Regional home sales up nearly 13% in 2020

Northwest Arkansas home sales in 2020 increased nearly 13% from the comparable 2019 figure, more than double the growth rate from the previous year.

Real estate agents combined to sell 12,004 residential properties in Benton and Washington counties. That’s according to data from the Matrix software platform used by the Northwest Arkansas Board of Realtors (NABOR).

Those figures represent a 12.8% increase from 10,645 home sales in 2019, according to the data. That’s a significant jump when compared with the year-over-year gains of a year ago. Unit sales, according to historical data previously reported by the Northwest Arkansas Business Journal, were up 6.3% in 2019 and 1.3% in 2018. That followed annual gains of 7.7% in 2017 and 9.1% in 2016.

Home sale values topped $3 billion for the first time in 2020. The combined price of single-family properties sold in the two-county area last year reached $3.29 billion, a 10.3% increase from $2.64 billion in 2019. Home sale values topped $2 billion for the first time in 2017 ($2.18 billion).

The median price of a home sold in Northwest Arkansas last year rose 9.9% to $229,500.

Broken down by county, Benton County home sales in 2020 topped the $2 billion mark for the first time, with a 12-month sales volume of $2.19 billion, up 25% from 2019. Unit sales were up 12.8% to 7,757. The average selling price of a home in Benton County was $283,334, up 10.8% from the previous year.

In Washington County, total sales volume rose 23% to $1.09 billion last year, while unit sales were up 12.5% — 3,773 to 4,247. The average selling price of a home in Washington County was $258,372, up 9.2% from the previous year.