🏡 Washington County Buyers Go Upscale in October 💎

Northwest Arkansas Real Estate Data Analysis

Author

Patrick Curry
December 05, 2025

October 2025 Washington County Analysis

 🔑 Key Takeaways

💰 Existing Home Prices Jump - Median existing-home prices surged +14% YoY, the strongest October increase in years.

🏡 Existing Home Sales Rebound - Sales of existing homes rose +7% YoY.

🏗️ New Home Prices Up, Sales Flat – New home closings dipped -1.8% YoY, but median prices still climbed +5%.

🏡 High End Homes on the Move

We hope you had a great Thanksgiving with friends and family. November’s numbers are still coming in, so this edition wraps up Washington County’s October data.

High-end existing homes stole the show in October. Washington County recorded 9 sales over $1 million in a single month. Buyers are moving upmarket despite higher rates.

🏠 Existing Home Sales — Washington County

  • 📈 Sales – +7% YoY (208 vs. 194)

  • 🔥 Median price – +14% YoY ($323,000 → $369,500)

  • 💎 Takeaway – More buyers are stretching into higher price ranges in the resale market.

🏗️ New Home Sales - Washington County

  • 📈 Median price – +5% YoY ($333,500 → $350,000)

  • 📊 Sales – -1.8% YoY (111 → 109)

  • 🧱 Takeaway – Builders held pricing power even with slightly fewer closings.

🏦Mortgage Activity

  • 30 Year Mortgage - Average rate is 6.27%

  • Average Residential Loan Balance - $317,970 in October.

  • Mortgage Filings - Up +6.3% YoY.

📰Real Estate & Market News 

💧🛠️ Bentonville Sewer - It’s hard to state how significant this story is. The Alice L. Walton Foundation is offering a $239 million line of credit to overhaul Bentonville’s sewer system. One of the biggest economic risks for growth is our lack of infrastructure. There are specific instances of development pausing simply due to lack of sewer capacity. This is a big win for growth and the real estate market.

🏛️📉 Fed Interest Rate - There is a 94% chance the Fed will drop rates 25bps next week. Just two weeks ago the odds of a rate cut were 22%. Weak job growth and steadying inflation just under 3% is giving the Fed room to cut.

🧑‍💼🏛️ Fed Chair - The current favorite to be the next Federal Reserve chair is Kevin Hassett. The announcement will likely come before Christmas. Hassett is viewed as being closely aligned with Trump and will likely be more aggressive with rate cuts.

🪙 Inflation Rate - Core inflation rate for September was 2.8%. The data is old due to the government shutdown but the rate was lower than expected. Any inflation reading in the 2% range feels like a win and keeps Fed rate cuts on the table.  

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