What salary do you need to live in Fayetteville, AR?

Fayetteville housing costs at a glance

A one-bedroom in Fayetteville rents for a median of $903 a month, utilities the tenant pays included; a two-bedroom goes for $1,075 and a three-bedroom for $1,448. Over a full year, the two-bedroom median comes to $12,900.

The median value of owner-occupied homes in the metro is $307,200. That works out to 3.8× the local median household income of $81,650, a mid-range ratio.

Price levels matter beyond rent. The Bureau of Economic Analysis measures Fayetteville's overall prices at 91.4 on a scale where the nation is 100, which makes a $100,000 salary feel like about $109,465 would elsewhere.

The salary lines for a two-bedroom in Fayetteville

With a two-bedroom at the median rent, the score enters Tight at $33,000, Okay at $65,000 and Comfortable at $131,000 a year before tax. At the Comfortable line, a year of rent takes 10% of income and the median home is 2.3× income.

The Royal grade is within reach at $323,000 a year, where both rent and the median home price look small next to income.

These lines come straight from the calculator's formula: the income is raised until the two-bedroom score crosses each cutoff, then rounded up to the next $1,000.

What different incomes look like in Fayetteville

Home size shifts the grade at $75,000: Okay for one bedroom, Okay for two and Tight for three, as the rent share climbs from 14% to 23%.

The two-bedroom column turns Comfortable at the $150,000 row. One row up, $100,000 scores 57.

Fayetteville on the national list

Ranked against all 387 metros, Fayetteville sits 261st on overall price level and 238th on the two-bedroom rent median, counting from the most expensive. Its median home value ranks 143rd.

Next to Fayetteville on the national rent ranking: Racine-Mount Pleasant, WI ($1,076) and South Bend-Mishawaka, IN-MI ($1,074).

Fayetteville vs. the rest of Arkansas

Statewide, Arkansas's median two-bedroom rent is $907 and its median home value $188,000. Fayetteville's rent is +19% against that, and its home value +63%; the price parity is 91.4 versus 86.9 for the state.

The Arkansas figure for the Comfortable line, using state medians, is $86,000 against $131,000 for Fayetteville.

Within Arkansas, the metros closest to Fayetteville on rent and overall prices are Memphis, TN-MS-AR, Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway, AR, and Hot Springs, AR. Their Comfortable lines for two bedrooms sit at $124,000, $102,000, and $88,000.

The median Fayetteville household

A household at the Fayetteville median income of $81,650 would see a two-bedroom score of 52 — Okay — with rent at 16% of income. That falls $49,350 short of the $131,000 Comfortable line, a reminder that the typical household here spends a larger share on housing than the Comfortable band allows. Statewide, the Arkansas median household ($60,773) grades Okay on the state's own medians. A household figure may pool several earners, unlike a single salary.

Estimates use pre-tax income and public data; they are not financial advice.