Consumer sentiment up in state, poll finds
Arkansas consumers are feeling more upbeat this spring, according to a survey of regional consumer sentiment released Tuesday.
Consumer sentiment is a measurement of the overall health of the economy based on consumer opinion, according to Investopedia.
Arkansas stood at 79.1 on the consumer sentiment index in March, up from 68.1 in October, according to the survey. The Arvest Consumer Sentiment Survey examines consumer outlook in Arkansas, Oklahoma and Missouri.
"The state's improving employment and income situation, along with lower gasoline prices at the pump, gave consumers a boost in both perceived current conditions and near-term expectations," Kathy Deck, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, said in a statement.
The survey is based on phone interviews with 400 residents from each state.
Oklahoma experienced the biggest change with an 84.8 rating on the index, up from 72.6, while Missouri had the highest rating at 85.2, up from 77.4.
-- John Magsam
State ranked 30th on foreclosure list
Arkansas ranked 30th among all states in the number of home foreclosures in the 12-month period that ended March 31, said CoreLogic of Irvine, Calif., a provider of property information.
CoreLogic recorded 4,421 foreclosures in Arkansas in the 12-month period.
The 12-month total for the state was down 25 percent from the 5,914 completed foreclosures in the 12-month period that ended in March 2014.
There were 544,260 completed home foreclosures in the country from March 2014 to March 2015, CoreLogic said.
Only 0.9 percent of Arkansas' mortgaged homes have been placed into the foreclosure process this year as of March. That is slightly down from the 1 percent of mortgaged homes in the state in foreclosure as of March 2014, CoreLogic said.
-- David Smith
11 decliners take index down by 1.92
The Arkansas Index, a price-weighted index that tracks the largest public companies based in the state, dropped 1.92 to 384.79 Tuesday.
Eleven stocks fell, six advanced and one was unchanged.
Communications Sales and Leasing, the real estate spinoff from Windstream, rose 2.6.
Total volume of the index was 25.3 million shares.
The index was developed by Bloomberg News and the Democrat-Gazette with a base value of 100 as of Dec. 30, 1997.
Business on 05/13/2015