Arkansas home sales jumped 9 percent in February compared with February last year, the sixth straight monthly improvement, the Arkansas Realtors Association said Friday.
There were 1,955 homes sold in the state in February, up from 1,793 a year earlier.
Home sales also have been improving nationally, said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
Existing-home sales, which include single-family homes, townhouses and condominiums, were up only 1 percent nationally in February. But January and February sales combined were up almost 5 percent nationally. Severe winter weather had an impact on home sales in the Northeast and Midwest.
In Arkansas, Pulaski County Realtors sold 323 homes in February, the highest total in the state and up almost 18 percent from February 2014. That was 30 more homes sold than in Benton County. For the four previous months, Benton County had the highest number of homes sold in the state.
"It's still early in the home-buying season, but it's certainly a positive sign that sales are continuing to increase," Pakko said.
Benton County's sales were basically unchanged from February last year. Several other counties among the 43 that are surveyed monthly by the Arkansas Realtors Association had declines in sales or increases below the 9 percent average gain.
"A lot of the areas that might look weak, when you look at the [annual] changes, it's only because they had a very strong February 2014," Pakko said. "For instance, Benton County, which has been doing really well, in February [2014] it was up 25 percent from [February 2013]. So being unchanged this year means it was still up 25 percent from two years ago."
On the other side, several counties had significant increases in home sales in February. Sales were up 31.2 percent in Lonoke County; about 29 percent in Baxter and Marion counties, where home sales are reported as one total; and almost 24 percent in Washington County.
In those cases, the booming counties reported poor sales in February 2014, Pakko said.
Washington County's sales in February 2014 were down 5.5 percent, Pakko noted.
Arkansas has been in a housing recovery since 2012, Pakko said.
"Things have been improving pretty consistently," Pakko said. "I'm not surprised that we're seeing continued growth. Coming into this year, there was still room for growth over last year."
Scott McElmurry, chief executive officer of Bank of Little Rock Mortgage, has seen much higher activity early this year than last year.
February was busier this year than last year, both on home purchases and refinancings at Bank of Little Rock Mortgage, one of the larger mortgage lenders in Pulaski County, McElmurry said. March had similar growth for his firm, McElmurry said.
"We're seeing a lot more consumer confidence," McElmurry said. "The mortgage industry as a whole across the country is much busier in the first quarter as well as in April as it was in most if not all months last year."
The interest rate on a conventional 30-year fixed mortgage is around 3.5 percent, McElmurry said. For a government loan, the average rate is in the low 3 percent range, he said.
Mortgage interest rates are likely to remain low until the Federal Reserve raises rates, McElmurry and Pakko said.
"Once the Fed starts their tightening cycle we're likely to see some upward momentum in mortgage rates," Pakko said. "That might tend to put a damper on some of this activity we're seeing now [in home sales]."
The average home price in February was $155,901, up about 6 percent from the same period last year. Benton County had the highest average home price of $196,115.
Business on 04/11/2015