Best PlacesKent, AR Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Kent, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Kent ranks 34,572nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on tree cover by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.

#34,572
of 50,333 towns
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 50,333 towns
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Kent

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Kent area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Kent's strengths and weaknesses

Top 10%Tree cover
Top 10%Affordable childcare
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Kent with other towns.

Where Kent ranks high

  • Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
  • Cheap childcare$481 a month, better than 94% of towns
  • Nice weatherabout 142 pleasant days a year, better than 90% of towns
  • Low vacancyBetter than 89% of towns
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 88% of towns

Where Kent ranks low

  • QuietBetter than only 2% of towns
  • Health outlookBetter than only 2% of towns
  • Healthcare accessBetter than only 8% of towns
  • Cell coverageBetter than only 8% of towns
  • Big-city accessBetter than only 8% of towns

What it costs to buy a home in Kent

A household needs to earn about $33,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Kent home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $79,093, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$33,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$766
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $131,678 home

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$671
Property tax$51
Homeowners insurance$44

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 Kent's effective rate of 0.46%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.


Who lives in Kent

Kent runs older than the country, and households here run larger than average.

Median age
44
older than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
22%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
3.4
above the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1827%
18 to 3416%
35 to 4917%
50 to 6418%
65 and older22%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Kent.


Who works in Kent, and how

Work in Kent centers on manufacturing and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.

Work from home
4%
below the national average
Unemployment
0.2%
below the national average
Job growth
+5.3%
/y 2019-2023, faster than the national pace

Largest industries

Manufacturing32%
Retail trade17%
Health care & social15%
Education10%
Admin & support services7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 94%
  • Work from home 4%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Kent

The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Kent.


What the weather is like in Kent, month by month

Kent sees roughly 142 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 57, with lows near 34. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January57°44°34°
April77°64°53°
July95°82°73°
October80°65°53°

Flying in and out of Kent

The nearest airport, South Arkansas Regional at Goodwin Field, is about 29 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 189 miles away.

Nearest airport
ELD
South Arkansas Regional at Goodwin Field, about 29 miles
Airport size
Nonprimary
5 nonstop destinations
Average drive
42 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Kent

Schools across Kent average a C+, better than 47% of towns.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Kent school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Kent 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 Kent against the other 50,332 towns.


Common questions about living in Kent

Is Kent a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Kent ranks 34,572nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on tree cover, affordable childcare, and the weather, and lowest on noise and health outcomes. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Kent expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $131,678. The overall cost of living runs about 15% below the national average. Set against a $79,093 median income, cost of living beats 60% of towns.

Is Kent safe?

Yes, Kent is safer than 62% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $388 per resident a year.


Compare Kent with other towns


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Kent. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Kent 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.

Kent detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Kent: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Kent: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Kent: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Kent: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Kent detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.