Arkansas Housing Market: Home Prices, Rent and Affordability
The typical Arkansas home is worth $227,264, up 3.6% over the past year and up 21.2% over five years, 38.4% below the national $368,697 (Zillow, latest release). That ranks #46 of 50 on price. A 20%-down mortgage runs $1,169 a month and takes about $61,092 of income; the median Arkansas household earns $56,335, $4,757 short.
In Little Rock, the state's largest metro, typical rent is $1,265 a month against a $1,192 principal-and-interest payment on the typical home, so buying is $73 a month cheaper before taxes, insurance and maintenance. The market is cool: 23.5% of listings cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 80 days (national 53), and for-sale inventory is up 10.4% from a year ago.
All figures are Zillow Research's published numbers for August; median household income is from the Census Bureau. How the data works → · Home prices in all 50 states →
Arkansas Housing by the Numbers
How much does a house cost in Arkansas? The typical home is worth $227,264, the median sale price is $257,417 and the median list price $296,000. The six figures below describe the market this month, each with the national comparison.
How Have Arkansas Home Prices Changed?
The typical Arkansas home value every month since 2000, with the national typical home as a dashed line. Values rose 3.6% over the past year, are up 21.2% over five years, up 65.1% over ten, and up 151% since January 2000.
Is It Cheaper to Rent or Buy in Arkansas?
Two direct answers from the Zillow data. Rent versus buy sets typical asking rent in Little Rock, the state's largest metro, against the mortgage payment on the typical home there, since Zillow publishes rents by metro rather than by state. The affordability gap is the income needed to buy the typical Arkansas home minus what the median household actually earns.
Rent vs. buy · Little Rock, AR
The payment excludes property tax (0.59% of value in Arkansas), insurance and maintenance, all of which push the cost of owning higher; renting builds no equity. If values kept rising at the past five years' pace (21.2%), equity would narrow that gap over a long stay.
Affordability gap · #10 of 50
A $1,169 monthly payment takes 24.9% of the median Arkansas household's income before property tax and insurance; lenders generally cap total housing costs near 28–31%. Full budget for your household →
Is Arkansas a Buyer's or a Seller's Market?
Market temperature is our label from three Zillow signals compared with the national market: the share of listings with a price cut, days from listing to pending (days on market), and whether homes for sale are up from a year ago. Arkansas is cool: it leans toward buyers: two of the three market signals point cooler than the national market.
Median sale price $257,417 against a median list price of $296,000, so the typical home closes 13.0% below asking.
Where the Arkansas market is heading
Compared with a year ago, all three signals point looser, in buyers' favor: the share of listings with a price cut is up 0.7 points from a year ago to 23.5%, homes take 9 days longer to go pending than a year ago (80 now), and the number of homes for sale is up 10.4%. The typical home value rose 3.6% over the same period and is at an all-time high. We publish no forecasts: these are Zillow's current-month readings, not a prediction of where Arkansas home prices go next.
Home Values and Rents in Arkansas Cities
Zillow publishes a city-level home value or rent for 20 of the Arkansas cities we track. The most expensive is Bentonville ($492,753) and the cheapest Pine Bluff ($73,251). Click a city for its full profile.
| City | Population | Home value | 1 yr | 5 yr | Rent | Rent 1 yr | Value ÷ income |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Little Rock | 203,844 | $221,588 | +3.7% | ||||
| Fayetteville | 101,694 | $383,552 | +4.0% | ||||
| Fort Smith | 89,771 | $195,029 | +3.1% | ||||
| Springdale | 89,394 | $341,760 | +3.9% | ||||
| Jonesboro | 80,655 | $227,300 | +3.8% | ||||
| Rogers | 74,047 | $385,478 | +3.0% | ||||
| Conway | 69,577 | $250,644 | +2.4% | ||||
| North Little Rock | 64,504 | $169,776 | +3.7% | ||||
| Bentonville | 56,326 | $492,753 | +2.8% | ||||
| Pine Bluff | 40,436 | $73,251 | -2.1% | ||||
| Hot Springs | 38,023 | $246,145 | -0.1% | ||||
| Benton | 35,954 | $241,966 | +2.5% | ||||
| Sherwood | 32,915 | $239,553 | +4.6% | ||||
| Bella Vista | 30,935 | $359,421 | +1.9% | ||||
| Paragould | 29,940 | $195,739 | +2.9% | ||||
| Texarkana | 29,343 | $167,045 | +0.9% | ||||
| Jacksonville | 29,285 | $174,038 | +6.1% | ||||
| Russellville | 29,057 | $219,718 | +3.7% | ||||
| Cabot | 26,733 | $248,907 | +4.1% | ||||
| West Memphis | 24,147 | $133,024 | +6.6% |
Home value and rent are Zillow's city-level indexes; population and median household income are Census ACS. Cities without a Zillow index are omitted. All Arkansas cities ranked →
How Arkansas Compares With Nearby States
The South states closest to Arkansas on price. Each card links to that state's housing page; the compare link puts the two states side by side on every category.
More on Arkansas
Arkansas dashboard
→Overall rank and grade, every category score, taxes, utilities, safety, schools and all tracked cities.
What you'd keep in Arkansas
→Take-home after housing, taxes, childcare, utilities and groceries for your household and income.
Who is moving to Arkansas
→IRS migration data: where new residents come from, where leavers go, and what both groups earn.
Arkansas Housing Market FAQ
What is the average house price in Arkansas?
$227,264 is the typical Arkansas home value according to the latest Zillow Research release of the Zillow Home Value Index, which tracks homes in the middle third of the market. The median sale price was $257,417 and the median list price $296,000. That makes Arkansas the #46 most expensive state; the national typical home is worth $368,697.
Are home prices dropping in Arkansas?
No. The typical Arkansas home value rose 3.6% over the past year and is at an all-time high. Over five years it is up 21.2% and over ten years up 65.1%. Nationally, values rose 1.2% over the year.
How have Arkansas home prices changed over the past 1, 5 and 10 years?
+3.6% over one year, +21.2% over five years and +65.1% over ten years for the typical Arkansas home value, per the latest Zillow Research release; the national figures are +1.2%, +20.3% and +77.9%. Since January 2000 the typical Arkansas home is up 151%. The monthly chart above shows the full series against the national line.
Will the Arkansas housing market crash?
We publish no forecasts, so this page cannot answer that; it can show the current readings and the historical worst case. Right now the typical Arkansas home value is at an all-time high after it rose 3.6% over the past year; 23.5% of listings have cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 80 days (national 53), and inventory is up 10.4% from a year ago, per Zillow Research. The largest decline in Zillow's monthly series for Arkansas was 7.9% from April 2008 to September 2011, and values took 44 months to regain that peak.
Is it a good time to buy a house in Arkansas?
The Arkansas market is cool right now, which means it leans toward buyers: two of the three market signals point cooler than the national market. 23.5% of listings cut their price (national 26.4%), homes go pending in 80 days (national 53), and for-sale inventory is up 10.4% from a year ago. Affordability is the constraint: buying the typical home takes $61,092 of income, $4,757 more than the median household earns. Whether the timing is right also depends on mortgage rates and how long you plan to stay.
Is Arkansas a buyer's or seller's market?
Arkansas leans toward buyers. Fewer listings are cutting prices than the national average (23.5% vs. 26.4%), homes take 80 days to go pending (national 53), and the number of homes for sale is up 10.4% from a year ago at 18K listings. Two of those three signals point toward buyers.
What is the average rent in Arkansas?
In Little Rock, Arkansas's largest metro, the typical asking rent is $1,265 a month, up 2.1% over the past year and up 19.6% over five years, per the Zillow Observed Rent Index. The national typical rent is $1,948. Among Arkansas cities we track, rents range from $951 to $1,839 a month.
Is it cheaper to rent or buy in Arkansas?
Buying is cheaper month to month in Little Rock, Arkansas's largest metro. Typical rent is $1,265 and the principal-and-interest payment on the typical home with 20% down is $1,192, a difference of $73 a month in favor of buying. The payment excludes property tax (0.59% of value in Arkansas), insurance and maintenance, and renting builds no equity, so the full answer depends on how long you stay.
How much income do you need to buy a house in Arkansas?
About $61,092 a year, using Zillow's assumptions of 20% down at current mortgage rates and a payment of no more than 30% of income. The median Arkansas household earns $56,335, so the typical household is $4,757 short. That is the #10 smallest affordability gap of the 50 states. The monthly payment of $1,169 equals 24.9% of the median household's income.
Where are homes cheapest and most expensive in Arkansas?
Among the Arkansas cities we track with Zillow data, the most expensive typical home is in Bentonville ($492,753) and the cheapest in Pine Bluff ($73,251). Also at the top: Rogers ($385,478), Fayetteville ($383,552), and Bella Vista ($359,421). The city table above lists every tracked Arkansas city with its value, one-year change and rent.
How does Arkansas compare with nearby states?
In the South, the closest comparisons on price are Oklahoma ($223,261, up 2.8% in a year), Kentucky ($232,577, down 0.4% in a year), and Louisiana ($217,039, up 2.1% in a year). Arkansas's typical home is $227,264, up 3.6%. On affordability, Arkansas ranks #10 of 50 versus Oklahoma at #8, Kentucky at #3, and Louisiana at #17.
How current is the Arkansas housing data?
Every figure on this page comes from Zillow Research, which publishes state, metro and city data free each month for the prior month; the latest month shown is August. Median household income is from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. We rebuild the page from the newest Zillow files as they are released.
Home values, rents, mortgage payments, income needed, inventory, price cuts, days to pending and sale and list prices are published by Zillow Research and shown as released, with attribution. Median household income and city populations are from the Census Bureau's American Community Survey. Home prices and housing markets in all 50 states →