washington counties grew 46 percent since 2000, from 311,121 to 453,707 in 2013, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The new maps will extend ineligible areas as far west as Centerton and east as Little Flock

Potential home buyers can still get a rural development loan in an area that will soon be ineligible by having a USDA-approved lender submit a full application package to the department's state office by close of business Sept. 29. Applications received after that date will be considered under the new map.

"Those loans are tailored to a specific group of people and shrinking the eligible area will mean fewer options for those people," White said.

An encouraging sign is how overall lending guidelines have eased a bit compared with the past few years, he said.

"When the market was roaring hot the pendulum swung way too far one way. Then after the recession hit, it swung the other way," White said. "Now I hope it stays at some point in the middle."

Foreclosures are another aspect of the housing market that have leveled out.

RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties, reports foreclosures dropped more than 70 percent in both Benton and Washington counties between July 2013 and last month.

Benton County had 35 homes in some stage of foreclosure; Washington County had 18 homes in the foreclosure pipeline.

"July was the 46th consecutive month where U.S. foreclosure activity was down on a year-over-year basis," Daren Blomquist, RealtyTrac vice president, said in his monthly report. "After nearly four years of falling foreclosures, we are starting to see evidence that foreclosure numbers are normalizing at the national level."

Foreclosures increased dramatically during the recession of 2007-2009 and peaked in the two-county area at 1,039 in July 2009.