Fort Smith metro property deal numbers in 2024 below 2021 levels

Fort Smith metro apartment property, commercial property, and land sales in 2024 are significantly below post pandemic levels, but apartment and land sales recovered slightly from 2023 lows.

The region had 94 multifamily (apartment) property sales in 2024 with the combined value of the sales at $38.63 million, according to data provided by Ashlee Milton, an executive broker with Chuck Fawcett Realty in Fort Smith and Northwest Arkansas. That was above the 75 multifamily sales in 2023 with a combined value of $34.3 million.

But the 2024 multifamily sales are down 35.6% compared with 146 transactions in 2021 with a combined value of $54.97 million.

There were 698 regional land sales in 2024 with a combined value of $93.62 million, which was better than the 656 land sales in 2023 with a combined value of $72.64 million. But the 2024 land sales numbers were down 33.8% compared with 2021.

Commercial property sales in 2024 numbered 100 with a combined value of $36.65 million, below the 115 deals in 2023 with a combined value of $40.18 million. The 2024 commercial property sales were 32.9% below 2021.

Keith Lau, owner of KCP Real Estate, a real estate brokerage and property management company, said property transactions cost more — especially if new construction is involved — than in 2021.

“I would say it’s really due to the fact that interest rate increases and inflation have made a lot of these projects not feasible,” said Lau, who has been in the real estate business since 1983. “The cost of borrowing has gone up, so some of these deals, they just don’t cash flow.”

Lau does not believe the three types of metro property sales will return to 2021 levels in the near future, but said ongoing growth at the Arkansas Colleges of Health Education, anticipated housing demand from the foreign military pilot training center at Ebbing Air National Guard Base in Fort Smith, and organic growth in the broader regional economy will help property deals stabilize and grow.

“It’s not going to keep going down at those percentages, at that pace, but it will take some time to recover from what I think was a shock with the higher (interest) rates and the inflation,” he said. “Demand will return … because we’re going to still need multifamily housing units and single-family housing units.”

PROPERTY SALES
Multifamily
2024: 94, valued at $38.63 million
2023: 75, valued at $34.3 million
2021: 146, valued at $54.97 million

Land
2024: 698, valued at $93.62 million
2023: 656, valued at $72.64 million
2021: 934, valued at $76.03 million

Commercial
2024: 100, valued at $36.65 million
2023: 115, valued at $40.18 million
2021: 149, valued at $58.07 million