Arvest Survey: Arkansans Making Major Household Purchases

Kathy Deck

Arkansas consumers have more student loans but are carefully paying bills and making large purchases, according to the third installment of the spring 2015 Arvest Consumer Sentiment Survey.

The March survey results said that 24 percent of Arkansas respondents plan to make a major household purchase in the next six months, and 39 percent made a major purchase in the last six months.

Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research in the Sam M. Walton College of Business at the University of Arkansas, is the lead economist for the survey. She said low gas prices are taking some pressure off Arkansans.

“These numbers are indicative of a normal pace,” Deck said. “Consumers are more positive right now than what they have been. Sentiment has improved, and so too have the purchase intentions of folks and perhaps their willingness to obtain credit.”

In the October results, 6 percent of Arkansans expected difficulty in acquiring credit, but in March, only 4 percent expected difficulty. Deck said the low percentage is a healthy number.

One of the larger changes from October is the percentage of Arkansans with student loans. In October, only 12 percent of respondents had student loan debt, while the March survey results show that 27 percent of Arkansans have student loan debt.

But Deck said that we “don’t want to make huge conclusions” based off of that change.

“The important thing to understand about student debt … is that over the past decade and half decade — and even year — [it is] rising, and we’re often seeing student debt replace other kinds of debt,” Deck said. “That has implications for the growth of the economy. With a lot of student debt you’re less likely to go out and get a mortgage. More and more students are going to school in Arkansas. But I would not jump to any conclusions based on this particular number.”

But compared to Missouri and Oklahoma, the number of Arkansans with no consumer debt is the lowest, with 30 percent of respondents reporting no debt.

In the planned household savings rate category, 18 percent of Arkansas respondents planned to increase their savings rates in October, and 20 percent planned to do the same in March. Regionally, the number remained the same, at 20 percent.