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Place dossier plate
SheetAR-HEBER-SPRINGS-AR · Heber Springs, AR 7,101 pop · income 19th pct · 9 tracts
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Heber Springs
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Heber Springs on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Morrilton · lowest
38,056
Morrilton · lowest
38,056 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #1
Heber Springs · this city
49,917
Heber Springs · this city
49,917 median HH income
34.8% of the leader · rank #2
Mason City · near
49,917
Mason City · near
49,917 median HH income
34.8% of the leader · rank #3
Buda · near
49,922
Buda · near
49,922 median HH income
34.8% of the leader · rank #4
Grove City · near
49,922
Grove City · near
49,922 median HH income
34.8% of the leader · rank #5
Brackenridge · near
49,929
Brackenridge · near
49,929 median HH income
34.8% of the leader · rank #6
Ridgefield · highest
143,286
Ridgefield · highest
143,286 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Heber Springs on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 7,101.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Heber Springs - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Heber Springs lands in the 19th percentile for household income and the 28th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
19th
percentile, household income
28th
percentile, home value
3rd
percentile, median rent
28th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Heber Springs, AR
Arkansas's Heber Springs is a small town, with 7,101 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Heber Springs brings in $49,917 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 13.9%. Home values in Heber Springs run a median of $152,900, and the median resident age is 45.9 years. 15.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 45.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 8 residential building permits were authorized in Heber Springs (Construction Slowdown), down 27% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 2209.2 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, near the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Arkansas run below the national norm: the state registers 86.9 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $944 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Arkansas's average monthly utility costs around $210 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 55.5 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Heber Springs's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from population change to schools and households to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to housing and income to within-city variation to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Heber Springs, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Is Heber Springs growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +357 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +5.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 8 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
What does the education layer cover for Heber Springs?
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 15.1% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
Which cities make useful reference points for Heber Springs?
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Within Arkansas, the closest population matches are Morrilton (7,022 residents, $38,056 income); Pea Ridge (7,348 residents, $93,627 income); Osceola (6,807 residents, $40,783 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Grove, OK (7,101 residents); Porters Neck, NC (7,102 residents); Ridgefield, CT (7,103 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
What can 9 Census tracts reveal inside Heber Springs?
PlainCities matches 9 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Heber Springs?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.8%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Drive alone
73.8%
Work from home
10.8%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,713 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Heber Springs?
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.1×
Home value
$152,900
Household income
$49,917
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Heber Springs?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2209.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 3% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
Total reported rate
2209.2
Violent rate
354.6
Property rate
1854.6
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Cost of living A+
86.9 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Poverty rate F
13.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
355 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$49,917
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Heber Springs profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 97/100 (A+) · 86.9 index
Poverty rate: 25/100 (F) · 13.9%
Violent crime: 25/100 (F) · 355 /100k
Household income: 20/100 (F) · $49,917
Bachelor's+ share: 20/100 (F) · 15.1%
Where Heber Springs sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Heber Springs's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Heber Springs highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Heber Springs, AR (this city): home $152,900, crime 2,209/100k
Grove, OK : home $232,400, crime 3,334/100k
Ridgefield, CT : home $843,200, crime 305/100k
Hudson, NH : home $330,700, crime 1,258/100k
Morrilton, AR : home $150,900, crime 3,347/100k
Pea Ridge, AR : home $255,600, crime 960/100k
Trumann, AR : home $108,000, crime 3,719/100k
Prairie Grove, AR : home $226,800, crime 618/100k
Pocahontas, AR : home $107,500, crime 3,130/100k
How does Heber Springs compare to other US cities?
Heber Springs measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income19% higher than other cities
Home value28% pricier than other cities
Median rent3% pricier than other cities
Safety28% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Arkansas and the picture shifts: Heber Springs ranks #99 of 160 Arkansas cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Heber Springs against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Arkansas only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Arkansas-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Heber Springs near the bottom of Arkansas's cities
Among the 524 Arkansas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Heber Springs ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Heber Springs only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#223 of 495
55th percentile in Arkansas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 524
0th percentile in Arkansas
Median Home Value
#130 of 482
73rd percentile in Arkansas
Poverty Rate
#242 of 524
53rd percentile in Arkansas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#216 of 524
58th percentile in Arkansas
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Arkansas only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
19th percentile nationally for median household income · 28th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Heber Springs's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Heber Springs's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Heber Springs's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$152,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 72% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Heber Springs's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,018 of 15,516
More affordable than 55% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,881 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.1×, Heber Springs sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,018 of 15,516 and #5,881 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$49,917Heber Springs, AR median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Heber Springs, AR median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Heber Springs, AR.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)45.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
7,101
Median Income
$49,917
Median Home Value
$152,900
Median Age
45.9
Poverty Rate
13.9%
Labor force participation
45.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2209.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
354.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1854.6
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Heber Springs's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,966 residents
2021
7,124 residents
2022
7,183 residents
2023
7,251 residents
2024
7,312 residents
2025
7,323 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
8
housing units authorized
Single-Family
8
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
11
7
4
$2.1M
2020
90
90
0
$4.0M
2021
7
7
0
$1.8M
2022
10
8
2
$2.5M
2023
23
19
4
$4.8M
2024
8
8
0
$3.5M
Permit volume decreased 27% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.8%
Carpool
13.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
10.8%
Other
1.7%
Based on 2,713 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Arkansas statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $210
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Arkansas at $210 (electricity about $110 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Arkansas statewide averages, not a meter reading for Heber Springs. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Arkansas's BEA cost-of-living index is 86.9 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Heber Springs is $944/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Arkansas statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 55.5 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Arkansas statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Heber Springs sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Heber Springs compares to similar-size Arkansas cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.