Lafe, Arkansas.
Typical home $175,010 (+11.5% in a year). Paragould, AR metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$524 (+133%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $18,033 +11%
- $156,977$175,010 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $33,062 +23%
- $141,948$175,010 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.
- Lafe$919
- 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 Lafe, AR rose 11.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Lafe, Greene County, Arkansas
Lafe is a town of 418 people in Greene County. Half its households earn more than $36,429 a year and half less, against $57,839 across Greene County; 43% of its people live below the poverty line. Unemployment in Greene County was 3.9% in August 2026, and the county had 1.7% fewer 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Lafe is a very small town in Greene County, Arkansas, where neighbors are likely to know one another. Household incomes run well below the county's, and a large share of residents live below the poverty line. Homes here cost less than in many parts of the country, and few adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Residents work mostly in manufacturing, in schools, hospitals and social care, and in other services, with professional and business services also common. Across Greene County, the largest workplaces include the Paragould School District, the Greene County Tech School District and Arkansas Methodist Medical Center. Unemployment across the county has eased compared with a year earlier, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before, and nearly everyone gets to work by commuting rather than working from home.
Things to do. For time outdoors, Crowley's Ridge State Park, Lake Frierson State Park and Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge are protected areas, each a longer drive away. The Current River is another longer drive for anyone who wants to be on the water. Winters are cold and summers are hot, with very little snow and a good deal of rain through the year.
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- 172households
- 8%of adults have a degree
- 43%below the poverty line
- 22 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Greene County had 15,401 jobs in 2025, 1.7% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 46° and lows near 28°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 71°. About 2 inches of snow and 52 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Paragould 1S weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Greene County
- Paragould School DistrictSchool district641FTE
- Greene County Tech School DistrictSchool district577FTE
- DRiVWheels, steering, automotive, truck, and bus, manufacturing575
- Anchor Packaging ParagouldBags, plastics film, single wall or multiwall, manufacturing510
- Arkansas Methodist Medical CenterGeneral hospital490FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters395
- Greenbrier MarmadukeRailroad cars and car equipment manufacturing370
- Utility Trailer Manufacturing CompanyTruck trailer manufacturing361
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 29 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 4,259 people in all across the county; Lafe has none of its own. School districts come 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
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Lafe’s census tracts, against the rest of the country; all of them together, relatively moderate. 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 Greene County and the Paragould, AR metro.
Lafe home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Lafe$175,010
- 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.
Zip codes with a Lafe address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Lafe — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.