State home sales slide for 27th month
Posted on Friday, May 9, 2008
URL: http://www.nwanews.com/adg/Business/225208/
Home sales in Arkansas continued their downward spiral in March, as 23 percent fewer houses were sold compared with March last year, the Arkansas Realtors Association said Thursday.
The downturn in home sales has continued for 27 consecutive months.
There were 656 fewer homes sold in Arkansas in March than a year earlier, the group said. For the first three months of the year, sales were off almost 20 percent, with 1, 393 fewer houses sold than in the first three months last year.
Home prices have remained strong in the slump. The average home price in March was about $ ™, 800, 3. 2 percent higher than the March 2007 average of about $ 149, 000.
“The [sales ] numbers just reflect the broader malaise of the whole American public right now with the economy,” said Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas in Fayetteville. “This is just a period of tremendous uncertainty. We’re in a place where consumers are being squeezed due to rising prices for the food they buy, the gas they buy, and a variety of goods and services they buy. And the main engine that has kept them going for the past few years, which is the value of their home, looks ever more uncertain.
“ What is striking is that with very few exceptions the numbers of houses sold [in Arkansas counties ] are in retreat,” Deck said.
Only three of 40 counties reporting to the association showed increases in sales in March.
Baxter and Marion counties had 56 sales, almost two-thirds higher than the 34 homes sold in March 2007. The two counties sold 123 homes in the first quarter this year compared with 125 last year.
A big portion of the two counties’ real estate market is selling to retirees who move to the state.
“A lot of our market comes from Northern states like Illinois, Wisconsin, Michigan and Iowa,” said Larry Black, principal broker of Larry Black and Associates Real Estate in Mountain Home.
“We’re having people [from out of state ] walk in the door and say, ‘ Well, we finally sold our house, and we’re here to buy something, ’” Black said.
Transplants from Florida and California, which have had severely depressed real estate markets, also are in the area to buy homes, although not as often as before the housing crisis, Black said.
“Someone from California may sell their home for $ 700, 000 or $ 800, 000 and come to Mountain Home and buy an equal property for maybe $ 200, 000,” Black said. The average price of homes sold in Baxter and Marion counties in March was $ 127, 069. Baxter and Marion report together through the North-Central Board of Realtors.
Scott Deaton, owner of Exit Realty Deaton Group in Little Rock, said the central Arkansas market has “definitely slowed down” for homes priced over $ 300, 000 and particularly for homes in the $ 500, 000 range.
“We still have some new construction out there that is pushing those higher markets and that has definitely slowed,” Deaton said.
But there is an excellent market for homes priced below $ 250, 000, said Deaton, who has offices in Little Rock and Cabot. The average price of homes sold in Pulaski County in March was $ 178, 572.
Of the major markets in the state, Washington County had the biggest decline in sales, dropping 32 percent from March last year. Benton County’s sales were off 22. 5 percent in March.
The two counties had 6, 650 homes for sale in March, the Realtors said.
There were 282 homes sold in Benton County in March and 173 in Washington County.
“In Washington County, when you look back at the boom periods, there were a couple of months where more than 300 houses were sold,” Deck said.
“Now it is consistently in the 200 s, and from September on, you’re looking at numbers [of homes sold ] in the 100 s.”