There's a quiet residential battle raging in White Hall. Often, home buyers compete for a purchase, upping their bid quickly because homes don't last long on the market.
Unlike other areas of the country, the town of about 5,000 seemed immune to high unemployment rates and covid-related shutdowns, and low interest rates for mortgages spurred sales over the past few years.
That's possibly changing with the Federal Reserve's decision to raise interest rates March 16.
"We haven't seen an impact on the city's housing market," said Hayley Wreyford, Lunsford & Associates principal broker and recently announced co-owner of the White Hall realty company, 7000 Jefferson Parkway.
They sell an average of about 275 homes each year.
"It's impossible to predict the future, especially in light of rising interest rates," Wreyford said.
However, she is quick to point out that rates are lower than Americans have seen in the past. A few months ago, rates for a 30-year fixed mortgage were below 3%. Now they're above 5%.
Wreyford has 12 years of experience in the area and during her tenure, business has been brisk.
"It's been a complete boom for White Hall," she said.
A housing boom is often spurred when demand for housing is high and supply is low, she said.
"Many houses have multiple offers, and many are sold on the first day," Wreyford said.
In Arkansas, the Jefferson County city continues to rank in the top 10 best places to live, to raise a family and one of safest cities to live in.
RESIDENTIAL AND COMMERCIAL EXPANSION
Perhaps also driving the housing market is the city's recent and continuing commercial growth, said Merri Thompson, owner and principal broker of Southern Homes Realty of White Hall.
Southern Homes just opened the local office at 7300 Dollarway Road, but she's been working the White Hall area since the early 2000s. It's the city's fourth realty company. Thompson owns a branch of the real estate company in Sheridan.
The site in White Hall was formerly used as a workspace for her agents working in the area.
"White Hall has so much potential so we opened it as an office at the end of March," Thompson said.
Also, they've upped their number of agents working in the Sheridan, Bryant and Hot Springs areas to about 23, and they're in the process of opening an office in Bryant.
Thompson said until the last few years White Hall's growth was stagnant to slow.
"But the tide is changing," Thompson said.
The "very brisk" home sales are having a ripple effect and are causing commercial development to take notice and take place. Often, these are new businesses driven by residents' needs, Thompson said.
For example, a second Simmons Bank branch is under construction, as well as the White Hall Plaza, which will house two national restaurant chains, Moe's Southwest Grill and Schlotzsky's.
Along with the completely renovated and full-size Brookshire's Grocery Store, there are new places like the Petal Shoppe, which relocated from Pine Bluff, and Oliver's Furniture, that are catering to local needs, Thompson said.
ADD-ONS
Thompson said commercial development such as construction of the new Relyance Bank headquarters and the TownPlace Suites by Marriott is helping secondary or support businesses gain a foothold.
On the northwest end of town, White Hall High School is adding a $14 million fine arts facility and a $6 million multipurpose facility.
On West Holland Avenue, Jefferson Regional Medical Center and Kindred Rehabilitation Services recently announced the planned construction of a 176-bed hospital.
White Hall Mayor Noel Foster said this facility will add to the growing number of professional jobs, in such fields as engineering, banking and medical, to the city.
For example, the international company BlueScope, better known to locals as Varco Pruden, recently moved its engineering and project management purchasing division from Pine Bluff to White Hall.
Ken Smith, who chairs the White Hall City Council and the Planning Commission, said these types of businesses pay more than minimum wage and attract professionals to the area.
Thompson added, these bode well for continued residential and commercial development.
A FINAL NOTE
Wreyford said many of the home buyers she's talking with now work in White Hall and live here or want to move here, which is different than in the past, when many lived in the city but worked in Pine Bluff or Little Rock.
It's possibly the start of a growth cycle that will feed on itself. The more businesses that open or move here, the more that will want to be in White Hall, Wreyford said.
Thompson said the city's residents and officials have built a good framework for future growth.
"I don't see it slowing down any time soon," she said.
A five-bedroom home for sale at White Hall is listed by Southern Homes Realty which recently opened an office in the city. (Special to The Commercial)