Hello all,
I'm moving to Arkansas this coming summer. I need to be within say an hours drive from Little Rock. Can anyone tell me where a good area is to live.

I will be looking to buy a house(log home) or 10 acres min. of land and build one. I would like it to be somewhat secluded. Being from VT I do like to fish and hunt. So close to those areas would be a plus. How is the Hot Springs area? I saw that doing a little internet surfing. I will appreciate any input.
Thanks

 

The big question is what time of day and where at in Little Rock. There are times of the day that it will take more than an hour just to get across town. Unless you are going to be going to somewhere on the south side of town Hot Springs will be over an hour away. Land and taxes are much cheaper outside of Pulaskai county. Give me a little more info and I will be better able to suggest locations.

 

Joe,
Thanks for the response. My fiance is retired from the Navy, so I need to be somewhat close to the AFB for exchange and medical. Myself, semi- retired. Being an hour close to L R isn't because of work. I am still a member of the IBEW union. So, Jobs would have to be traveled to in different places. It wouldn't be the first time I only went home on weekends. How is it up around Dennard area? Maybe I should be on the North side of Little Rock

 

Now you've given me something to work with. First off, the base is in Jacksonville which is about 20 miles north-east of Little Rock. To get there from Hot Springs you are looking at a 2 hour drive. In case you did not know there is the city of Little Rock and the city of North Little Rock. The river splits the two. If you want to be close to the base I would look near the Cabot area (Lonoke county) or if you want to drive a bit further El Paso, BeeBee or Searcy. Greers Ferry Lake and the Little Red River are about 45 miles for the fishing. Lake Conway is about 20 miles away. It all depends on how you like to fish. At Greers Ferry bring the bass boat and fly, Little Red bring you fly rod, Lake Conway bring your jon boat.

Also, you said you want land no problem. What kind of land do you want? Anything south of 67/167 will be flat with a mix of fields and trees. North is much more hilly mostly wooded.

I have never heard of Dennard, I will need to look that up later.

 

Thanks again Joe,

Dennard is on 65 north of LR above Clinton. Looking at it again on the map it looks a little too far.
I probably will end up buying land because of the specific requirements of the house layout(dovetail notch). I plan on getting with a realtor and rent a house until my future wife joins me and we can look at land together. She's presently in Galveston and has to sell her house. I'm up here in Vt and have to sell my Condo. I was looking at some of the property taxes down there. 200K home $700. I pay over 3K on my Condo. That would be a breath of fresh air, $700.

As far as land it would have to be hilltop with a view. So I will have to be North.
Fishing, I like bass and catfishing with the later being my favorite. I would also like to walk out my back door to deer hunt.

I did find a log home with a 1400 sq ft ranch home all on 46 acres for 150K It was taken off the market right before I inquired about it.

Peter

 

Arkansas may be a little backward...but Texas is no better. I would not mind moving to Arkansas, and living in the sticks. Its a beautiful place. I have ridden the Pig Trail several times on motorcycle...love Arkansas.

 

I was stationed in Corpus Christi in the 70's. My future wife born in tx.

 

I guess since you are moving to Ark, it would be an almost welcome back.

What are your thoughts of Vermont? I have never been there.

 

Vermont's nice. But it is turning into a service state. All the flatlanders come up here from ma, conn, NJ, NY and try to change it into what they were trying to get away from. There is a town next to me where 65% of the people don't work. Trust fund babies, Rich families. My buddie lives in that town father owned a farm. Small house on 4 acres over 5K yr in property tax.

 

$5K on a 4 acre piece of land??? That's crazy!! In the areas that you are looking 200k will buy you a NICE house on a few acres. If you want catfish all the rivers and lakes are full of them. Have you ever been here before? If not I would suggest coming down here a few times and just driving around in the areas that you think you might like. From the way that it sounds I would recomend that you start your search along Hwy 5 north of Hwy 67/167 and branch out from there. I know this area pretty well so I should be able to answer many of your questions.

 

Joe,
I driven through on Rt 40 10 yrs ago.

Peter

 

The area has grown quite a bit in the last 10 years. A good thing to note is that the downtown areas of Little Rock and North Little Rock has been cleaned up and is now a safe place to go at night.

What makes you want to move to Arkansas?

 

Your talking to someone that grew up 10 mi out of Boston. I know what rough neighborhoods are like. I used to live in some.

We don't want to live in TX which is where she is from. But needs to be somewhat close to her family and a military base. I doing a solo as far as family goes so it doesn't matter to me. I do want to be in a warmer climate and a place less expensive to live than where I am now.
Thanks again,
Peter

 

Well most of the rough neighborhoods are gone or isolated. There still are places that I do not like being in but I really do not have a reason to go there so it is easy to avoid the bad parts of town.

I am always curious to find out what draws people from large cities to the small towns. The reason that you gave seem to be the most common. I guess us backwards rednecks are doing something right. If you have any questions about specific areas I will do my best to answer them for you. Good luck looking for a place.

 

Hi Joe,
Well I must be a honorary redneck because I spent 10 yrs living in MS.
Thanks a lot for the tips and if have any area questions I hollar at you.
Peter