McGehee, Arkansas.
Typical home $85,878 (-7.1% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$37 (+9%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Down $6,530 -7%
- $92,409$85,878 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Down $39,376 -31%
- $125,254$85,878 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.
- McGehee$451
- Arkansas$1,177
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, prices here aren't rising.
Typical home values in McGehee, AR fell 7.1% over the past year — slower than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in McGehee, Desha County, Arkansas
McGehee is a city of 3,849 people in Desha County. Half its households earn more than $36,875 a year and half less, against $37,662 across Desha County; 34% of its people live below the poverty line. 47% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 53% are rented. Unemployment in Desha County was 6.6% in August 2026, and the county had 4.0% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then farming.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. McGehee is a small city in Desha County, in the southeast corner of Arkansas. The population is young compared with many American towns, and fewer homes are lived in by their owners than across much of the country. Incomes run a little below the county's, and a larger share of residents live below the poverty line than in most places. Homes are inexpensive by national standards, and the commute to work is short.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with others in farming, forestry and mining, manufacturing, and shops. The largest workplaces in McGehee are the McGehee School District, Walmart and Houchens Food Group. Unemployment in Desha County is lower than it was a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. The Japanese American Internment Museum is in or beside town and tells the story of the camps once held in this part of Arkansas. A longer drive away are Arkansas Post, an archaeological site, and Lake Chicot, a lake. Winters are mild and rarely snowy, summers are hot, and rain falls through much of the year.
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- 1,400households
- 14%of adults have a degree
- 34%below the poverty line
- 17 mintypical commute
- 3%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Desha County had 3,967 jobs in 2025, 4.0% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 51° and lows near 34°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 72°. About 1 inches of snow and 56 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Dermott Northeast weather station, 5 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in McGehee
- Mcgehee School DistrictSchool district170FTE
- WalmartDiscount department stores87
- Houchens Food GroupSupermarkets and other grocery stores40
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 2 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 127 people in all. School districts come 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- DroughtRelatively moderate
- EarthquakesRelatively moderate
- Ice stormsRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in McGehee’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 Desha County.
McGehee home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- McGehee$85,878
- 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.
- McGehee16
Zip codes with a McGehee address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls McGehee — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.