Fayetteville MSA Receives Another #1 Rating

Our best-kept secret has been announced to the world by Bert Sperling of Sperling’s Best Places fame. Sperling has previously researched and written books about a variety of issues such as the best places to raise a family and cities with the lowest crime rates.

This time Sperling looked at quality of life, affordable housing, high percentage of home ownership, low unemployment and fast rate of job growth. He discovered the Fayetteville Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA) and ranked it number one in the country. (Fayetteville MSA includes Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers, Bentonville and stretches into extreme southwest Missouri.)

The area boasts five-year-job growth of 26.1% and a low unemployment rate of 3.5%. In addition to the headquarters for Wal-Mart, Tyson and J.B. Hunt Trucking, many other Fortune 500 companies have offices here.

Living costs are low. According to the book, the median home price in the Fayetteville-Springdale-Rogers area averages $212,300 for a 3-4 bedroom home with approximately 2,000 sq. ft. of living area.

We have the University of Arkansas-Fayetteville with all their sports and cultural activities, several museums plus a world-class museum scheduled to open in 2009, a large performing arts center, excellent medical facilities, and our own regional airport with non-stop service to Chicago, Houston, Detroit, Minneapolis and additional cities.

Add all that to the clean air and natural beauty of the Ozarks, many lakes including Beaver Lake with its 449 miles of shoreline, and a very livable four-season climate and you can easily understand why Sperling found this area so attractive.

For the past several years, some 1000-1100 people have been moving here each month. I guess Bert Sperling isn’t the only person to recognize a good thing when he sees it.

For more information:

http://realestate.msn.com/Buying/Article2.aspx?cp-documentid=3863709
http://www.nwanews.com/nwat/news/51179