Skyline Researchers Label Northwest Market ?Stable?

Researchers who conduct Northwest Arkansas’ Skyline Report said the second quarter was much like the fourth quarter of 2009: “balanced.”

“Overall, I’d say this was a quarter of stability,” said Kathy Deck, lead researcher for the Skyline Report.

However, slow growth in the job market will continue to depress home prices, she said.

Deck is also executive director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas’ Walton College of Business, and her statements accompanied the data release.

Arvest Bank Group Inc. commissions the CBER to gather data on residential, multi-family and commercial property in Northwest Arkansas for the report. The bank makes much of the data public.

According to the report, there were 394 building permits in Benton and Washington counties from March through May, up 31 percent from the same period a year prior. However, there has been no new construction for four consecutive quarters in 105 of the 376 active subdivisions in the two-county market.

There are about 33,200 lots approved, or preliminarily approved, which is a 146-month inventory through the current absorption rates.

The average sales price of homes in Benton County declined by 1.5 percent and by 4 percent in Washington County during the second quarter.

There were 226 homes in the “complete but not occupied” category, a sharp decline from 741 a year earlier.