Home sales in Arkansas rose 5.1 percent in January compared with January last year, the Arkansas Realtors Association said Tuesday.
There were 1,678 homes sold in January in the 43 counties surveyed by the association, up from 1,597 sold in January 2014. It was the fifth straight month that home sales increased in the state compared with the same month the previous year.
January is typically the slowest month for home sales, said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Institute for Economic Advancement at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.
"But it was the strongest January since 2007, before the recession, so that is an indication that we're still on the right track," Pakko said. "But it is just January, so you can't read too much into it."
Mitigating the strength of January sales was the fact that weather in January 2014 was "pretty dismal," Pakko said.
For the fourth straight month, Benton County Realtors sold more homes than those in any other county in the state. There were 262 homes sold in Benton County in January, up 2.3 percent from January of last year. Pulaski County had 239 homes sold in January, a decline of 7.7 percent from January 2014.
"Things do seem to be improving at a pretty good pace in Northwest Arkansas," Pakko said. "Benton and Washington counties are seeing some pretty good year-over-year increases in home sales."
Based on a recent report on the economy in Northwest Arkansas, 24 net new residents a day have moved into Benton and Washington counties, "and that's been every day since 1990," said Craig Rivaldo, Arvest Bank's chief executive officer in Benton County.
"Even when the economy was struggling and the recession was at its height, Northwest Arkansas was still having tremendous population growth," Rivaldo said.
The new homes market also is doing well in Northwest Arkansas, Rivaldo said.
"I met with a builder [Tuesday] morning, and he said he's as busy as he's ever been," Rivaldo said. "I really don't see that slowing down anytime soon."
The average price of homes sold in the state in January was almost $144,800, about the same as in January of last year.
The highest average sales price in January was $195,404 in Washington County, 9 percent higher than in January 2014.
Pakko said several eastern Arkansas counties reported significant increases in home sales in January. Home sales were up 34 percent in Craighead County, 76 percent in Crittenden County and 150 percent in Mississippi County.
There were 25 homes sold in January in Mississippi County, up from 10 in January 2014. The increase likely can be attributed to construction of the Big River Steel mill being built near Osceola, Pakko said.
"It's true that these three counties are relatively low sales volume counties so they don't contribute a whole lot to the statewide totals," Pakko said. "But it was notable that there was a cluster of counties in the eastern part of the state that had strong sales increases compared with last year."
Pakko expects home sales will be down in February because of the inclement weather that hit much of Arkansas last month.
Business on 03/11/2015