Home sales in Arkansas jumped 15 percent in June with 3,113 homes sold, the Arkansas Realtors Association said Thursday.
"This was another very strong month," said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
The number of homes sold in the 43 Arkansas counties included in the Realtors report was the most since May 2007, when 3,146 homes were sold, Pakko said.
That was before the recession began in December 2007.
"This is certainly a clear sign that the pace of home sales has been increasing for about three years now, at a pretty decent clip," Pakko said. "[Home sales] was one area of the economy that was particularly weak during the downturn and slow economic recovery."
Benton County had the most home sales at 535 in June, followed by Pulaski County with 478 and Washington County with 289.
Seven of the top 10 counties saw double-digit growth in homes sold, led by Craighead County, which had an increase of 48 percent in sales in June compared with June 2014.
"We're having an outstanding year," said Jim Drake, principal broker for Re/Max Real Estate Centre in Jonesboro.
In March, Craighead County saw an increase of more than 50 percent in homes sold.
"Jonesboro continues to see quite a bit of growth commercially, with a lot of new businesses, restaurants, industrial sites that are expanding," said Drake, who is in his fifth year with Re/Max. "That's resulting in more people in the area who are in need of homes. We're also seeing a good bit of our existing homes sell and that results in someone else having to find another house, which makes it grow even more."
If the 2015 sales pace continues, Re/Max Real Estate Centre will have the best year since Drake has been with the firm, he said. At the current pace, Re/Max will match its 2014 homes sold total by September, Drake said.
"We'd have the next three months of the year to go," he said.
The double-digit growth in home sales in some counties is not necessarily significant, Pakko said.
Other sources of home sales, such as federal data, also show an increase in sales, Pakko said.
"Certainly not at ... [Craighead County's] 48 percent margin, but a relatively slow but steady pace," Pakko said.
For the first six months of 2015, home sales in the state rose 8.5 percent with 14,716 homes sold, compared to the first half of 2014.
It is likely that there will be more homes sold in the second half of the year because some of the best months for sales are in July, August and September, Pakko said.
"So I wouldn't be surprised to see the annual rate of increase approach 10 percent," Pakko said. "That would be a very strong outcome."
Home sales were strong in both major metropolitan areas in the state in June, Pakko said.
In Benton and Washington counties, sales rose 12.6 percent in June. In the four major counties of the Little Rock metropolitan area -- Pulaski, Saline, Faulkner and Lonoke -- sales were up 12.7 percent, Pakko said.
Business on 08/14/2015