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Housing market in Fayetteville


mzweig

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Howdy, I live in Southern Colorado, and because of medical condition we need to move to a lower altitude. We have never been to NWA, but it sure looks like what we are looking for!

So I contacted several realtors, and WOW, they are awful, it's like they don't want to be bothered with questions. We are looking in about a 40 mile circle around Rogers. Been looking for a little ranch/farm 50+ acres, and noticed a lot of places have EMPTY poultry houses, can you guys tell me what happened to the poultry market in the area? Not that I want to get in the poultry business, just trying to figure out the area.

 

Thanks!

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You will also want to include some locations along the Arkansas/Missouri line. There are some great opportunities for 50+ acres there (Pea Ridge AR, Jane MO, Seligman MO).

Kind of a general sense i feel about the area: North/East/South of metro northwest arkansas is beautiful rolling hills. East has Beaver Lake. West of Metro area is much flatter.

My opinion on the abandoned coops is that the market doesnt really allow a diversivied farmer to have just a coop or two. There are lots of new ones being built with 5-10 bird houses. There are many incentives to drive the market for new coops too.

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That is a pretty good summary of the commercial poultry situation as it exists in NWA at the moment.  This area has never had much of a row farming industry, but had a relatively diverse culture of poultry and cattle animal husbandry along with some niche apple, blueberry, and grape farming.  A lot of that has died out as many of the areas which once housed blueberry and grape fields or small cattle ranch now are housing developments.  The original poultry industry here was very diverse with many different farmers selling their chickens on the open market to larger companies.  Now you will find mostly company sponsored farms with much higher concentration of birds per farm/coop.  The entire industry has gone this direction, not just NWA...we just happen to have had a rather large percentage of our land used for this purpose.

 

Many of the coops you will find on large land plots are very old (often wooden or first generation sheet metal) and are just not capable of housing modern broiler breeders which have very specific temperature requirements.  The poultry market in this area is VERY strong, probably as strong as ever...just commercialization and modernization of the industry has left a lot of old abandoned coops here and there.  There really aren't all that many, but the 50+ acre plots you are looking at is definitely inriching your results for them.

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More weird questions, based on Google earth, Rogers, AR. to Jane, MO. is like 18 miles, Rogers, to Pea Ridge is 9 miles. Is MO. better, cheaper, less property tax than AR.. Where I live now, we drive 12 miles to Walmart, and 18 miles to major shopping. My girlfriend drives from 50 to 100 miles each way for work. I have send emails to realtors in the area, and all they say is come on in, we'll show you great places, well yeah, but I'm 900 miles away and on Oxygen, I need to narrow down the search with info, and they just side step all my questions. Can anyone suggest a great realtor? Thanks

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I would agree with the above.  The smaller/older/inefficient poultry houses can't compete with bigger newer firms that are concentrated in certain areas.  Overall, however, the poultry business is strong in the region. 

 

West Benton county and southern McDonald County (in Missouri, just across the state line) will probably be your best bet for what you're looking for regarding small farms.  However I'm pretty sure your taxes will be lower in Missouri.  Property prices are also probably lower as well. Might want to check on this to verify.

 

Best of luck!!

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There is a Walmart on just about every corner here. Jane MO has one. I believe more booze is sold there than any other WM. That will likely change with Benton co now being wet.

I would suggest the Jane MO area if you are interested in the golf community that Bella Vista is. Pea Ridge is well connected to Rogers and Bentonville.

As far as realtors go, my neice works for a "Crye-Leike" realtor that is a nice guy. [email protected]

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The Zillow website is OK, but I like their smartphone applet better than their full website.  Much easier to use.

 

I
made an EXTREMELY rough draft of where I would start looking if I were
you.  I'm looking for something similar, but much smaller and I have
small children so school district REALLY figures in to.  Here is a map
that might help guide you.

8437860839_396e493139_m.jpg

I can't figure out how to post a decent image, so here is a quick one ;)

The red is the actual city type area, I wouldn't look there at all.  IF you
can find 50+ acres, it will cost a small fortune and be zoned
commercial or be far more valuable as a development.  The purple area is
mostly nice rolling hills, but can be very rocky with poor soil or the
flatter areas around Goshen and Elkins are already developed or the land
value is pretty high.  The blue area is up and down, unless you plan on
raising goats I would ignore it ;)  The yellow area is where I would
start looking, better soil for the most part and more flat with at least
some historical farming.  Then the purple, then the blue.  Although if
you go further into the blue around Huntsville, there is some decent
land to be had for sure...but that is pretty far out.  It would
certainly be more than 18 miles to major shopping.  Look at the towns of
Lincoln, Prairie Grove, Gentry, Siloam Springs, Decatur, Gravette,
Westville, OK etc.  That is where I would start the hunt :)

 

I
will warn you though, as someone who has spent a good bit of time with
family all over Colorado and New Mexico, the summer here is not nearly
as nice.  When it is 100 outside, it FEELS like 110...there won't be
those days where it is 100, but it feels like 90 because the dew point
is like 10 or something.  While not nearly as humid as further south and
east, it is a LONG way from a dry climate.

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-We moved out here from CA about 7 years ago.  Landra Bench took us all over NWA, and we probably looked at 100 homes.  She is very patient and hard working.  She works at crylieke, her number is 479-879-4332.  Her e-mail is [email protected].

 

Depending on what type of farming you are doing, I would suggest the West Fork Area, south of Fayetteville.  

 

we have a lot of livestock farmers and even a few veggie farmers, but down here we are more hilly than the neighbors to the north.

Due to the hills, it is a little harder to find good soil, but not impossible.  I have several friends who grow veggies for the farmers market 

West Fork is 10 minutes to Fayetteville.  There are 2- 4 lane highways into town, traffic is never an issue, and the town is small.  

 

Because of the hills, we get a lot less close calls when it comes to severe weather.  It seems that Benton Co and north into Joplin get a 

lot of the hail and possible tornatic activity.  It's not that we don't get that here, it just seems to be less often.  Property does seem to cost

a little more down here, but large parcels are to be had.  Personally, I would not rather live anywhere else in NWA.  West Fork is a 

pretty good place to live.

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From my perspective (brother lives on a hill in West Fork 30+years, I live in Rogers 20+ years, lots of other family all around here), I seem to think more thunderstorms/tornados/snow hit West Fork than in the "walmart bubble" of Rogers/Bentonville. Sure once you get up near Joplin the storms seem to be worse.

West Fork is beautiful, the school is ideal, and if someone was looking to be close to the college town it is a good location.

Considering Huntsville... might as well include Gravette, Praire Grove, Eureka Springs, Siloam Springs, etc.

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WOW, you guys are GREAT! I was thinking that AR. people were unfriendly, guess NOT, you have been great~! So far I have been totally blown off by 8 realtors, what's the deal?

I'm in Southern Colorado, I own a 47 acre ranch, 3 rentals in town, and my girlfriend has a house on 5 grassy acres, I have lived and owned houses in NY, CT and CO., between the two of us we have owned 19 properties, in 3 states, we know what questions to ask. I look at places for sale that have been on the market for well over a year, and these people don't even send an email back. I have been looking at a driving radius of 40 miles of Rogers, willing to pay cash, not only for a little ranch but a few rentals, yet no realtor gets back to me??? 40 miles puts me around West Fork, Lincoln, on the South, Maysville on NW, Green Forest on the East, Kingston the South East, and a bunch of MO.. We are not really looking at farming or ranching, yeah we want to have an large food plot, and a few animals, maybe some extra to sell at farmers market, we don't need schools, night life, or major jobs. All we need is a modest house some land to grow a few things, do a little hunting, OH yeah MORE AIR PRESURE, so I can breath. I have lived on Long Island NY, Branford CT, I know what it feels like to have 100*F and 100% humidity, don't like that, but I have been looking at NWA, and it's highs seem not to go above 90* and 80% humidity, at it's worst, and the winter temps seem to be lows in the 20*, last summer I had 2 days over 118*, and so far this winter it's been warm, only had a few nights of 5* to 10* below zero, been here at the ranch 12 yrs, and I have seen 18* bellow zero, with winds in the 50 to 70 MPH, on an average year we get 11.5" of moisture, the past few year the best we have had is around 5" to 6" for the year! Now that's DRY!! My better half has been a house cleaner for 15yrs and makes a great living at it, I can build almost anything, my background is heavy equipment mechanic, but also have owned a logging company, home repair company, and auto repair buisness,, so anywhere we end up, we can make a living. And with a ranch paid for and a few rentals, we can make it. Some of the questions I have asked were, a lot of places say they have well water, "how deep is the average well, and what is the water quality and quantity, like gallons per min."? I'ts just hard for us to get a feel, without driving out there, for a few weeks. We might be able to spend a few days out there in April, as we are going to be in KC, for a dog show, and we think we can drive South and check out the area, but our time is limited as I have to have blood taken out of my system almost weekly, with the lower altitude, I may be able to push it a bit. I'm 55 yrs old and my body feels 80, my mind thinks I'm 25. Getting old aint for the weak!

Gus

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The weather here can be tricky.  In 2011 we had record lows in the -15 to -20 range along with 2 feet of snow in February then record highs of 105-110 in August.  Last week we had a couple of tornados south of Fayetteville on Tuesday afternoon, then wednesday morning it was snowing.  Typically highs are in the upper 80s and low 90s in the summer with humidity.  Lows in the winter are usually in the 10s to 20s but it usually doesn't stay too hot or too cold for very long.  Snowfall is typically in the 6-10" range per year and rainfall is in the 40-45" range.  Those are some of the extremes and averages for NWAR.  Having 4 seasons is great even if they get confused sometimes on which one it actually is.  :D

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No bugs to speak of in the winter.  Starting around March you can expect the standard stuff...  Ants, flies, mosquitoes, etc.  The two biggest concerns we have:  Brown Recluse spiders (they're poisonous and seem to be everywhere) and Japanese Beetles, which come out of the ground around mid-june and wreak havoc until they go back into the ground in late August.  Neither should affect your dogs, however the spiders are a concern for humans (not lethal, but they can do some damage in some rare but extreme cases) and the beetles will definitely do a number on your garden if they go unchecked.  The good news is they're easily controlled with sevin dust or other mild pesticides.

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The bugs are much better here than the rest of the state...that is for sure.  This past summer was the first I have been even remotely bothered by mosquitoes and I am outside a lot at dusk and night.  Go south and east a hundred miles and it gets worse...go another hundred miles and it is WAYYYY worse.  Lots of people here breed dogs, in the woods ticks can be an issue but not such an issue that typical Frontline/Advantage etc doesn't fix it.

 

As to the heat in the summer, it typically isn't THAT humid during the heat of the day...80% is pretty high.  However, it most certainly gets well above 90.  Now it isn't nearly as hot as the river valley, but it gets pretty warm.  We are SUBSTANTIALLY less dry than that, but our moisture is very uneven.  A major percentage of it comes in intermittent heavy downpour thunderstorms.  I'm from the Mississippi delta and while they get a bit more rain on average, a MUCH higher percentage of it is useable and doesn't just run off.  It is hard for me to accept that an area can get 40-45 inches of rain a year, yet still have incredibly dry soil all summer long...but that is life.  The last 18 months have been abnormally dry, so I might be overvaluing that a bit.

 

I have no idea about the well issue, ground water here isn't THAT far subsurface even with the bit of altitude we have relative to our surroundings so I can't imagine it is a big deal.  At the same time, I didn't realize that many places had wells...I really haven't seen that many, at least relative to the east side of the state.

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