By: Cogan Davis
Fayetteville, Ark. (UATV) – People from across the country are starting to make their way to the state of Arkansas more and more. This causes affordable housing to become rarer, especially in Northwest Arkansas.
In the past three years, Arkansas has seen a 33% increase in the median price of homes across the state.
As these price increases have occurred Arkansas residents have noticed trying to buy a home is becoming especially difficult. Bentonville Resident Gabe Smith recently went through the house-hunting process in Northwest Arkansas but could not find anything within his budget.
“With wages staying almost the same the difficulty has become trying to find a down payment for those kinds of places,” said Smith, “and it has almost become impossible for an average person.” According to RedFin, the prices of a home in Arkansas have gone from an average of $190,000 to as much as $250,000 since 2020.
Northwest Arkansas continues to grow largely due to one of its greatest attractions, the University of Arkansas. A full-time student at the University of Arkansas, Cameron Bolin, haslived in Northwest Arkansas his entire life and cannot believe the changes the area has seen in such a short time.
“It is crazy to think that just a couple years ago Northwest Arkansas was mainly farms, and now look at it, it’s unbelievable,” said Bolin.
Bolin recently went through his first housing experience and found immediate difficulty, saying he looked at about half a dozen different apartment complexes in the Fayetteville area, and all of them were too expensive for a full-time student.
With families and students starting to move to Arkansas from out of state, the Arkansas Department of Finance and Administration has seen tens of thousands of license transfers.
Out-of-state license transfers from Texas, California, Missouri, Oklahoma, and Florida all reached above 1,800, continuing to expand Arkansas’ population.
“It’s getting difficult with the expansion to see where we can go from here as far as housing goes,” said Bolin, “It’s a big issue.”
According to Rocket Homes, Bentonville ranks number one in metros in Arkansas with the fastest-growing sales price since last year, continuing to make buying a home difficult for Gabe Smith.
“Realistically there are so many people moving in I could only see it flatlining at some point,” said Smith, “I am not sure if will ever get better.”