Local realtors discuss increase in housing market activity

Last week, a report from the Arkansas Realtors Association showed Faulkner County's home sales in February were down only 1 percent from the same month in 2007.

Local real estate agents shared their thoughts on the health of the market.

Richard Henley of ERA Henley Real Estate was not ready to say he sees the light at the end of the tunnel, but he would say he sees encouraging signs.

"We're seeing increased activity," he said. "Last month was one of our best months. I've been busy, and I know other Realtors have been busy as well. That's always a comforting thing."

He added, "We've been tracking this quite a while. Home prices are apparently not going to have any significant decrease in this area."

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He said his company's sales in March were 90 percent higher than last March with a total of more than $7.5 million in sales.

He went on, "The general picture here we saw a very slow January, which followed a slower than normal 2007. February new contracts were much better, pretty much a normal level for February. March was almost double what we did last March. We have had two good months back to back, and that's the first time I could say that in about a year. April is starting out extremely well, too."

Henley said the market never became very bad in Faulkner County.

"It slowed down, but it was ridiculously strong before it slowed down to probably a normal level," he said.

Mark Jennings of RE/MAX said he did not want to be too optimistic, but business was going well.

"We're taking it day by day," he said. "It picked up somewhere around the second week of February and it is going strong. We've had lots of calls, lots of Internet traffic, lots of property showings and lots of houses going under contract.

"Obviously, we anticipate this spring to be strong and continue with the same flow, but it could change at any moment. But we're being optimistic about it."

He said residential sales are down from last year but have picked up since the second week in February.

"I anticipated it to open up at some time, because January sales were terrible as far as our board goes," he said. "Now that we're in the spring, we're seeing a lot of buyers and sellers moving. Conway's still got a lot of good things to offer. None of that really changed. We're just seeing those people who were holding back because of all the turmoil starting to make their moves."

Home sales for the state made an improvement in February as well, down 12.8 percent from 2007 numbers; compared with a 26.57 year-over-year drop in January, according to the report from the Arkansas Realtors Association.

(Staff writer Rachel Parker Dickerson can be reached by e-mail at rachel.dickerson@thecabin.net or by phone at 505-1277. Send us your news at www.thecabin.net/submit)