Economist Jeff Collins said in January that home sales started to improve last year and he said he’d seen no evidence to suggest we won’t see that trend continue in 2013.
In the Arkansas Home Sales Report for March, which is available from The City Wire in Fort Smith, Collins said the upward trend continues but said sales are still being impacted by high unemployment rates. Still, he said low interest rates and slowly climbing prices are motivating some buyers to jump into the market — interest rates are hovering around historic …

On April 21 (Saturday), over 100 volunteers answered a call for help from Benton Matters to help spruce up South Street in Benton.
Benton Matters, a part of the city’s larger Go Benton initiative, was formed in January. Gary James, executive director of the Benton Area Chamber of Commerce, said he got the idea to form Benton Matters when thinking of ways to clean up highly visible areas in town so as to make the city more attractive to potential businesses and residents.
Benton Matters’ first project was a cleanup in the …

RazorFest took place in Fayetteville on Saturday (April 20) and there was plenty to see and do. You’ll find the full writeup on the free, family-friendly event here. Meanwhile, please check out the following photos from the event.
 

FAYETTEVILLE, AR — The sun was shining, the booths were set up, and Lindsay Ferguson of Fayetteville thought Saturday was a fine day to take son Mason, 4, to RazorFest.The fun, free family event was sponsored by Abbott Nutrition, maker of EAS energy bars, and nonprofit Champions for Kids, an organization with a goal of alleviating child hunger.
“We came out just to get in the spirit of things, and see how the Razorbacks are going to do this year,” Lindsay Ferguson said, as she carried Mason up the hill near …

Editor’s Note: rooting the Nook HD and HD+ may no longer be necessary. Click here for details.
On Paper, the Nook HD+ from Barnes & Noble looks like a pretty good value. The tablet comes in two configurations — $269 will get you a tablet with 16 gigabytes of storage while $299 will net you a 32 GB tablet.
That’s pretty inexpensive when it comes to a large tablet, and the Nook HD+ is certainly one of those — it has a bright 9″ screen that is actually quite light, weighing in …

Better Brands Beverage Co. – a company dedicated to donating part of the proceeds from the sales of Salute American vodka to charities that assist U.S. military veterans – expanded its market into Arkansas at the end of March.
In fact, Arkansas was the third market into which Better Brands has expanded since the company launched in January – the Chicago-based company launched first in Missouri and Illinois. Better Beverage Founder and Chief Executive Officer Pete Kelly said the company has plans to expand nationwide but started in “middle America” where …

April is Financial Literacy Month and the National Foundation for Credit Counseling (NFCC) recently released the results of the 2013 Financial Literacy Survey. The annual survey provides data and trending around Americans’ attitudes and behaviors related to personal finance.
“This year’s survey results provided somewhat of a mixed message,” said Mark Foster, Director of Education for Credit Counseling of Arkansas (CCOA). “More than one in four consumers indicated they are spending more than last year, yet 77 percent admitted to having financial worries, listing insufficient savings as their top financial concern. …

Home sales slipped slightly in June in the 14 counties in which most sales in Arkansas take place.
Those 14 counties are located in central Arkansas, the Jonesboro area, the Fort Smith area and northwest Arkansas. Transactions in those areas make up 70 to 75 percent of all home sales in Arkansas every month.
In June, there were 1,772 homes sold during June in the major market areas measured by the The City Wire’s Arkansas Home Sales Report, down 3.22% compared to June 2011, and down 3.54% compared to June 2010. During …

While April was a down month for Arkansas housing markets, May was strong and falls in line with Economist Michael Pakko’s prediction that residential real estate sales will pick up this year.
While residential homes sales in the largest four markets in Arkansas through May were up over last numbers, they still lagged behind market activity in 2010.
Earlier in the year, Pakko predicted markets will improve this year. It is worth mentioning, however, that 2011 was the worst year for sales since 2005 (and there are no statewide housing market reports …

What do you get when you take trivia questions and put them in an iPhone app that sets up games with friends, family, coworkers and random opponents through Facebook?
The answer? Trivi.al, a pick-up-and-play brain teaser that its founders hope become as ubiquitous on mobile devices as Draw Something,  Words with Friends, etc. Trivi.al has only been available through the Apple App Store since June 21, so it’s too early to make any predictions about how the game will fare in the months to come.
Matt Hudson, however, is optimistic about the …