Arkansas Home Sales Up 8% In November

Editor’s note: This is the November 2012 report of The City Wire’s Arkansas Home Sales Report. The report, released monthly, accounts for between 70% and 75% of total Arkansas home sales.

The combined number of home sales in Arkansas’ four largest markets were up more than 8% in November, putting the residential real estate sector on a path toward two consecutive years of increases.

The combined home sales value was up more than 10% for the month.

There were 1,417 homes sold during November in the four large market areas measured by The City Wire’s Arkansas Home Sales Report, up 8.17% compared to November 2011, and up 22.9% compared to November 2010.

The City Wire’s Arkansas Home Sales Report captures home sales data in the state’s 14 most populated counties within the state’s four largest metro areas — Central Arkansas, Fort Smith area, Jonesboro/Northeast Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas. The report, which records closed sales, accounts for between 70% and 75% of total Arkansas home sales.

The total value of November homes sold in the four markets was $228.622 million, up 10% compared to November 2011, and up almost 25% compared to November 2010. The average sales price of a home sold in the four markets during November was $161,342, ahead of the $158,617 during November 2011.

Gains in home sales were up in all areas except Fort Smith. The Jonesboro region had the highest percentage gain, with November home sales up 18.46% compared to November 2011.

November home sales were down 5.59% in the Fort Smith area (Crawford and Sebastian counties), and were up 7.7% in central Arkansas and up 10.39% in Northwest Arkansas.

JANUARY-NOVEMBER TALLY
Regionally, the number of homes sold during the first 11 months of 2012 are up in central Arkansas and Northwest Arkansas, and down in the Fort Smith and Jonesboro metro areas.

During the first 11 months of the year, home sales in the four markets totaled 16,882, up slightly over the 16,458 in the same period of 2011, and up 3.59% compared to the same period in 2010.

For the first 11 months of 2012, the value of homes sold in the four markets totaled $2.751 billion, up 11.8% compared to the same period of 2011, and up 10.24% compared to the same period of 2010.

The average days on market for a home in the four combined markets during the first 11 months of 2012 was 96.05, an improvement over the 102.29 during the same period of 2011, but longer than the 96.05 during the 2011 period.

Click here to access more regional data and to review a pdf of the full report.