Bay, Arkansas.
Typical home $137,038 (+6.3% in a year). Jonesboro, AR metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$380 (+112%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,118 +6%
- $128,920$137,038 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $25,730 +23%
- $111,307$137,038 since Sep 2021
Monthly payment to buy the typical home
Home value × that month's 30-year mortgage rate, 20% down, principal and interest. This is the line households feel: prices and rates compound each other.
- Bay$719
- Arkansas$1,177
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 17 years.
Typical home values in Bay, AR rose 6.3% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bay, Craighead County, Arkansas
Bay is a city of 1,876 people in Craighead County. Half its households earn more than $59,769 a year and half less, against $59,548 across Craighead County; 15% of its people live below the poverty line. 48% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 52% are rented. Unemployment in Craighead County was 3.5% in August 2026, and the county had 0.7% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in manufacturing, then schools and health care.
Written by AI Claude Sonnet 5.5 wrote this on 23 October 2026 from the figures here, a list of nearby places and what it knows. It can be wrong or out of date.
What it’s like
The place. Bay is a small city in Craighead County, Arkansas, with a population that is modest by any measure. Household incomes are close to the county's, and homes are about as likely to be rented as owned, with fewer owner-occupied homes than across much of the country. Few adults hold a four-year degree, and commutes are short.
Work. Many residents work in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, and in the building trades. Across Craighead County, some of the largest workplaces are ST Bernards Medical Center, Arkansas State University and NEA Baptist Memorial Hospital. Job numbers in the county have edged up over the past year, and unemployment there has eased compared with a year earlier.
Things to do. Centennial Bank Stadium is a stadium a short drive away. Farther afield, a longer drive leads to Lake Poinsett State Park and Lake Frierson State Park, both protected areas, and to Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge. Winters are cool and summers are hot, with plenty of rain and melted snow through the year.
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- 871households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 15%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 7%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Craighead County had 55,451 jobs in 2025, 0.7% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 47° and lows near 30°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 72°. About 49 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Jonesboro Municipal Airport weather station, 8 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Craighead County
- St Bernards Medical CenterGeneral hospital2,522FTE
- Arkansas State UniversityUniversity or college1,934
- NEA Baptist Memorial HospitalGeneral hospital1,116FTE
- Frito LAYOther snack food manufacturing1,114
- NestleDinners, frozen, manufacturing860
- Jonesboro School DistrictSchool district829FTE
- NEA Baptist Clinic Charitable FoundationMds' offices790
- Nettleton School DistrictSchool district613FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 118 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 18,595 people in all across the county; Bay has one of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023), colleges from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24) and school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24); FTE marks full-time equivalent staff. Not listed: many offices and banks, which need not report to OSHA; military bases, whose staff OPM withholds; and, in about half the states, city and county governments.
Natural hazards
- TornadoesVery high
- Ice stormsVery high
- EarthquakesVery high
- Cold wavesVery high
- DroughtRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Bay’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, very high. It is meant for planning, not a substitute for a local risk assessment or a flood map: FEMA’s index.
From the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2020 census and its American Community Survey (2020–2024 five-year estimates), and the Bureau of Labor Statistics. A survey, so each figure has a margin of error, and figures it is not sure of are left out. More on Craighead County and the Jonesboro, AR metro.
Bay home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bay$137,038
- Arkansas$224,158
- United States$366,157
Levy by levy, and a check of one home’s own bill, the site covers Ohio’s property tax.
When this market ran hot
Each cell is that month's year-on-year home-value growth. Read left to right, top row is the latest year — the 2021–22 band is the boom.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Bay12
Zip codes with a Bay address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bay — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.