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I was looking for a nicer looking town than Mountain Home, AR to retire. (I would like to fish the south fork of the white river)
I cam upon Springdale and then found Bentonville. (its a bit further away to drive to the south fork than I would like)
Anyway, I found a ton of review sites with glowing reviews and I got to say, felt a little phony.
I fell for this once already a few years ago where I flew halfway across the states to a town called Greenville South Carolina. Totally wasted my resources and time.
That town, just like this Bentonville, had all these hyped up reviews and best places to live bla bla bla.
Greenville SC has one really nice main street they dressed up and the rest of the town was plan old nothing special.
When I look at the pictures and videos of Bentonville I see absolutely nothing special. Is Walmart paying people to hype up the town or something?
What makes this town any better than a zillion other towns?
By the way, for perspective, I've lived most of my life in Kailua Hawaii and now for the last 15 years in Beaverton Oregon. (and yes both places are very expensive)
The reason I am thinking of retiring in Arkansas he low cost housing and good river fishing (I also like some lake fishing)
Mountain Home is a very quiet place to live--small town surrounded by two fabulous lakes and other small towns. Springdale/Bentonville/Fayetteville combined are much larger (probably 400,000 people)--more than Little Rock? There are also great fishing lakes in NW AR.
The good thing about Northwest Arkansas is that the people are so nice and genuine. And needless to say, Walmart and Tyson Foods are absolute giants in their fields, and they're headquartered there.
But if you're into fishing, the AR/MO state line is about as good as inland fishing gets. And they also have great trout streams in the Ozarks.
If you're looking for great lakes and larger cities, most every large southern city (other than Memphis) has a fine lake within 1/2 hour. As an example, I live in Huntsville where we have 4 huge lakes within an hour--and incredible golf courses too.
I was looking for a nicer looking town than Mountain Home, AR to retire. (I would like to fish the south fork of the white river)
I cam upon Springdale and then found Bentonville. (its a bit further away to drive to the south fork than I would like)
Anyway, I found a ton of review sites with glowing reviews and I got to say, felt a little phony.
I fell for this once already a few years ago where I flew halfway across the states to a town called Greenville South Carolina. Totally wasted my resources and time.
That town, just like this Bentonville, had all these hyped up reviews and best places to live bla bla bla.
Greenville SC has one really nice main street they dressed up and the rest of the town was plan old nothing special.
When I look at the pictures and videos of Bentonville I see absolutely nothing special. Is Walmart paying people to hype up the town or something?
What makes this town any better than a zillion other towns?
By the way, for perspective, I've lived most of my life in Kailua Hawaii and now for the last 15 years in Beaverton Oregon. (and yes both places are very expensive)
The reason I am thinking of retiring in Arkansas he low cost housing and good river fishing (I also like some lake fishing)
You'll get low cost housing and decent fishing in Arkansas.
From the sound of things, it's probably just as well to avoid Mountain Home. It's very utilitarian and not the prettiest place.
Doubt you'd like Springdale either.
Concerning the hype: from my limited exposure to Greenville, South Carolina, I can see how it would be a letdown. I've found a lot of so-called "sunbelt" places to be like that.
Not sure how you would view Bentonville, but I'd say it's nicer. On the other hand, I find it and all of northwest Arkansas to be overhyped for what it is. Don't get me wrong, it's not a bad place, just not the last resort it's sometimes made out to be.
But hey, for some people it's grand and they've found their spot there. I'm not knocking it I'm just saying when you take a step back and objectively compare it nationwide, it's okay, but not necessarily a standout. Affordability and job market are it's biggest draws as well as avoiding certain types of politics.
Probably worth a trip to see for yourself if you like it.
I was looking for a nicer looking town than Mountain Home, AR to retire. (I would like to fish the south fork of the white river)
I cam upon Springdale and then found Bentonville. (its a bit further away to drive to the south fork than I would like)
Anyway, I found a ton of review sites with glowing reviews and I got to say, felt a little phony.
I fell for this once already a few years ago where I flew halfway across the states to a town called Greenville South Carolina. Totally wasted my resources and time.
That town, just like this Bentonville, had all these hyped up reviews and best places to live bla bla bla.
Greenville SC has one really nice main street they dressed up and the rest of the town was plan old nothing special.
When I look at the pictures and videos of Bentonville I see absolutely nothing special. Is Walmart paying people to hype up the town or something?
What makes this town any better than a zillion other towns?
By the way, for perspective, I've lived most of my life in Kailua Hawaii and now for the last 15 years in Beaverton Oregon. (and yes both places are very expensive)
The reason I am thinking of retiring in Arkansas he low cost housing and good river fishing (I also like some lake fishing)
No place is utopia, but I can almost guarantee you no one is paying anyone to post positives about Bentonville or anyplace else and studies about how good or bad a place is, simply is based on several factors, but these studies are still subjective. Now for what you are looking for, heck that too can be subjective One person may thing fishing is spectacular and someone else might not like it at all.
I am not at all sure what you are really looking for, maybe someone else will see your unusual question differently than I am seeing it?
You will find Bentonville a typical mid sized town, with a very nice square, wonderful people, lots of natural beauty and a great place to live, if you are into the outdoor life adventure. It is not Hawaii and we don't have riots like what is happening in the Portland area right now I realize you don't actually live in Portland. You will find the area pretty politically conservative if that is something that affects you in anyway.
You probably need to just take a trip to this part of the world and see for yourself. You mentioned Mountain Home and Springdale. I don't know much about Mountain Home except it is rather small, but apparently a very nice place to live Springdale has some very nice areas,but overall Bentonville would be a better choice in my opinion; a much better choice. The cost of living in NWA is much lower than places you have lived in the past.
You probably need to just take a trip to this part of the world and see for yourself.
Yes, definitely.....and give yourself at least a week because with your checklist there'll be lots to explore.
We just returned from our first look at Bentonville and absolutely loved it. Make no mistake, Wal Mart is the straw that stirs that drink, but they don't have to pay to advertise it, because it more than sells itself. Bentonville has a large commercial section, a world class museum, beautiful, Rockwellesque town square, quaint neighborhoods and best of all an awesome vicinity on the northern end of town that boasts lush greenery, with big hills and all sorts of trails. I know there are some lakes around there, but they may be in the bordering community of Bella Vista, which has a massive POA and a lot of restrictions in correlation. Beaver Lake is just to the east, though.....and is fed by the White River, so there is tons of fishing over that way. It gets rural very quickly once you cross I-49 and start heading east out of Bentonville and Rogers.
That's the good news about Bentonville. The bad news is it has quickly become one of the most desirable places in the nation to relocate to because of all it offers at a reasonably low COL, but that is quickly changing as the demand has begun to cast a substantial shadow over the supply. We made a serious effort to move there this summer because I feared if we waited much longer we would be priced out of the area (I'm speaking of Bentonville itself, not NWA in general), and one or two years from now we very well may be, because home prices have already gone way up from what they were even one or two years back. This is why satellite communities of Bentonville such as Centerton are popping up with lower housing costs, but from what we saw that area was very blah and lacking the features/atmosphere that make Bentonville so attractive.
Not sure how you feel about POA's, but with your retirement aspirations you may want to also give Bella Vista a look. It has a large retirement community with many parks/lakes and is also close to the other areas I mentioned. Rogers is also an option, and is much closer to Beaver Lake with a lot of very pretty, rural areas off of Prairie Creek Dr. you could potentially plop down in.
I was looking for a nicer looking town than Mountain Home, AR to retire. (I would like to fish the south fork of the white river)
I cam upon Springdale and then found Bentonville. (its a bit further away to drive to the south fork than I would like)
Anyway, I found a ton of review sites with glowing reviews and I got to say, felt a little phony.
I fell for this once already a few years ago where I flew halfway across the states to a town called Greenville South Carolina. Totally wasted my resources and time.
That town, just like this Bentonville, had all these hyped up reviews and best places to live bla bla bla.
Greenville SC has one really nice main street they dressed up and the rest of the town was plan old nothing special.
When I look at the pictures and videos of Bentonville I see absolutely nothing special. Is Walmart paying people to hype up the town or something?
What makes this town any better than a zillion other towns?
By the way, for perspective, I've lived most of my life in Kailua Hawaii and now for the last 15 years in Beaverton Oregon. (and yes both places are very expensive)
The reason I am thinking of retiring in Arkansas he low cost housing and good river fishing (I also like some lake fishing)
I know you don't want to waste $ or time with a visit like you did with Greenville SC but I have no idea how you could gage a place's fit for you without one.
Northwest Arkansas has natural beauty going for it, no doubt. Bentonville has some really nice features- the museum, trails, parks & the quaint little square. It think the area would fit the bill for you fishing wise. I miss the hiking there. I find Bentonville to be much for appealing overall ascetically compared to Springdale.
I too read reviews of cities online. I have also read many glowing reviews of Bentonville and the NWA metro area that I thought were over hyped for sure. It is not a bad place, but I the word that comes to mind is just- typical. As in there are so many other cities comprable to it that it does'nt really stand out to me.
However, I will say I know several transplants that have moved there from busier, higher cost of living cities that absolutely love the COL and the pace and are happy there. While the cost of living there has increased in recently years, it's still going to seem low coming from most places.
Last edited by Wanderlove; 08-14-2020 at 08:25 AM..
The one thing I can say about NWA is that it's grown so fast in recent years, and most of the homes there are modern and not very old. The housing market is somewhat consistent. I used to travel there often for work, and that's what I remember.
I was in an old, established Middle Tennessee town this morning, and I found incredibly huge, expensive homes, and I found a bunch of tiny 1920's homes. The housing market is either too nice for most pocketbooks or too small and not up to most people's standards of living.
I would expect Beaver lake to have a nice tailwater stream, similar to the White out of Bull Shoals. I don't know that for fact, but would gamble a visit to check it out.
Yes, definitely.....and give yourself at least a week because with your checklist there'll be lots to explore.
We just returned from our first look at Bentonville and absolutely loved it. Make no mistake, Wal Mart is the straw that stirs that drink, but they don't have to pay to advertise it, because it more than sells itself. Bentonville has a large commercial section, a world class museum, beautiful, Rockwellesque town square, quaint neighborhoods and best of all an awesome vicinity on the northern end of town that boasts lush greenery, with big hills and all sorts of trails. I know there are some lakes around there, but they may be in the bordering community of Bella Vista, which has a massive POA and a lot of restrictions in correlation. Beaver Lake is just to the east, though.....and is fed by the White River, so there is tons of fishing over that way. It gets rural very quickly once you cross I-49 and start heading east out of Bentonville and Rogers.
That's the good news about Bentonville. The bad news is it has quickly become one of the most desirable places in the nation to relocate to because of all it offers at a reasonably low COL, but that is quickly changing as the demand has begun to cast a substantial shadow over the supply. We made a serious effort to move there this summer because I feared if we waited much longer we would be priced out of the area (I'm speaking of Bentonville itself, not NWA in general), and one or two years from now we very well may be, because home prices have already gone way up from what they were even one or two years back. This is why satellite communities of Bentonville such as Centerton are popping up with lower housing costs, but from what we saw that area was very blah and lacking the features/atmosphere that make Bentonville so attractive.
Not sure how you feel about POA's, but with your retirement aspirations you may want to also give Bella Vista a look. It has a large retirement community with many parks/lakes and is also close to the other areas I mentioned. Rogers is also an option, and is much closer to Beaver Lake with a lot of very pretty, rural areas off of Prairie Creek Dr. you could potentially plop down in.
Well said. Bentonville chamber of commerce will be proud! You write very well! (And it’s all very true).
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