[reddoberman]

My wife and I are thinking about retiring to Mountian Home. What can we expect as far as weather, recreation, shopping, resturants, etc.. We spent a week there in August two years ago and liked it. Any comments would be welcomed, thanks.

[thewizard16]

I'll try to go through it in bullet point format, hopefully it will help a bit.

• Weather- Pretty mild. Summers will get hot (you'll have a few weeks in the 90s, might break triple digits occasionally), winters will get somewhat cold but normally not extreme (quite a few weeks in the 20s, sometimes lower). You'll have some snow, but normally just a few minor snow showers a few times during the winter. This past year they had several instances of 6-12 inches apparently, but that's not typical. Spring and fall are fantastic- weeks in the 60s and 70s with occasional rain. You will have some storms, possibly an occasional severe storm, but normally not too many tornadoes.
• Recreation- Definitely one of this area's strongest suits. Two very large lakes with about 1600 total miles of shoreline. Lots of fishing and boating. Lots of Corps of Engineers parks, campgrounds, and lots of local parks as well. Then you have two rivers nearby- the White and the Buffalo for fishing, kayaking, etc. City parks are nice as well- Cooper Park is the most central one and has a nice walking/biking trail, city pool, playgrounds, a baseball diamond, a senior center, and a youth center. There are also other parks with nature trails, volleyball, etc.
• Shopping- Eh, it's a town of 12,000 people or so. For a town that size, shopping is decent- you have a ridiculously large Wal-Mart, a couple large "shopping centers" (aka strip malls) with TJ Maxx, Petco, Staples, Lowe's, Home Depot, Stage, Maurices, Cato, Hastings, Orschlen Farm and Home, Walgreens, etc. There's a mall that just got renovated and as far as I know, it hasn't started leasing out yet, but might be nice when it's done and active again. Mountain Home serves as an economic anchor for a multi-county area and apparently has over 850,000 tourists/visitors pass through a year, so it is a bit more developed that most towns that size in a rural area.
• Restaurants- There are quite a few good local restaurants of varying levels of "nice-ness" around, just about all the fast food chains, and a Colton's, Chili's, and El Chico on the sit-down chain side of things. Once again, for an area it's size, there are plenty of dining options, driven mostly by the regional "anchor" nature of the city I imagine.
• Miscellaneous- Mountain Home has fantastic healthcare. The city is frequently featured as a top retirement destination, and the physicians and specialists have followed that influx of retired people. The hospital is very large for a city of 12,000, and other than extremely specialized things, you should be able to get pretty much anything done in town. The school district is also very good, often ranked as one of the top 15-20 in the state. Mtn. Home is also home to a brand new library (the old one was fine, but dated. The new one is truly impressive) and a rapidly growing branch of Arkansas State University which moved to it's new campus a few years back, which is very nice for a small town college. There are more banks than people (or at least it seems that way), so finding a bank should be easy. Safety isn't a problem, it's a small town with a pretty normal middle class population. There's no "bad" area of town to worry about. Downsides are a very limited nightlife (there are a handful of bars, none of them particularly impressive) and distance to major airports/shopping. It's about 3 hours to Little Rock, 2.5 hours to Northwest Arkansas (Fayetteville, Springdale, Rogers metro area), and about 2 hours to Springfield, MO. Branson is also about 1.5 hours away, so larger scale entertainment and a plethora of outlet malls are easily reached for a day trip.

I hope that helps some, and good luck with your move!

[reddoberman]

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions so well, we appreciate the info. We're thinking of renting for the first year and if it works out maybe buying some property and building a home on it. Thanks again.

[thewizard16]

Originally Posted by reddoberman

Thanks for taking the time to answer our questions so well, we appreciate the info. We're thinking of renting for the first year and if it works out maybe buying some property and building a home on it. Thanks again.

You're very welcome. I don't know much about the rental market in Mountain Home these days, but I do often hear about people renting houses in town, so hopefully you can find a place that fits your needs. I do have a recommendation on a real estate agent when you go house/land shopping if you like. We bought a house a few years back and he was absolutely fantastic. We went through several agents and companies that didn't really seem interested in what we wanted until we met him, and although he got very little commission out of that deal, he spent a lot of time with us, helped us find and tour all kinds of places (mostly not even with his agency), and took us through the process step by step. Anyway, he was a great guy and if you are interested in a recommendation for one, I can give you his name when you're down in the area, I checked their website and he is still working with them.

[RogMar]

Originally Posted by thewizard16

I'll try to go through it in bullet point format, hopefully it will help a bit.

Great summary.

I would add that the area is absolutely beautiful, and you won't know that hospital and sprawling Doctor's row is there unless you specifically go there.

I go to Mountain home for a variety of reasons, and I can't think of any reason that one would be unhappy there for a resort kind of setting.

OK...somebody remind me it doesn't have a Macy's or high speed train service to Dallas.

[reddoberman]

We were talking to a friend of ours about relocating to Mountian Home, and the subject of snakes and spiders came up. Here in southern Colorado we have plenty of prairie rattlers and other snakes and we don't have a problem with living around snakes. He also mentioned that Arkansas is in Brown Recluse spider country along with all the other creepy crawlies. Are the recluse spiders a problem in Mountian Home ? Does anybody know of any bad spider bites in the area, and how common are they ?

[Annemieke Roell]

I don't live in Mountain Home but spend a few days therr every year when we teach there.

The town is small but has enough to not having to go out to find what you need. The people are wonderful and you are in spitting distance of the most beautiful parks in this part of the country.

[thewizard16]

Originally Posted by reddoberman

We were talking to a friend of ours about relocating to Mountian Home, and the subject of snakes and spiders came up. Here in southern Colorado we have plenty of prairie rattlers and other snakes and we don't have a problem with living around snakes. He also mentioned that Arkansas is in Brown Recluse spider country along with all the other creepy crawlies. Are the recluse spiders a problem in Mountian Home ? Does anybody know of any bad spider bites in the area, and how common are they ?

We've had a couple non poisonous snakes in our yard, and strangely a tarantula in our driveway once, but haven't had any problems with poisonous snakes or spiders. I'm sure they're out there (and caution is always appropriate), but I don't believe I know anyone that's been bitten . I've heard there are occasionally small scorpions around as well, but haven't heard of anything being a particularly widespread problem. Probably depends on what your property is like though, I would think.

[RogMar]

Originally Posted by reddoberman

We were talking to a friend of ours about relocating to Mountian Home, and the subject of snakes and spiders came up. Here in southern Colorado we have plenty of prairie rattlers and other snakes and we don't have a problem with living around snakes. He also mentioned that Arkansas is in Brown Recluse spider country along with all the other creepy crawlies. Are the recluse spiders a problem in Mountian Home ? Does anybody know of any bad spider bites in the area, and how common are they ?

Brown recluses inhabit a very, very large area.

I worked in N. Illinois for quite awhile, and people joked about rattlesnakes until I ran over one and stopped to take it to work.

There is no setting one can live in that doesn't have it's bug & reptile hassles, though the majority of people never see them. Your New York City condo can have a Recluse or Black Widow just the same as them middle of the woods.


the Tarantulas mentioned are currently relocating for the winter, so, yes, I have seen a few, though I live in a very rural area. They're strange when you first see them because of the way we are hyped to react to them from movies and stuff.

The Tarantulas here defend themselves with their fur, which are small barbs, like a porcupine. The barbs, and their bite, are the equivelant of a honey bee sting.

I have seen copperheads and rattlesnakes where I live when bush hogging, and in the spring when they're crossing the road to get to their habitat.

Arkanasas is not a virtual habitat for scary things, especially Mountain Home, with the exception of the "White Shoed Yankee", which I viligintly dodge at 4-way stop intersections.

[reddoberman]

It now looks like we will be heading back to the Mountian Home area towards the end of March, 2011 . Our first trip was in August because we wanted to see how hot and humid it does get, it was in the 90's and the humidity felt about as high. Glad to say it didn't scare us off. We're hoping the weather in March will be perfect. We are bringing another couple with us and plan on staying in one of the resorts along Norfork Lake, does anyone have any ideas or opinions on which resort to pick?? We would like to rent a boat and spend a few days touring the lake.