Bradford, Arkansas.
Typical home $138,021 (+0.9% in a year). Searcy, AR metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$354 (+96%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $1,256 +1%
- $136,764$138,021 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $18,975 +16%
- $119,046$138,021 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.
- Bradford$724
- Arkansas$1,177
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 23 years.
Typical home values in Bradford, AR rose 0.9% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Bradford, Jackson County, Arkansas
Bradford is a city of 678 people in Jackson County. Unemployment in Jackson County was 3.9% in August 2026, and the county had 0.9% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Jackson County work in schools and health care, then manufacturing.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Bradford is a very small city in Jackson County, Arkansas, where most people know one another by sight if not by name. Homes here are priced well below what many Americans pay, and incomes across the county run below the national picture. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than in most of the country.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and restaurants and hotels close behind. Across Jackson County, some of the largest workplaces are Shearer's Foods, which makes potato chips, Arkansas Steel Associates, which rolls steel, and Arkansas State University-Newport, a two-year college. The county has lost a small share of its jobs over the past year, though joblessness has eased compared with a year earlier, and the typical commute is a moderate one.
Things to do. Nature is the main draw within reach, though all of these are a longer drive away. Bald Knob National Wildlife Refuge and Cache River National Wildlife Refuge are protected areas that suit anyone who likes watching birds and wandering quietly outdoors. Jacksonport State Park is a museum and a place to learn about the area's past, and Bayou des Arc is a river for those who prefer time by the water. Winters are cool with only a little snow, summers are hot, and the year brings plenty of rain.
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- 13%of adults have a degree
- 24 mintypical commute
What people in Jackson County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Jackson County had 5,084 jobs in 2025, 0.9% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 46° and lows near 30°; warmest in July, with highs near 89° and lows near 72°. About 3 inches of snow and 51 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Newport weather station, 16 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Jackson County
- Shearer's Foods - NPTPotato chips manufacturing296
- Arkansas Steel AssociatesHot-rolling purchased steel268
- Arkansas State University-NewportTwo-year college250
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters214
- Arauco MalvernMdf manufacturing201
- Newport School DistrictSchool district201FTE
- Unity Health - NewportCritical access hospital180FTE
- Granges America'sFoil, aluminum, made by flat rolling purchased aluminum145
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 14 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,688 people in all across the county; Bradford has one of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24) and hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023); 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
- Ice stormsVery high
- TornadoesVery high
- Strong windRelatively high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Bradford’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively 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 Jackson County and the Searcy, AR metro.
Bradford home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Bradford$138,021
- Arkansas$224,158
- United States$366,157
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.
- Bradford15
Zip codes with a Bradford address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Bradford — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.