Shirley, Arkansas.
Typical home $177,660 (+2.1% in a year).
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$509 (+120%) since Jan 2020.
- 1 year
- Up $3,671 +2%
- $173,989$177,660 since Sep 2025
- 5 years
- Up $20,393 +13%
- $157,267$177,660 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.
- Shirley$932
- Arkansas$1,177
- United States$1,922
At the last five years' pace, a typical home here doubles in price every 28 years.
Typical home values in Shirley, AR rose 2.1% over the past year — faster than the nation's +1.2%.
Living in Shirley, Van Buren County, Arkansas
Shirley is a town of 248 people in Van Buren County. Unemployment in Van Buren County was 4.7% in August 2026, and the county had 2.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Van Buren County 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Shirley is a very small town in Van Buren County, Arkansas, and day-to-day life here is quiet and close-knit. Homes are fairly affordable, and household incomes across the county are modest. Winters are cool with only a little snow, summers get hot, and the year brings plenty of rain.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, in shops, in the building trades, and in transport, warehouses and utilities. Very few work from home. Across Van Buren County, some of the largest workplaces are Ozark Health, the Clinton School District and Walmart. Unemployment in the county has eased a little from a year ago, though the county has fewer jobs than it did the year before.
Things to do. The Ozark hills and woods are the draw, though the best-known places are a longer drive away. Blanchard Springs Caverns is a well-known tourist attraction, and Greers Ferry Lake is a large reservoir for boating and fishing. North Sylamore Creek is a river worth the drive for time by the water.
Report a mistake
- 3%work from home
What people in Van Buren County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Van Buren County had 3,705 jobs in 2025, 2.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 48° and lows near 28°; warmest in July, with highs near 91° and lows near 70°. About 5 inches of snow and 52 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Mountain View weather station, 18 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Van Buren County
- Ozark HealthSkilled nursing facilities398
- Clinton School DistrictSchool district239FTE
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters218
- Ozark HealthCritical access hospital195FTE
- South Side School District(vanburen)School district122FTE
- Harps Food StoreRetail grocery79
- Shirley School DistrictSchool district65FTE
- Petit Jean Electric CooperativeDistribution of electric power58
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 5 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 773 people in all across the county; Shirley has one 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
- Strong windRelatively high
- Winter weatherRelatively high
- WildfireRelatively moderate
- LightningRelatively moderate
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Shirley’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 Van Buren County.
Shirley home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
- Shirley$177,660
- Arkansas$224,158
- United States$366,157
Sellers are cutting prices on about 1 in 4 Shirley 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.
- Shirley25.40%
- United States26.90%
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Shirley30
New listings per month
Sellers arriving at the market.
- Shirley6
Zip codes with a Shirley address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Shirley — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.