Best PlacesFort Smith, AR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Fort Smith metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Brandonrush, CC BY-SA 4.0, via wiki
Fort Smith ranks 325th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on low incomes and health outcomes. It does better on affordable childcare, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Fort Smith metro
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
The best areas in Fort Smith
The towns and districts of the Fort Smith metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Hackett
Local pay stretches further, more adults hold degrees, and incomes run higher.
Greenwood, Barling & Lavaca
It is quieter and schools score higher.
Van Buren
Fewer homes sit empty and crime runs lower.
Alma & Mulberry
Tree cover is thicker, though commutes are longer.
Downtown Fort Smith
Streets are more walkable, though fewer residents vote.
Sallisaw & Vian
Prices have run up more and health outcomes score lower.
Roland & Muldrow
Disaster risk is higher and health care is harder to reach.
Scores across Fort Smith run from about the 3rd to the 88th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Fort Smith's strengths and weaknesses
Fort Smith ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Affordable childcare, a stable housing market, and state finances carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: low incomes, health outcomes, and civic engagement all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Fort Smith ranks high
- Cheap childcare$569 a month, better than 96% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 88% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 87% of metro areas
- Low property taxBetter than 81% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 73% of metro areas
Where Fort Smith ranks low
- Household income$61,767 median, better than only 5% of metro areas
- Health outlookBetter than only 5% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Educational attainmentBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- BikingBetter than only 8% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Fort Smith
A household needs to earn about $45,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Fort Smith home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $61,767, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Fort Smith's effective rate of 0.57%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 6 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Fort Smith
Fort Smith's age mix sits close to the national median.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Fort Smith.
Who works in Fort Smith, and how
Work in Fort Smith centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 90%
- Work from home 7%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Fort Smith
Fort Smith has more restaurants and bars per resident than 66% of metro areas and more parkland per resident than 78% of metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Fort Smith and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Fort Smith growing, and who is moving in?
Fort Smith has grown about 1% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Fayetteville, AR.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Fort Smith go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Fort Smith, month by month
Fort Smith sees roughly 70 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 54, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 54° | 40° | 29° |
| April | 77° | 62° | 49° |
| July | 96° | 83° | 73° |
| October | 80° | 65° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Fort Smith
The nearest airport, Fort Smith Regional, is about 2 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas Love Field, about 223 miles away.
The best schools in and around Fort Smith
Schools across Fort Smith average a C, better than 31% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- East Pointe Elementary SchoolA · 62% proficient
- John P. Woods Elem. SchoolA− · 59% proficient
- Westwood Elementary SchoolA− · 59% proficient
Top middle schools
- L. A. Chaffin Jr. High SchoolA− · 56% proficient
- East Hills Middle SchoolA− · 53% proficient
- Ramsey Junior High SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top high schools
- Greenwood High SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Southside High SchoolB− · 43% proficient
- Van Buren High SchoolC · 34% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Fort Smith school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Fort Smith measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Fort Smith against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Fort Smith suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 7% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Fort Smith
Is Fort Smith a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Fort Smith ranks 325th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on affordable childcare, a stable housing market, and state finances, and lowest on low incomes and health outcomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Fort Smith expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $179,034. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $61,767 median income, cost of living beats 16% of metro areas.
Is Fort Smith safe?
Fort Smith is safer than 43% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $530 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Fort Smith?
July highs average about 96 degrees, and January highs near 54 with lows near 29. That works out to about 70 pleasant days a year, more than 22% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Fort Smith?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Hackett, Greenwood, Barling & Lavaca, and Van Buren. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Fort Smith good for families?
Schools beat 31% of metro areas, crime safety beats 43%, and childcare runs $569 a month.
Is Fort Smith good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 16% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 73% of metro areas. About 7% of workers already work from home.
Compare Fort Smith with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Fort Smith. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Fort Smith represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Fort Smith detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Fort Smith: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Fort Smith: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Fort Smith: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Fort Smith: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Fort Smith detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.