About Pulaski County, AR

The number of homes selling per month in the Little Rock area increase from the end of February to the end of March in most areas, but the number of listings on the market also increased. So for sellers it remains a very competitive market.

The areas with the most expensive properties tend to have the longest average days on market. Chenal and the western part of Pulaski County have the longest absorption rate with average days of market of 296 days. The areas with the lowest market times are Little Rock from University to I-430, Sherwood and Maumelle all with average days on the market of under 100 days. In the Little Rock area there is a little over an 8 month supple of homes for sale and an average day on market of 124 days, down from 126 days at the end of February. The National Association of REALTOR economist says that there needs to be under an 8 month supply of homes in a market for prices to start increasing. In most our areas prices are flat for now. Of the 11 areas studied all but 3 were at 8 months are below. Sellers must understand to compete for buyers their property must be price strategically, be in top showing condition and be marketed using all of today’s technology tools.

Now that spring is here, low interest rates, and the First Time Buyers stimulus incentives, the homes sale market should continue to improve

With all the news about the housing market, with foreclosures skyrocketing, short sales looming on the horizon and homeowners willing to sell at any price, it seems buyers have gotten the mistaken idea that any offer they put out there should and will be accepted.

Not all homes on the market are in distress. Sometimes the owner just wants to sell their home at a reasonable price to downsize, upgrade, move to a new location; maybe they have inherited the property or for some other reason, no longer need that particular piece of real estate. There are more reasons for selling a home than you can think of.

If the asking price is $250,000 and you make an offer of $100,000, it is a pretty safe bet the seller and the listing agent both are going to be insulted. They will remember your name and any offers you put in after that are going to be rejected no matter what the offering price is.

Earnest money shows you are committed to purchasing the home. So be reasonable when deciding the amount, after all $10, $25 or $100 is not very committed and again the seller may look at this as an insult and think if you can't afford a reasonable amount, how could you come up with the down payment or get financing.

When a property is listed as a short sale, the bank usually has it listed below value to begin with; making an offer for half of that price most likely won't be accepted. The same goes for a foreclosure property. The banks just aren't willing to lose that much money.

Asking for the seller to leave all the appliances, including washer, dryer, drapes, lawn equipment and pay all the closing costs, your moving expense and maybe throw in the car, is a little over board.

There are good deals in real estate, but put yourself in the sellers place when you decide to make and offer and see if you would be willing to consider it. If you would be insulted, so will the seller!

In todays negative economic environment it is hard to find some positive news. I thought I would share some surprising news with you!!!

I was reading a Forbes blog dated 1/7/09 and it featured Little Rock as one of America's 25 top housing market. Little Rock's housing market is predicted to only drop 1%. In Pulaski County average sales price dropped 2.2 % from 2007. The higher priced areas of Pulaski County dropped 2.3 %. However, the most impressive figure is our listing inventory is down 15.5 % which means we are selling the backlog of homes. Little Rock's foreclosure rate is 1 out of 200 where the nation's rate is 1 out of 54. Click on the link to read the full article.....

In Depth: America's 25 Strongest Housing Markets

This article is published by the National Association of Realtors..

Existing-home sales rose unexpectedly while inventory declined, led by a surge of sales in the West. Existing-home sales - including single-family, townhomes, condominiums and co-ops - jumped 6.5 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate¹ of 4.74 million units in December from a downwardly revised pace of 4.45 million units in November, but are 3.5 percent below the 4.91 million-unit pace in December 2007.For all of 2008 there were 4,912,000 existing-home sales, which was 13.1 percent below the 5,652,000 transactions recorded in 2007.

What does this mean to our local market? Are attitudes changing? Is it a good time to buy? The answer is yes! That is why it is called a buyer's market.

If the stimulus package is passed with a $15,000 tax credit the market will go crazy. There was a decline in listings by 1600 (15.7%) homes in Pulaski County and in our higher dollar areas were down by 561 (12.1%) homes. We are still experiencing a decrease in units sold, but we are not continually adding inventory. If you have had your home on the market or have been considering selling, feel free to contact me for an up-to-date value of your home KerryEllison@kw.com.

I will be updating my blog with the 5 year trends in listings and units sold, please log onto my website Your Market Expert.

Little Rock Area Home Sales saw a great improvement from November to December of 08. Here are the solds for local areas:

Maumelle UP 27% West Little Rock Even North Little Rock UP 5%

Sherwood UP 53% Cabot UP 21% Little Rock UP !7%f

Why is an increase in home sales important to home buyers? Although, central Arkansas property values have held fast or even increased marginally home buyers have been getting plenty of incentives from sellers. The average sales price is averaging 96%+ of the list price. As sales increase that number may go up and buyers may be paying closer to full price. When you couple that with mortgage rates it might be better to get a loan at 4.85% and get a deal vs hoping for something lower and paying 100% of market value.

I thought I was a pretty "with it" person-- Keeping up with my children as they grow , trying to remain "hip" so as not to embarass them in any way, I have a college degree, before kids was a fundraiser and supervisor. and then...I started to sell real estate. It has been a great adventure. I learn more and more every year. But recently have realized just how out of touch I have been and how much technology is out there to be used. I had my first "bag" cell phone when I graduated college. Oops , did I date myself? Now I have a "smartphone" that can do just about everything for me-keep up with my appointments, call people, determine mortgage payments, open keyboxes, tell me who has entered a listing with their phone number--simply amazing! I set up a facebook account this week and now activerain. Facebook has been quite an adventure reconnecting with people I haven't seen or talked to for that matter in 20 years. I don't know if it will help my real estate business or not like they say, but it sure has been fun to reconnect with old and new friends. I mentioned that I had just set one up at an Open House this past Sunday and the potential buyer said she had one too. The next thing I know she has asked to be my friend on Facebook. Don't know if she and her husband will actually ever purchase a home through me, but it is a way to stay connected. Then, this week I set up this Active rain account. I am not sure how all of this works, or of all of the benefits yet, but I am impressed with all of the information I can gain through other people in the business for free. If anyone has suggestions on how to make the most of all of this fascinating technology, I am ready to read it.