Recent Study of Home Prices in NW Arkansas

The Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers metropolitan statistical area tied with seven other MSAs as the nation’s 144th most overvalued residential housing market, according to a CNN Money report on Jan. 3.

The report cited a third-quarter Housing Market Analysis by National City Corp., a financial holding company, in conjunction with Global Insight, a financial information provider.
The study said the Fayetteville market — which includes Benton, Washington and Madison counties in Northwest Arkansas as well as McDonald County, Mo. — is overvalued by 11 percent. In all, 65 of the nation’s 299 biggest real estate markets are “severely overpriced and subject to possible price corrections,” the CNN report stated.

Other Arkansas cities were deemed undervalued. Little Rock was undervalued by 6 percent. Fort Smith was undervalued by 8 percent. The Memphis area — which includes parts of Arkansas, Tennessee and Mississippi — was undervalued by 8 percent, according to the study.
The most overpriced market is Naples, Fla., the study said, where a single-family, median-priced home sells for $329,970, about 84 percent more than what it should cost.

Reprinted from NW Arkansas Business Journal, January 9, 2006