BENTONVILLE, Ark. (May 27, 2025) — Five years after the release of the first Our Housing Future report, Northwest Arkansas continues to face a growing housing challenge. The Walton Family Foundation’s 2025 update – Our Housing Future: A Call to Action for Northwest Arkansas – provides a detailed look at the region's evolving housing challenges and opportunities, including a nearly 50% rise in median rent for multifamily housing and a 70.9% increase 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 shows a need to address housing affordability and availability as Northwest Arkansas prepares for an estimated population exceeding 1 million by 2050, making it one of the 20 fastest-growing metro areas in the nation.

Highlights from the Report:

Increased Housing Needs: The number of new rental units needed for low-income households has grown from 7,100 in 2019 to 9,300 today.

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 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 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: https://waltonfamilyfoundation.org/our-housing-future-a-call-to-action-for-northwest-arkansas

Note on AMI Update:

Since the report's completion, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has released updated 2025 data showing that the area median income (AMI) in Northwest Arkansas has increased from $94,400 to $101,800. While this new data underscores the region’s ongoing income growth, it does not alter the report's core findings; all analysis is based on the most current data available at the time of the report’s completion.

About the Walton Family Foundation

The Walton Family Foundation is, at its core, a family-led foundation. Three generations of the descendants of our founders, Sam and Helen Walton, and their spouses work together to lead the foundation and create access to opportunity for people and communities. We work in three areas: improving education, protecting rivers and oceans and the communities they support and investing in our home region of Northwest Arkansas and the Arkansas-Mississippi Delta. To learn more, visit waltonfamilyfoundation.org and follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, Instagram and X.