Bentonville, AR is growing rapidly, which has fueled a hot real estate market

Bentonville, Arkansas, has been experiencing major growth in recent years.

The population of the city stood at 59,471 in 2023, representing a 2.7% increase from the prior year and 9.8% jump from 2020, according to the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

Bentonville is located in Northwestern Arkansas, a fast-growing region where companies like Walmart, J.B. Hunt and Tyson Foods all have their headquarters.

A forecast from the Northwest Arkansas Regional Planning Commission suggested over 1 million could call Northwest Arkansas home by 2050. 

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Bentonville’s real estate market has become a hot spot alongside the city’s growth.

"We’re the home of Walmart, and we’re the home of J.B. Hunt and also the home of Tyson, and Walmart has spent a ton of energy in making this a very recruitable place," The Agency Bentonville Managing Partner Kaala House told FOX Business. "Our market is growing so intensely, especially starting after COVID because a lot of people wanted to get out of the city where they could be outside and things like that. We have become, in the last couple years, we’ve become the mountain biking capital of the United States in Bella Vista. And so that’s making us extremely recruitable for Walmart, who’s bringing back their employees as well."

The real estate market around Bentonville has seen an 8.5% increase in home sales in the first half of 2024 from a year ago, The Agency Bentonville agent Katlyn Munch said.

Benton County, where Bentonville is located, and two nearby counties notched 4,799 home sales over the first six months of the year, according to a recent Skyline Report from Arvest Bank and the University of Arkansas published online by NWAHomepage. 

That figure represented a 2.7% rise from the latter half of 2023, the report found.

Munch also noted 39.5% of all homes sold were new construction.

"We’re at an all-low inventory rate. There’s a lot of people that are holding on to that COVID two-point interest rate, and so we’ve got a lot of people that are holding their homes that they don’t want to sell because they have such a great rate, and then the prices have gone up so much since that time too," House said. "So we have a lot of new construction inventory right now. I think the average was, if we closed 29 new houses a day, we wouldn’t have enough houses, because we average 37 people-a-day increase in population."

Bentonville has "a little bit more" of a buyer’s market at the moment, she said, citing interest rates, the upcoming election and other factors.

The Agency Bentonville experts credited Walmart and other companies with helping drive Bentonville’s growth. 

Walmart has been based in Bentonville for roughly six decades. Munch pointed to the retailer’s new "Home Office" campus slated to open next year as something that could bring more people to the area, on top of the company’s current recruitment efforts.

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"As Walmart keeps recruiting and all these companies here keep recruiting people to live in Northwest Arkansas, we’re just going to keep growing and keep seeing more businesses move into the area," including more restaurants.

Walmart asking remote workers to move to Bentonville has brought more people to Bentonville and the surrounding area, House said. They could also move to Hoboken, New Jersey, or Southern California, FOX Business has reported.

Many big-name companies that do business with Walmart have presences in the area, something that has contributed to the influx of people in Bentonville too, according to The Agency Bentonville realtors.

When it comes to Bentonville’s real estate market, The Agency Bentonville expects it will continue to grow, including the price per square foot of homes.

Surrounding areas are also starting to grow "exponentially" as residents get priced out of Bentonville and seek cheaper housing options, Munch noted.

Homes in Benton County sold for an average of around $430,000 in the first six months of this year. That represented a slight increase year-over-year and a 72.5% jump over five years, according to the Skyline Report.

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Bentonville recently drew praise from Blackstone COO Jon Gray as a "place to add to the bucket list" in a video he posted earlier in the week to LinkedIn.

"This is a place to add to the bucket list," Gray said while jogging in the area. "A great run. They have amazing bike trails here, museums, unbelievable food. The Walton family has done an incredible job. This is obviously the home of Walmart, an incredible company that serves customers all over the world, delivering value, has created so many jobs. And this is just a fun spot, I’m definitely coming back here. "