Editorial
Front Page - Monday, November 09, 2009
Central Arkansas homes sales up in September
Ethan C. Nobles
Special to the Daily Record ecnobles@att.net
Thanks to low interest rates, dropping prices and a tax credit, homes sales were up in September as compared to the same month a year ago.
According to the Arkansas Realtors Association (ARA), sales through Arkansas had been down for 42 straight months until gaining ground in July, fell again in August and then entered positive territory again in September.
According to an ARA report, there were 793 single-family, new and existing homes sold in September in Faulkner, Grant, Lonoke, Perry, Pulaski and Saline counties – up 25.28 percent over 633 sales in the same month last year. For the first nine months of the year, 6,263 homes were sold in central Arkansas, down 5.85 percent from 6,652 sales through September 2008.
The average sales price in September in central Arkansas was $153,640 – down 6.27 percent from the average of $163,730 a year ago and down 5.09 percent from the average of $161,698 through the first nine months of 2009.
Benton Realtor Denise Hyde said one of the major factors in sales this year is the first-time home buyer tax credit. Eligible buyers – those who haven’t owned a home in the past three years and meet certain income requirements – can receive a credit up to $8,000 from the IRS under that program.
To take advantage of the credit, buyers must close on their homes on or before Nov. 30. Hyde said that deadline brought a lot of shoppers to the market in September – if it takes 30 days to close on a home, then buyers were well advised to shop as early as possible so as to avoid delays.
Hyde said the tax credit was a major factor in both the amount of homes sold in September and average sales prices. The majority of first-time buyers look for homes costing around $150,000 or less, so the drop in the average sales price in September came as no surprise.
At the end of September, there were 5,121 homes for sale in central Arkansas, down from 5,543 homes a year ago. One of the reasons for the drop, according to the ARA, is that first-time buyers have arrived and purchased a lot of lower and mid-priced homes.
Hyde said the tax credit isn’t the only thing attracting buyers. She said sellers have learned to price more realistically, so there has been downward pressure on list prices.
“Buyers and sellers are coming together to find common ground,” Hyde said, explaining that buyers have also learned that central Arkansas is not the place to make very low offers and expect to find sellers desperate enough to accept them.
“Both parties are motivated,” she said. “Both parties are more educated about what is realistic in both directions.
“We’ve been very steady. We haven’t had the big drops like other areas have.”
Hyde said favorable interest rates have also attracted buyers to the market. A rate below 5 percent on a 30-year, fixed interest mortgage was once unheard of but is commonplace in the current market.
Hyde said housing markets are still recovering, but they’ll be strong again.
“It’ll come back up,” she said. “It’s just going to take time.”
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