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Home Ownership Down, Renting Up in Central Arkansas

3 min read

Home ownership continues to decline as rental housing grows in central Arkansas and nationally, according to Metroplan’s 2016 Metro Trends Demographic Review and Outlook, which offers demographic trends for the six-county Little Rock, North Little Rock and Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area.

Homeownership in the MSA has declined from a peak of 66.6 percent in 2000 to 63.1 percent in 2014, a bit below the U.S. average. From 2010-2014, the local housing market has grown less than the national average. It’s down 3 percent, compared to 1.2 percent.

The report states that rental housing has grown by over 7 percent in central Arkansas and over 9 percent nationally. The causes include stricter financial regulations and millennials being less willing to or less able to buy their first homes than Generation X or the Baby Boomers as they deal with college debt and career challenges. Also, median household income in central Arkansas declined 2.6 percent from 2010-2014, compared to a 0.3 percent decline nationally.

Metroplan estimates that the population of downtown Little Rock — where construction of more apartments is underway — had increased 54 percent from 842 to over 1,300 in 2015. The report notes that Moses Tucker Real Estate of Little Rock has built most of the new units downtown, using a strategy of urban revitalization that aims to create a livable, walkable downtown with a mix of residential and commercial properties. The company is helping redevelop Main Street and Metroplan expects the newest redevelopment will be east of I-30 in the East Village area, where Lost Forty Brewery resides.

Since 2010, several apartments with over 400 units each were built in North Little Rock, Little Rock, Bryant and Benton. From 2010 to early this year, builders received permits to construct 1,298 units within 1.5 miles of Bowman and Kanis Roads in west Little Rock, another growing area.

About 7 percent more multi-family units were built in 2015 than single-family units. Metroplan expects that trend to continue and that the area’s comparitively low housing costs will work in its favor as prices soar in larger metropolitian areas.

There was a slight uptick in single-family housing permits earlier this year, too, according to the report, which report urges cautious optimism for that type of growth.

Other highlights of the report include that the population of the MSA has growth by 5.3 percent since 2010, slightly faster than the U.S. average of 4.5 percent.

Bryant and Benton had the highest average rates of population growth at 3.3 percent and 2.1 percent, respectively.

Benton, the report notes, has established the Benton Commercial Historic District that is about four square blocks containing historic structures community leaders are working to preserve and restore. The city has built a small park and plans to establish a farmers market. Also, technology company Access Control Devices of Little Rock, which employs a staff of 38, is moving one block north of the district.

Little Rock, North Little Rock and Jacksonville had the slowest population growth rates.

Saline County, with 10,000 residents added since 2010 and a population growth rate of 9.5 percent, is ahead of the other counties; Faulkner, Lonoke and Pulaski Counties were at 8.3 percent, 6 percent and 3.4 percent growth, respectively.

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