Best PlacesMena, AR Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Mena, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Mena ranks 35,885th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and summer heat is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Mena
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.
Mena's strengths and weaknesses
Where Mena ranks high
- Cheap childcare$481 a month, better than 94% of towns
- Short commute17.8 minutes each way, better than 94% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 90% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 85% of towns
- WalkabilityBetter than 84% of towns
Where Mena ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 10% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than only 12% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 16% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 17% of towns
- Household income$55,441 median, better than only 20% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Mena
A household needs to earn about $45,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Mena home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $55,441, 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 Mena's effective rate of 0.38%, 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Mena
Mena runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Mena.
Who works in Mena, and how
Work in Mena centers on retail trade and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 88%
- Work from home 6%
- Transit, walk, or bike 6%
Life in Mena
Mena has more restaurants and bars per resident than 77% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Mena and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Mena, month by month
Mena sees roughly 107 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 92 degrees. January highs sit near 53, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 53° | 42° | 33° |
| April | 74° | 61° | 51° |
| July | 92° | 81° | 71° |
| October | 76° | 63° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Mena
The nearest airport, Fort Smith Regional, is about 53 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas Love Field, about 193 miles away.
The best schools in and around Mena
Schools across Mena average a C+, better than 49% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Caddo Hills Elementary SchoolB− · 42% proficient
- Holly Harshman Elem. SchoolB− · 41% proficient
- Acorn Elementary SchoolC+ · 37% proficient
Top middle schools
- Mena Middle SchoolB · 43% proficient
- Waldron Middle SchoolC · 31% proficient
Top high schools
- Acorn High SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Cossatot River High SchoolC · 33% proficient
- Caddo Hills High SchoolC · 32% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Mena school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Mena 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 Mena against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Mena
Is Mena a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Mena ranks 35,885th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on affordable childcare, short commutes, and low property taxes, and lowest on summer heat and distance from a big city. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Mena expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $181,210. The overall cost of living runs about 18% below the national average. Set against a $55,441 median income, cost of living beats 25% of towns.
Is Mena safe?
Mena is safer than 43% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $507 per resident a year.
Compare Mena with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Mena. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Mena 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.
Mena detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Mena: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Mena: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Mena: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Mena: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Mena 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.
- 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.