26 days ago
Share
Nationally home sales hit bottom in January but has since increased 24 percent. Even though activity has picked up here in Arkansas, it mostly involves houses in the low-price range.
"If you get about $150,000, $170,000 and below, a lot of that is selling due to the first-time home buyers coming in and purchasing it," said Ethan Nobles, Arkansas Realtors Association. "So in inventory you have a lot of existing higher priced homes right now."
The state saw its first month-to-month increase in July since December of 2005 but only to go down again by nine percent in August.
Nobles says while there is some influence, the state has never really followed the national trend.
"One of the things that we've got to consider in Arkansas is that when home prices were going through the roof we were only going up a little bit here in Arkansas. When sales were dropping like crazy they were dropping a little bit in Arkansas," said Nobles.
Nobles say the first-time home buyers have really helped the market and sales should pick up at least through September. But he adds that it doesn't mean the housing market is out of the red yet.
"We hope to see sales recover but we still expect to see some downward pressure on prices for a little while, a lot of people are saying throughout 2010," said Nobles.
The average list price of a home in Arkansas as of last week is $229,000. One question realtors don't want to answer is "what is going to happen after November when the tax credit ends?"
There are a number of proposals on Capitol Hill right now asking congress to extend the deadline possibly into next year.
