Welcome to the February Northwest Arkansas Market Update

January recorded the lowest number of closed sales in 8 years. What does this mean for 2023 real estate market? We are going to cover that next.

January recorded 487 residential sales in Benton and Washington Counties. This is a 35% reduction from the year before. We have to go all the way back to January 2015 to find a lower number of closed sales. Many people have been asking what is happening to real estate prices. Real estate prices are up just under 10% year over year with an average sales price of $386,000. Right now, we still have less than 3 months of inventory on the market and we do not see prices declining at this time.

There is some really good news about January and that is while closings were down the market picked up. There were 817 homes that accepted contracts in January. This is a higher number of new contracts than any individual month in the 4th quarter of 2022. We will have to watch and see if this trend continues. The buyers that were on the sidelines during last quarter may be finally feeling comfortable enough to jump back into the market. After all we saw rates dip below 6% for a short time in January.

What does this mean if you are buyer?

There were 872 new listings that came on the market last month and right now 50% of our inventory is new construction or built-in 2022 or later. We are seeing great buyer incentives from builders in the marketplace. If you are in the market for a new home, it's a great time to reach out to your realtor.

Now, how about sellers? What should they do?

Inventory is low and the market is still in your favor. If you have a home that you want to sell for top dollar is a great time. If you are worried about where to move to inventory is up 3-fold from this time last year, so there are options. If you are concerned about needing to sell your home first before buying the next one. Contingency offers are being accepted regularly now.

So, for a quick recap. Prices are up around 10% YOY, we have under 3 months of inventory so we still in a seller's market, and we are seeing great concessions for buyers in the market.

I hope you found this information useful and if there is anything that I can do for you please feel free to reach out.