Arkansas home sales were up only slightly in September, according to the Arkansas Realtors Association.
There were 3,013 homes sold last month, just three more than in September last year, on the basis of the Realtors association's survey of homes sold in 43 counties of the state, generally the state's largest counties.
Benton County Realtors sold 558 homes in September, the most in the state. Pulaski County sales totaled 464, followed by Washington County with 281 homes sold.
September is typically the month that home sales begin to drop off every year because children return to school, said Michael Pakko, chief economist at the Arkansas Economic Development Institute at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. That slows the pace of families looking at homes.
The trend normally continues through October, November and December with home sales usually bottoming out in January, Pakko said.
Arkansas is back to the same level of home sales as before the recession started in 2007, Pakko said.
"Everything seems to be pretty much on track for what I would expect at this point," Pakko said.
Even in the largest counties in the state, any home-sales growth in the first nine months has slowed compared with last year, said Mervin Jebaraj, interim director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville.
"That is to be expected considering how good a year we had last year," Jebaraj said. "But I guess I would wait to see how the rest of the year plays out in home sales before drawing any conclusions."
The average sales price last month was $174,613, up 1.8 percent from September last year.
There were 27,106 homes sold in the state through the first nine months of the year, a 4.4 percent increase over the first nine months of 2016.
Benton County sales were 4,710 through September, up 1.8 percent compared with the same period last year.
Pulaski County Realtors sold 4,159 homes through September, down 2.2 percent from the first nine months last year, followed by Washington County with 2,752 homes sold through the first three quarters of the year, down 2 percent from the same period last year.
Home sales in Northwest Arkansas' two key counties -- Benton and Washington -- have been very strong in recent years but they have leveled off somewhat, Pakko said. There have been about 30 more home sales in Northwest Arkansas through nine months this year compared with the first nine months of last year, growth of less than 0.5 percent.
In the four counties of central Arkansas surveyed by the Realtors -- Pulaski, Saline, Faulkner and Lonoke -- there were about 275 more homes sold through nine months this year compared with last year, a 3.6 percent gain.
"Central Arkansas certainly hasn't had the booming conditions as Washington and Benton counties have seen over the past couple of years, but Central Arkansas counties continue to see higher sales," Pakko said.
Existing-home sales also were little changed nationally, with an increase of 0.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 5.39 million in September. Sales declined nationally on an annual basis over the first nine months of the year for the first time since July 2016, according to the National Association of Realtors.
"Home sales in recent months remain at their lowest level of the year and are unable to break through despite considerable buyer interest in most parts of the country," said Lawrence Yun, chief economist of the national association.
Realtors complain that there are not enough listings, especially at the lower end of the market, and fast-rising prices strain the budgets of prospective buyers, Yun said.
Business on 10/31/2017