Royal, Arkansas.
Typical home $283,986 (+3.2% in a year). Hot Springs, AR metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$884 (+146%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $8,806 +3%
- $275,180$283,986 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $67,517 +31%
- $216,469$283,986 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.
- Royal$1,491
- Arkansas$1,177
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 13 years.
Typical home values in Royal, AR rose 3.2% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Royal, Garland County, Arkansas
The Census does not count Royal on its own, so the figures here are Garland County's. Half the county's households earn more than $57,181 a year and half less; 16% of the county's people live below the poverty line. 69% of the county's homes are lived in by their owners and 31% are rented. Unemployment in Garland County was 3.6% in August 2026, and the county had 1.3% more jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Garland County work in schools and health care, then shops.
Written by AI Claude Haiku 5.5 wrote this on 22 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Royal is a small community in Garland County, in the hills of west-central Arkansas. The figures that follow describe the county as a whole, since the Census does not count Royal separately. Most homes across the county are lived in by their owners, and the population is older than the country's as a whole. Median household incomes run below the national figure, and more residents live below the poverty line than across the country.
Work. Many residents work in schools, hospitals and social care, or in shops, restaurants, hotels and entertainment, with professional and business services also a large employer. Unemployment in the county is lower than it was the year before, and the number of jobs has grown slightly. Fewer adults hold a four-year degree than across the country, and most people commute to work rather than working from home.
Things to do. Lake Ouachita, a reservoir a short drive away, and Lake Ouachita State Park, also a short drive away, both offer water and woodland settings close to town. Hot Springs National Park, a longer drive away, is one of the best known national parks in the state. The winters are cold but bring little snow, while summers are hot and the county receives a good deal of rain across the year.
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- 43,667households
- 45.5median age
- 25%of adults have a degree
- 16%below the poverty line
- 21 mintypical commute
- 8%work from home
What people in Garland County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Garland County had 38,517 jobs in 2025, 1.3% more than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 50° and lows near 29°; warmest in August, with highs near 91° and lows near 66°. About 1 inches of snow and 58 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Blakely Mountain Dam weather station, 7 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Garland County
- St. Vincent HOT SpringsGeneral hospital1,030FTE
- National Park Medical CenterGeneral hospital553FTE
- HOT Springs School DistrictSchool district510FTE
- Lake Hamilton School DistrictSchool district505FTE
- Lakeside School Dist(garland)School district399FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters366
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters342
- Magic Springs Theme and Water ParkAmusement parks292
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 74 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 7,583 people in all. 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
- HailRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms across Garland County, 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 Garland County and the Hot Springs, AR metro.
Royal home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Royal$283,986
- Arkansas$224,158
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Royal listings — the market is cooling.
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.
- Royal23.57%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Royal39
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Royal7
Zip codes with a Royal address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Royal — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.