By KeyCrew Media
The markets that dominate “best places to invest” lists are not always the markets where experienced local operators put their money. In Arkansas, according to Jerry Larkowski, Managing Broker at ESQ. Realty Group, LLC, that gap is unusually visible, and it tells investors more about how real estate media works than about where the best deals actually are.
Why Growth Rate Captures Attention That Stability Doesn’t
Northwest Arkansas appears on nearly every national list of high-growth real estate markets. Walmart, Tyson Foods, and J.B. Hunt anchor its economy. A cluster of fast-growing cities and a consistent growth narrative generate media coverage. Central Arkansas is larger in absolute terms across most metrics but rarely makes headlines.
Larkowski says the reason is straightforward, and more about psychology than fundamentals.
“Growth rate denotes energy,” Larkowski says. “Things that stay the same, oh well, they’re still there, ho-hum. But when there’s all this talk about everything that’s going on somewhere and there’s a lot more energy, well, of course people are going to look there.”
The metrics that generate headlines, growth rates, corporate announcements, population inflows, are real signals, but Larkowski argues they crowd out equally important factors: market depth, infrastructure stability, deal availability, and the time required to close and operate a property.
What Local Operators Actually Do
Larkowski offers an observation that cuts against the Northwest Arkansas narrative more directly than any valuation model: the people who know both markets best don’t invest in the high-growth one.
Central Arkansas has a significant population of professionals who work in both markets, live in one but frequently drive the two and a half to three hours between Little Rock and the Northwest Arkansas metro. These people have direct, ongoing exposure to both regions, their rental markets, their deal flow, their business activity. According to Larkowski, virtually none of them hold investment property in Northwest Arkansas.
“Everybody in central Arkansas has it here,” Larkowski says. “I have yet to hear from the first person that says, yeah, my apartment complex looks great up there.”
Larkowski describes Northwest Arkansas as a market where things move quickly and competitively, and where investors need to be ready to act fast. Inventory is lower than in Central Arkansas. For investors operating at the smaller end, ten to twelve units or fewer, which is Larkowski’s primary focus, that competitive environment may reduce practical opportunity relative to what the growth narrative suggests.
The Metrics That Don’t Make the List
Central Arkansas’s case rests on infrastructure and connectivity rather than growth momentum. Interstate 40 runs coast to coast through Little Rock. Interstate 30 connects directly to Dallas and the broader Texas economy. The region also has rail and river access, which Larkowski argues supports a more durable kind of economic activity than corporate campus growth alone.
Larkowski says that over the past year and a half, data center development has added energy to Central Arkansas, but his broader point is that topicality is a moving target.
“It’s always going to depend on what’s the latest, what’s the latest and the greatest, what’s the most topical,” Larkowski says. “And right now, all we talk about in the United States is data centers.”
Markets that depend on a single growth narrative are exposed when that narrative shifts. Markets with diversified connectivity and infrastructure have a more stable floor, which is why, Larkowski argues, investors who rely on national rankings get directed toward high-competition environments while markets with deeper inventory and more time to evaluate deals remain undercovered.
“I’m not ever going to stop anybody from looking,” Larkowski says of Northwest Arkansas. “But you’ll have more time. I think you’ll have more success down here.”
For investors evaluating secondary and tertiary markets, the gap Larkowski describes between headline rankings and actual operator behavior suggests that growth rate is a starting point, not a conclusion. Where experienced local operators deploy capital, and why, may be a more reliable signal than any national list.
ESQ. Realty Group, LLC is a full-service real estate brokerage serving the Little Rock and Hot Springs, Arkansas markets, led by Managing Broker Jerry Larkowski, a dual-licensed attorney and broker with a background in trial law, litigation, and divorce. Learn more at esqbrokers.com.
