Northwest Arkansas - One of the Few Places To Grow in 2023?

The National Association of Realtors (NAR) reported a significant growth in several areas in America. Where should you go if you want to be where everything’s happening?

Northwest Arkansas is number four on the list of places growing in America. This is based on the criteria the NAR used for the forecast. It includes better housing, higher job growth, migration gains, faster population growth, and more.

Continue reading to understand the criteria in more detail and why NWA made the ranking. I’ll also discuss what this means for those moving down and why you should consider doing so as soon as possible.

Video:

Criteria for Fast-Growing Markets

Let’s first consider the criteria that the National Association of Realtors used to limit the list of markets expected to grow exponentially in 2023:

Better housing and affordability is the main reason Northwest Arkansas made the list.
More renters can afford to buy a median-priced home. This aligns precisely with what Northwest Arkansas is working towards, i.e., making more affordable housing for rentals and home ownership. This has been happening for many years and was reinstated by the Northwest Arkansas Council last year.
Stronger job growth.
Faster growth of information industry jobs and improvement in technology, i.e., big tech jobs.
Higher shares of the information industry (tech) in the respective local Gross Domestic Product (GDP) mean more growth in the information, space, and tech areas to improve the GDP of NWA specifically.
Migration gains.
Shares of workers teleworking also align with what Northwest Arkansas was trying to do last year by bringing more remote workers into the area and incentivizing them with bitcoin, bikes, and sometimes cash. That worked out very well.
Faster population growth.
Faster growth of active housing inventory.
Smaller housing shortages.

Why NWA Is on the List

This is the most critical aspect of this study and discussion because NWA ranked high on the list.

The NAR discusses the favorable outcomes undergirding everything, so we’ll discuss what Northwest Arkansas has done to create those results.

Based on the criteria discussed, we can easily say NWA has tremendous job growth, affordable housing, excellent GDP, and high migration gains. What has NWA done that has allowed this?

NWA doesn’t have major firepower like Atlanta or Dallas. It has many businesses like Walmart, JB Hunt, and Tyson, which is a huge advantage, but at the same time, we’re not a big metropolitan city.

So why did NWA make the list?

People love staying in Bentonville, Arkansas! Here’s Why People Love staying in Bentonville!

Also, I have a 3-day itinerary that can help you decide what activities to do if you’re overwhelmed by everything Northwest Arkansas has to offer.

It doesn’t matter if you’re a foodie, a sports person, a sightseer, or want to spend quality time with your kids; I have something for you. Check out the link below to learn more:

https://www.allthingsnwa.com/3-day-itinerary-northwest-arkansas

1. NWA Has Made Solid Infrastructure

For the last 10 to 15 years, NWA has done a fantastic job of building solid infrastructure.

Chicago was always playing catch-up, doing stuff, and building roads intermittently, but what would happen if they’d actually planned out the area? If they’d build sustainable roads for larger population growth to avoid redoing the same stuff again?

This is what NWA has explicitly done by developing a suitable infrastructure.

NWA is constantly improving because there are areas where they didn’t expect growth but eventually did. Hence, they’re shuffling those places and ensuring things are done right.

The core structure of everything and the infrastructure have done very well here.

2. They Have Yet To Make More Developments

The second thing in this “why” section is there’s still so much to do. However, NWA already has biking trails, mountain climbing, kayaking, swimming, fishing, and a lot of indoor stuff.

We have many businesses and indoor locations to learn how to swim, and there are several gyms, bars, breweries, food places, restaurants, etc. There’s so much to do, even places to dance and for karaoke.

We’ve encouraged many businesses to move here, creating an excellent environment for people to live, work, and play.

Speaking of living, working, and playing, jobs are important because much money has been injected into startup culture with big businesses moving here. We have the big three:

Walmart
JB Hunt
Tyson

There are also many mid-size companies that still need more exposure regarding manufacturing and transportation.

A big part of NWA isn’t always glamorized because the huge companies steal all the attention. We have a lot of mid-size companies that do much manufacturing here and even exciting things on the medical side that aren’t big on the Forbes or newspaper front page stuff. It encourages a lot of jobs here as well.

Kids are difficult to entertain right? We got you covered! Best Things for Kids To Do In Bentonville, Arkansas

3. NWA Encourages Businesses

Arkansas, the Northwest region, encourages business growth. They cut red tape and ensure they give you the red carpet if you want to open a business.

There’s a lot of startup money between all the organizations around here that will fund your businesses.

On top of that, if you want to go solo and then have customer service, NWA is one of those unique areas that walks the walk and talks the talk, i.e., they invest in small businesses.

A good example is that we don’t have a lot of Starbucks around the area. We invest in many locally sourced coffee shops, which is a big deal. Moreover, it may sound funny, but we don’t have a lot of big chain banks here, mostly local ones.

There are also a lot of bakeries with bakers only for local stuff, and many restaurants here aren’t big chains but have grown out of NWA.

Overall, people here invest and buy into places in Northwest Arkansas because that’s what we want to do.

4. Everything Happening Here Is Deliberate

Lastly, everything happening in Northwest Arkansas has been super intentional. NWA is trying to compete on a broader scale of attracting people here because of all the fantastic things happening.

However, we also have to compete business-wise, like Atlanta, Dallas, and other bigger places in America, so it’s been so successful because it’s been super intentional. The deliberate actions taken include:

Hiring area and city planners.
Developing a map.
Developing where things should go and what should be zoned around.
Cutting red tape.

They’re making things very planned and easy to grow while simultaneously making them sustainable long-term, which is part of why I moved down.

Everything done here has been so intentional, and it’s impressive to see the intentionality and the plan work itself out.

They’ve done a great job of working the plan and sticking to it, so it’s fascinating to see the area grow so well.

How This Affects People Moving

This is the last quick part we need to discuss because you may be in this category soon.

You may be in a different environment where the housing isn’t doing too well. I’d quickly suggest you sell your house and move to Northwest Arkansas.

If you plan to move to Northwest Arkansas, I encourage you to do it sooner than later, as the region is on a massive upswing with many other places in America. Yet, it is still the best place to live, so I moved here.

You must ensure you sell your house at a reasonable time (sooner than later) and then make your way down here.

If that’s your plan, I have some recommended videos on my Youtube channel.

I’ve talked about how to move here, some of the secret hacks to make it more affordable, etc. I would hate for you not to be able to sell and move to Northwest Arkansas.

Conclusion

The National Association of Realtors used ten solid criteria to predict market growth in 2023, and NWA ranked 4th in the country.

It’s big news for the region, which aligns with what I’ve always shared on this blog. We’ve intentionally made moves to produce such outcomes, so it isn’t too surprising they rated this area so high on the list.

Therefore, start planning to move here sooner than later, especially if you’re in areas that aren’t doing well.

Northwest Arkansas – One of the Few Places To Grow in 2023?