Homes Sales Up Last Month; On Track To Beat 2013 Numbers

Local home sales are on pace to finish this year ahead of 2013.

Benton and Washington county home sales jumped to 690 in October, up from 591 a year earlier, according to MountData, a real estate marketing firm.

The 6,197 homes sold this year is slightly less than the 6,227 sold through the first 10 months of 2013, but Paul Bynum, MountData's owner and director, said pending sales are up and should boost November numbers.

"My prediction: We are going to finish ahead of last year," he said. "It's a last-minute rally."

There were 583 pending sales last month compared with 512 in October 2013.

The accumulated home sales this year have run just slightly below 2013 numbers. October sales provided the year's biggest bump over last year; August had the biggest drop.

Stephen Brooks, a real estate consultant with Keller Williams in Fayetteville, is happy the market is doing well. He moved to Fayetteville with his wife, Kimberlee, 16 months ago.

"When I decided I was going to be a Realtor we started doing research on where we wanted to move," he said. "We had some things we were looking for and Fayetteville kept coming up on our list."

He pointed to outdoor activities, the size of the community, cost of living, the economy and the real estate market as driving factors that led the couple to Fayetteville.

"We didn't know one person when we moved here," Brooks said. He also didn't have a job yet. He was in contact with Keller Williams before the move but didn't make a commitment with them until the family was settled in.

Bynum said there are more people out looking for homes this year, helping move homes quickly.

"It looks like people are responding to an improving market," he said.

The median sales price was also up sharply from last year, hitting $158,500 compared with $142,940.

One bump in the real estate market last month was foreclosures. There were 74 Benton County homes and 29 Washington County homes in the foreclosures pipeline last month, according to RealtyTrac, an online marketplace for foreclosure properties. Only 18 homes in the two counties were in the foreclosure process in September.

Foreclosures peaked in the two-county area at 1,039 in July 2009.

RealtyTrac reports that foreclosure activity increased 15 percent nationwide between September and October.

"The October foreclosure numbers are not a complete surprise given that over the past three years there has been an average 8 percent monthly uptick in scheduled foreclosure auctions in October as banks try to get ahead of the usual holiday foreclosure moratoriums," Daren Blomquist, vice president at RealtyTrac, stated in the report.

He said the sheer magnitude of this year's national increase shows there's more than just a seasonal pattern at work.

"Distressed properties that have been in a holding pattern for years are finally being cleared for landing at the foreclosure auction," he stated.