The residential market in northwest Arkansas saw increases across the board in the first half of 2014, according to Arvest Bank’s Skyline Report released Thursday.
Residential building permits were up 3 percent to 1,183 issued in Washington and Benton counties from 1,149 issued in the first half of last year. It’s also an 8.1 percent increase from 1,094 building permits issued in the second half of 2013.
The average value of building permits issued was also up, more than $800, to $235,890 in the first half of this year, compared to the same time period of 2013.
“The stabilization in building permit values along with continued brisk absorption of new construction means that we’re not seeing the kind of buildup of new housing inventory that could cause future headaches,” Kathy Deck, lead researcher for the Skyline Report and director of the Center for Business & Economic Research at the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, said in a news release. “Builders seem to have consumer demand in mind when they bring the new houses to market.”
The average home price and cost per square foot was mixed in the region. The average home price in Benton County was $188,084, which was up 2.2 percent from $183,983 in the second half of last year. The cost per square foot was up 2.8 percent in Benton County to $84.58 from $82.29 in the second half of 2013.
In Washington County, the average home price was down 1.3 percent from the second half of 2013 to $184,132 in the first half of 2014. At the same time, the cost per square foot was up 1.6 percent to $89.24.
Of newly-constructed unoccupied homes, there were 1,067 that became occupied in the first half of 2014, which was a 34 percent increase from the same period of 2013 when 796 homes became occupied. However, it was a 16.4 percent drop from the second half of last year when 1,279 homes became occupied.
Other findings of the report were:
- In 95 of the 385 active subdivisions, no new construction or progress in existing construction has occurred during the last year.
- Using the absorption rate from the past 12 months implies there was a 54.1-month supply of remaining lots in active subdivisions in northwest Arkansas during the first half of 2014.
- An additional 3,508 residential lots have received preliminary approval in northwest Arkansas. Adding these proposed lots to those in active subdivisions yields 72 months of inventory in the first half of 2014.
- According to the Assessors’ databases, 66.3 percent of hosues in Benton County and 63.9 percent of houses in Washington County were owner-occupied.
- From Jan. 1 to June 30, there were 3,122 houses sold in Benton and Washington counties. This is an increase of 2.3 percent from the 3,051 sold in the same time period in the previous year.
- The Bentonville School District accounted for 31.3 percent of the houses sold in the region, while the Rogers School District accounted for 18.2 percent.
- There were 3,589 houses listed for sale in the MLS database as of June 30 at an average price of $270,467.
The Arvest Skyline Report is a biannual analysis conducted by the CBER at the UA’s Walton College.
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