Mena, Arkansas.
Typical home $195,910 (+3.5% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$608 (+145%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $6,536 +3%
- $189,374$195,910 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $49,415 +34%
- $146,495$195,910 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.
- Mena$1,028
- Arkansas$1,177
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 12 years.
Typical home values in Mena, AR rose 3.5% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Mena, Polk County, Arkansas
Mena is a city of 5,589 people in Polk County. Half its households earn more than $47,428 a year and half less, against $49,191 across Polk County; 14% of its people live below the poverty line. 68% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 32% are rented. Unemployment in Polk County was 4.2% in August 2026, and the county had 1.4% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most residents work in schools and health care, then shops.
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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Mena is a small city in the Ouachita Mountains of western Arkansas, the seat of Polk County. Most homes are lived in by their owners, and typical home values and household incomes sit a little below the county's own. Winters are cold but short on snow, summers run hot, and the rain falls generously through the year.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, with shops, manufacturing, and restaurants and hotels close behind. Among the largest workplaces in town are Nidec Motor Corporation - Mena, Mena Medical Center and the Mena School District. Most people have a short drive to work, and very few work from home.
Things to do. Janssen Park is a garden in or beside town, and the Ouachita River and Nancy Branch are both a short drive away for time by the water. The Ouachita National Forest, also a short drive off, offers woods and mountain country to explore. Queen Wilhelmina State Park, a protected area, is a longer drive.
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- 2,290households
- 18%of adults have a degree
- 14%below the poverty line
- 16 mintypical commute
- 2%work from home
What residents work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Polk County had 5,758 jobs in 2025, 1.4% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 49° and lows near 28°; warmest in July, with highs near 90° and lows near 68°. About 4 inches of snow and 61 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mena weather station, 3 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Mena
- Nidec Motor Corporation - MenaMotors, electric, manufacturing475
- Healthy ConnectionsCommunity health centers and clinics, outpatient342
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters302
- Mena School DistrictSchool district295FTE
- Mena Medical CenterGeneral hospital200FTE
- University of Arkansas Community College Rich MountainTwo-year college148
- Harp's Food StoreRetail grocery66
- Sterling EquipmentMachine shops58
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 11 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 1,454 people in all. School districts come from the Common Core of Data (NCES, 2023–24), hospitals from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) and colleges from IPEDS (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
- Ice stormsVery high
- HailRelatively high
- Strong windRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Mena’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 Polk County.
Mena home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Mena$195,910
- Arkansas$224,158
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 6 Mena listings — the market is roughly in balance.
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
Share of listings with a price cut
The early-warning dial: sellers cut when buyers stop reaching. Rising cuts cool a market months before prices notice.
- Mena17.26%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Mena182
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Mena28
Zip codes with a Mena address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Mena — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.