Hey everybody. My name is Phillip Shepherd. I’m a local real estate agent located right here in Northwest Arkansas. Today, we’re talking about part two of Northwest Arkansas and the recession and what that’s going to look like.
People are increasingly moving from large cities to smaller areas like Northwest Arkansas, driven by the high momentum and quality of life. The population is projected to grow as a result, but the startups and big businesses will ensure that it weathers a recession and even benefits from it.
This article will look at this situation from an economic perspective and consider the different elements that can see Northwest Arkansas through a financial recession. So let’s talk about that.
Recap
If you haven’t read my first article on this topic, you can find it on my website. It talks about the “exoskeleton” or the structure of this article and just about summarizes that a lot of people are moving out of bigger areas and looking for midsize areas like Northwest Arkansas and all the things that come with that.
Check it out beforehand, and then come back to this article. I also want to mention that there will be a part three that will focus specifically on the housing side.
This article is going to be structured in a very economic sense. I’m not going to mention too much about the amazing things about Northwest Arkansas. This is a very high-level economic talk about the upcoming recession, assuming upcoming recession, and how Northwest Arkansas will wade through that versus other areas in America.
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High Momentum
The first part I want to talk about, and this is key number one, is that there’s so much really good high momentum when it comes to Northwest Arkansas.
Not only is Northwest Arkansas growing rapidly when it comes to population, but the fact that there have been so many eyes on Northwest Arkansas for the last, probably like five to ten years.
And so all the cities around Northwest Arkansas–Fayetteville, Bentonville, Rogers, Springdale–have invested so much money and energy into the next 20, 30, 40, or 50 years.
We’re just starting to see the cusp of Northwest Arkansas growth that is just happening now versus what would’ve been like ten years ago because they started the infrastructure system and pathways.
They started all these different things that are actually finally coming to fruition. Now say, for instance, we just got done doing a big aviation summit called the Up Summit, which just heavily focused on the future of aviation. They’re trying to carve out Bentonville as the next innovation area of aviation.
We have so many different biking events here in Northwest Arkansas. We had the world championships come to Fayetteville, and they did all the racing this January.
We’ve all sorts of new music festivals that are coming here, plus all the ones that have already been happening for the last couple of years.
These are drawing thousands and thousands of people to Northwest Arkansas. They are coming from out of state America to see the music festivals here.
We just got done doing Bike Fest, which drew about 15,000 people to Bentonville. These are all big events that have been drawing so many people to the area, and it’s not slowing down.
We have the university and the sports in Fayetteville. And if anyone’s keeping on top of the news when it comes to sports and the university, they’ve been performing so well the last couple of years, specifically the last two years.
They’ve been doing so well that they put themselves back on the map multiple times between basketball, baseball, and track and field. They are just doing so well that it’s drawing more people to the university.
We have Crystal Bridges, which is kind of funny because you think it’s just a museum. It’s an art museum in Bentonville, Arkansas. But every time I go to Crystal Bridges, I meet many people from across America.
The last time I was there, I met these people that flew in from California, and they were actually museum hopping all across America. One of the stops on the list of the itinerary was Crystal Bridges.
And so they were thinking about actually moving from California to Northwest Arkansas. Who would’ve thought it has so much influence across America that people come here just for that?
We have affordability, so every time you type in Northwest Arkansas or Fayetteville, specifically Fayetteville, it makes some of the top lists when it comes to affordability around all of America, so that doesn’t hurt it at all.
On top of that, there’s the Heartland Summit, a brand new summit that gets together all sorts of high-influence people, whether political or other sorts of high organizations. They come together in Bentonville, Arkansas, and talk about how they will make this area a bigger place for commerce and business over the next ten years.
So structures, roads, investments, all sorts of different things that are happening in the Heartland summit. And these are people that have major influence when it comes to investment funds.
Louisiana’s governor was there. Obviously, the governor of Arkansas was there, and Oklahoma’s too. So all these different states are coming here to make Arkansas a major place to do business. And they’re trying to grow it exponentially in the next couple of years.
That’s just a little tidbit of what’s happened in Northwest Arkansas, and these are just framing your idea of if there is a recession.
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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:
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Quality of Life
The quality of life here is just nothing to compare to when it comes to other parts of America. Between jobs and housing and activities, things to do, and community, the quality of life here is astounding because you cannot only do things outside all year long, but you also have a great community.
You have people coming across all of America looking for the same things you are. Kind of a fresh start in some sense, trying to get their feet under themselves, coming from larger cities or places where they just can’t get ahead in life.
And so people are coming here to get ahead in life because everything’s so affordable, jobs abound, there are things to do, there are so many communities… There are so many things going on in Northwest Arkansas, in fact, that many people move here just for that, and feel right at home.
Our Startups Are Essential Businesses
We’re going to go on to number three, which is that our startups here are really based on essentials.
When we think about San Francisco, we think about these startups. There are a lot of startups that have a lot of employees. They’re kind of like moonshots to some extent.
For instance, crypto.com had a big thing because cryptocurrency is a big deal, but it grew too fast and had to let go of hundreds of employees. These fringe businesses in other major cities are going to feel the recession the hardest because they’re not really essential businesses.
A good counter-example is a startup here in Northwest Arkansas called Freight Eight. It’s trying to solve the problem of relaying shipments from, let’s say, Northwest Arkansas to Kansas.
Instead of a truck driver driving from eight hours a day or ten hours a day from point one to point two and then sleeping, Freight Eight is trying to do a relay system from here to Kansas and then Kansas to Iowa State, and Iowa State to Chicago.
They’re trying to do this massive relay system based on the blockchain, based on different algorithms so that we can speed up transportation and we don’t have to wait when a truck driver sleeps eight hours. We can just keep the actual chain.
And so that’s a startup based on actual essentials because we always need transportation. We always need food. We always need medical (care). We always need health. There are these essential things that are just core, even recession-proof.
They’ll never go away because people always need these things. We always need housing. And so a lot of our startups here are based on those things, not some kind of far-off distance idea that potentially could happen.
Our startups here are based on ground essentials, whether medical, housing, food, or things that’ll just last forever and will always be needed.
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Our Big Businesses Are Essential Businesses
Speaking on essentials, our major three businesses here, Walmart, Tyson, and J.B. Hunt, are some of the three biggest companies in the world and are all based on essentials.
Walmart, brick and mortar, eCommerce, the whole thing. Tyson is food but is so much more than just chicken. It owns a lot of different side brands as well. And J.B. Hunt is transportation.
All three of those things will never go away. On top of that, when money gets tight, you go to the place with the most affordability overall, which is usually ALDI and Walmart.
University Brings Attention
And fifthly, the university is drawing so much more attention to Northwest Arkansas than ever before.
Whether it’s the research facilities for our medical side, whether it’s actually getting your full medical degree here or wanting to become a lawyer through here, there are so many opportunities in Northwest Arkansas.
The academic side is doing fantastic. There are so many people coming here for affordable education, and they’re getting a great education as well.
The university also keeps getting more and more patents, and they keep getting more recognition for the things they are doing here in Northwest Arkansas.
We obviously have a children’s hospital, a large veterans hospital, a major hospital just in Fayetteville, and all the other hospitals across Northwest Arkansas.
But there are so many ways and places for people to go to the university and get a really good education, like the Walton business school, which is attached to the university.
If you are looking to get a business degree, they have a full Walton education system built into the university, and obviously, Walmart’s doing pretty well for itself. So, I would definitely look into the Walton business school for anything.
Academically, the university is doing quite well. On top of that, the sports side is just getting so much more national attention in the last couple of years than ever before, bringing more enrollment, more people, more talent, and more investment.
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Population Growth
Last but not least, we’ll talk about population growth. The population currently in Northwest Arkansas sits at 500,000 people. It is projected that the population is going to double to 1 million people in less than ten years.
I think if the recession does come, it’s going to happen faster because people are going to be leaving major cities.
People are going to be looking to get ahead in life, looking to raise their families, and looking to go to college.
They’ll be looking to balance the outdoors and indoors, enjoy everything, and make a good community. You’re not going to find that in large cities that are against businesses. You’re not going to find that in areas that don’t want any more help.
Arkansas is the Natural State. It’s a state where you can belong, where you can be, and you can find exactly what you’re looking for right here.
And so there’s a lot of things happening in Northwest Arkansas. The momentum is, I would say, just going to continue to go up exponentially. And I think the recession is actually bringing it even higher because there will be so many people moving here from these large areas.
Conclusion
Northwest Arkansas is uniquely equipped to thrive even in the face of a financial recession. The factors that play into this collectively and individually draw even more people here.
Again, if you are thinking about moving down to Northwest Arkansas, download my three-day itinerary.
And also, when you do come down here, get in touch and we can definitely check out some homes for sale or for rent and see how far your dollar will go in Northwest Arkansas compared to where you’re coming from!