Arkansas home sales jumped more than 10 percent in June compared with June last year, the Arkansas Realtors Association said Friday.
Realtors sold 2,708 homes in June compared with 2,453 a year earlier. The average sales price in the 43 counties surveyed by the association was $164,227, down 1.9 percent from $167,455 in June 2013.
It was the best June for sales since 2007, said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
"That continues the trend of a steadily improving real estate market in the state," Pakko said.
The 10 percent improvement in sales in June is "quite good," said Marc Fusaro, an associate professor of economics at Arkansas Tech University in Russellville.
"And it is fairly consistent throughout the state," Fusaro said.
Sales for the second quarter -- April through June -- were the best for any quarter since the second quarter of 2010, when sales were amplified by tax credits the federal government offered to homebuyers, Pakko said.
There were 7,799 houses sold in the second quarter of this year, down about 1.5 percent from the 7,920 sold in the second quarter of 2010.
"It has been a long, slow slog to get back to that point [in 2010]," Pakko said. "But it's still impressive."
Home sales rose 6.3 percent through the first six months of the year, with 13,561 homes sold.
"That's a fine rate of increase, especially since there was a double-digit increase [for the first six months] last year," Pakko said.
Crittenden County in eastern Arkansas saw the highest rate of growth in home sales among counties with more than 50 closings. Sales rose 62.5 percent in June with 52 homes sold, up from 20 sales in June last year.
West Memphis had a strong showing in the most recent monthly Arkansas Tech Business Index, which shows the level of economic activity in 16 Arkansas cities, Fusaro said.
Crittenden County also has been consistently strong through the first six months of the year, improving about 10 percent over the first six months last year, Fusaro said.
"There certainly is some strength there," Fusaro said.
Crye-Leike Realtors is having a good year in Crittenden County as are other firms in the county, said Alton Appling, an agent with Crye-Leike in West Memphis.
"We're in close proximity to Memphis," Appling said. "Marion, where the county seat is, has grown a lot over the past several years. A large percentage of new home construction in Crittenden County is in the Marion School District."
Mortgage rates still are extremely low, said Scott McElmurry, chief executive officer of Bank of Little Rock Mortgage.
Interest rates for a 30-year- mortgage are about 4 percent or slightly higher, McElmurry said. For a 15-year mortgage, rates are about 3.25 percent to 3.375 percent, he said.
The spread between the two rates is larger than typical, McElmurry said. Normally, a 15-year mortgage is only about a half-percentage-point lower than a 30-year mortgage, he said.
"The 15-year mortgage has been very popular with refinancing," McElmurry said. "But now it's becoming more popular on the purchase side, too."
Monthly payments on a 15-year mortgage are often $300 to $400 higher than a 30-year mortgage, but now they are about $200 more, McElmurry said.
A section on 08/23/2014