Report: Northwest Arkansas' residential still resilient
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Higher prices and mortgage rates didn't stop more than 5,100 homes from selling in Northwest Arkansas during the second half of 2025, according to the Arvest Skyline Report released Tuesday.
Why it matters: Real estate demand — commercial and residential — is an indicator of an area's economy, but expensive housing and rents shape who can afford to live in NWA.
The big picture: Nationally, home sales hovered near a 30-year low in 2025 as high mortgage rates cooled demand, a trend Northwest Arkansas largely bucked.
What they're saying: "In spite of the high mortgage rates, more than 10,000 homes were sold in both 2024 and 2025," Mervin Jebaraj, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research, said in a news release.
- "What we are seeing is that the interest rate lock-in is beginning to fade and those who have delayed selling their homes and buying larger or nicer homes since rates began to rise, are beginning to feel okay about upgrading."
By the numbers: In the second half of 2025, sales were up 2.1% from the first half of the year but down 3.5% from the same period in 2024.
- The average selling price for a home in Benton County for the period was $471,427, virtually unchanged from the first six months of 2025, but 4.8% higher than a year earlier.
- Single-family homes in Washington County fetched an average of $429,616, up from $417,489 for the first half of 2025 and 6.8% higher year over year.
- New construction accounted for 1,809 of the homes sold, or 35% of the total, the lowest share reported in the last five Skyline reports.
The vacancy rate for multifamily properties was 5.8%, up from 3.7% earlier in the year after 1,494 new apartment units opened.
- Average rents climbed to $1,127 per month, up from $1,094 in the first half of 2025.
What we're watching: Skyline researchers identified 20,230 single-family lots in 341 active subdivisions across the region.
- Residential building permits, an indicator of how much housing will be available this year, fell to 2,720 in the second half of 2025, down from 2,929 in the first half.
- The report says that's still among the highest levels recorded by the Skyline report.
The bottom line: NWA's population grows by an estimated 38 people per day, according to the Northwest Arkansas Council, and is on track to reach 1 million by 2050, fueling the need for new homes and more multifamily properties.