BENTONVILLE, Ark., May 28, 2025 — As northeast Arkansas’s population growth continues to outpace the rest of the state and nation, a new report funded by the Walton Family Foundation indicates that the housing supply is currently not keeping up with demand, resulting in affordability challenges for current and new residents moving to the area.

Five years after its first “Our Housing Future” report, WFF’s updated analysis of northeast Arkansas Housing shows that the area continues to face a growing housing challenge. The new report, titled “Our Housing Future: A Call to Action for Northwest Arkansas,” offers a detailed examination of the region’s evolving housing challenges and opportunities, including a nearly 50% increase in median rent for multifamily housing and a 70.9% rise in home prices. 

“While progress has been made in some areas, the challenges outlined in 2019 have only grown,” said Robert Burns, director of the Walton Family Foundation’s Home Region Program. “Our region is at an important juncture, requiring action to ensure affordable and accessible housing for all residents.”

The report emphasizes the importance of addressing housing affordability and availability as Northwest Arkansas prepares for an estimated population of over 1 million by 2050, making it one of the nation’s 20 fastest-growing metropolitan areas.

According to recent U.S. Census Bureau data, Benton and Washington counties have added nearly 55,000 residents to the fast-growing region’s population base. Since the beginning of the pandemic in April 2020, Benton County’s population jumped 13% from 284,334 to 321,566, the state’s second-largest county behind Pulaski County.

Washington County has seen its population increase by 7%, rising from 248,862 to 266,184, making it the state’s third-largest county. Now designated as a metropolitan region (MSA) by U.S. census officials, Northwest Arkansas today includes four of the ten largest cities in the state: Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, and Bentonville, along with the surrounding towns in Benton and Washington counties, and adjacent rural Madison County, Arkansas.

Defined as the Fayetteville–Springdale–Rogers MSA, it covers 3,213.01 square miles and has over 600,000 residents as of the end of 2024, ranking NWA as the 98th most populous metropolitan statistical area in the U.S. and the 13th fastest-growing in the U.S.

Northwest Arkansas experienced nearly double the population growth between 1990 and 2010. Growth has been mainly driven by the three Fortune 500 companies, including Walmart, Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt, as well as nearly 1,300 suppliers and vendors drawn to the region by these large businesses.  According to the new WFF report, the number of new rental units needed for low-income households has grown from 7,100 in 2019 to 9,300 today. Other highlights from the report are below.

Rising Costs:

• Since 2019, the median rent for multifamily housing in the region has risen by nearly 50%. Home prices have skyrocketed by 70.9%, significantly outpacing increases in other comparable regions like Durham-Chapel Hill, N.C. (58.3%) and Austin, Texas (46.2%).
• Area median income (AMI) for a family of four increased by 35%, from $69,900 in 2019 to $94,400 in 2024. Over the past five years, several professions have shifted income categories. 
• Data analyzed by the University of Arkansas Center for Business and Economic Research from the first half of 2024 shows a nearly 50% increase in average rent in the regional multifamily housing stock over the last five years.

Cost-Burdened Households: The number of households spending more than 30% of their income on housing has increased by 10% since 2019 to 29,756 households. 

Subsidized Housing Risk: By 2040, the region could lose more than half of its 3,233 subsidized housing units due to expiring federal subsidies.

“Some strides have been made – including local land use reforms, the establishment of Groundwork, a regional housing organization and philanthropic investment in over 1,000 units of attainable housing. But progress on the five critical actions identified in 2019 has been limited,” said Stacy Jurado-Miller, senior program officer specializing in regional affordability and housing for the Walton Family Foundation’s Home Region Program. “Challenges like clarity on legal parameters, limited funding, accessible resources, and unclear responsibility and accountability will require regional collaboration and a shared plan for creating the tools to build a better housing future.”

The report also highlights several areas critical to addressing the region’s housing crisis:

• Regional Housing Vision: No formal agreement exists to guide housing policy.
• Incentives for Development: Developers have identified a need for gap funding and incentives to make affordable units financially feasible.
• Public Land for Housing: Further efforts to inventory and utilize publicly owned land for affordable housing are needed.
• Funding Gaps: Rising construction costs and insufficient state-level resources hinder affordable housing projects.

The report further identifies immediate priorities, including establishing a regional housing vision, creating a housing trust fund, utilizing publicly owned land, leveraging federal and state funding, and introducing development incentives to address the housing shortfall. It also highlights the need for intentional planning in smaller, rapidly growing towns outside the four major cities – Bentonville, Fayetteville, Rogers, and Springdale.

“Safe and affordable housing is critical infrastructure, essential to preserving the quality of life that makes Northwest Arkansas unique,” said Burns. “Housing is a cornerstone of community stability and economic prosperity, and regional leaders will need to work together to adopt bold, collaborative measures to secure a sustainable future.”

For more information on the report and its recommendations, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org