Rector, Arkansas.
Typical home $133,894 (+5.8% in a year). Paragould, AR metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$445 (+173%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $7,329 +6%
- $126,565$133,894 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $48,366 +57%
- $85,528$133,894 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.
- Rector$703
- Arkansas$1,177
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 8 years.
Typical home values in Rector, AR rose 5.8% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Rector, Clay County, Arkansas
Rector is a city of 1,862 people in Clay County. Half its households earn more than $47,760 a year and half less, against $51,481 across Clay County; 20% of its people live below the poverty line. 66% of its homes are lived in by their owners and 34% are rented. Unemployment in Clay County was 3.8% in August 2026, and the county had 3.1% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Clay 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Rector is a small city in Clay County, in the northeast corner of Arkansas. Most homes here are lived in by their owners, and typical home values are modest. Incomes run a little below the county's, and a good share of residents live below the poverty line. Relatively few adults hold a four-year degree.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and farming, forestry and mining also employing many. Across Clay County, some of the largest workplaces are Piggott Community Hospital, the Rector School District and Harp's Food Store. Many people drive a fair way to work, and some work from home.
Things to do. Crowley's Ridge State Park is a protected area a longer drive away, and Big Lake National Wildlife Refuge is another, also a longer drive. Chalk Bluff, an archaeological site, is likewise a longer drive from town. Winters are cold, with the coldest weather in January, and summers get hot, warmest in July.
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- 811households
- 16%of adults have a degree
- 20%below the poverty line
- 25 mintypical commute
- 12%work from home
What people in Clay County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Clay County had 3,023 jobs in 2025, 3.1% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 46° and lows near 27°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 70°.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Kennett Radio Kboa weather station, 12 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Clay County
- Piggott Community HospitalCritical access hospital192FTE
- Piggott School DistrictSchool district152FTE
- Corning School DistrictSchool district149FTE
- Rector School DistrictSchool district118FTE
- AerialWholesale100
- Harp's Food StoreRetail grocery80
- Harps Food StoresRetail grocery76
- Eagle Health SystemsSkilled nursing facilities52
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 13 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 637 people in all across the county; Rector has two of its own. Hospitals come from their Medicare cost reports (CMS, 2023) 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
- Ice stormsVery high
- LightningVery high
- EarthquakesRelatively high
- Cold wavesRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Rector’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 Clay County and the Paragould, AR metro.
Rector home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Rector$133,894
- Arkansas$224,158
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 5 Rector listings — the market is heating up.
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.
- Rector18.90%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Rector24
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Rector6
Zip codes with a Rector address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Rector — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.