Waldo, Arkansas.
. Magnolia, AR metro.
to buy the typical home at today's mortgage rate — +$613 (+109%) since Jan 2020.
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.
- Arkansas$1,177
- United States$1,922
Living in Waldo, Columbia County, Arkansas
Waldo is a city of 1,151 people in Columbia County. Unemployment in Columbia County was 4.4% in August 2026, and the county had 1.6% fewer jobs in 2025 than the year before. The most people in Columbia 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 It can be wrong or out of date.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. Waldo is a small city in Columbia County, in the south of Arkansas, where neighbors are likely to know one another. Few adults here hold a four-year degree, and incomes across the county sit below the national middle. Winters are mild and rarely bring snow, summers are hot, and rain falls plentifully through the year.
Work. Residents work mostly in schools, hospitals and social care, with manufacturing, shops, and banking, insurance and property also employing many people. Few work from home, so most travel to a job. Across Columbia County, the largest workplaces include Southern Arkansas University's main campus, Albemarle and the Magnolia School District, though hiring has eased lately and the county has fewer jobs than a year earlier.
Things to do. A short drive away are the Greek Amphitheatre, a theatre, and Logoly State Park, a protected area for walks and time outdoors. A longer drive brings you to the President William Jefferson Clinton Birthplace Home National Historic Site, a protected area that preserves the early home of a former president. White Oak Lake State Park, a reservoir, is also a longer drive from town.
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- 5%of adults have a degree
- 2%work from home
What people in Columbia County work in
Employed residents by industry, from the Census survey. Columbia County had 7,979 jobs in 2025, 1.6% fewer than the year before (Bureau of Labor Statistics).
Weather through the year
Coldest in January, with highs near 55° and lows near 31°; warmest in August, with highs near 93° and lows near 68°. About 2 inches of snow and 56 inches of rain and melted snow a year.
Average daily high and low, 1991–2020, at the Magnolia weather station, 9 miles away (NOAA).
Largest workplaces in Columbia County
- Southern Arkansas University Main CampusUniversity or college535
- AlbemarleOther basic inorganic chemical manufacturing465
- Magnolia School DistrictSchool district421FTE
- AmfuelAircraft auxiliary parts manufacturing350
- WalmartWarehouse clubs and supercenters265
- WeyerhaeuserEngineered wood products265
- Emerson-taylor-bradley School DistrictSchool district213FTE
- Magnolia Regional Health SystemGeneral hospital178FTE
Staff on average in 2025, as each workplace reported it to OSHA with its injury records: 18 workplaces with 20 or more staff, 2,378 people in all across the county; Waldo has none of its own. Colleges come from IPEDS (NCES, 2023–24), school districts 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
- Strong windVery high
- HailRelatively high
- LightningRelatively high
- Heat wavesRelatively high
- TornadoesRelatively high
FEMA’s National Risk Index (December 2025) rates the risk each natural hazard poses to the people, buildings and farms in Waldo’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 Columbia County and the Magnolia, AR metro.
Waldo home values
Zillow measures a city over its municipal boundary. Against the state and national figures, mid-tier homes, smoothed and seasonally adjusted.
Not enough data to draw this yet.
Market heat, inside the city limits
Homes for sale
Active for-sale inventory. More supply hands power to buyers.
- Waldo9
Zip codes with a Waldo address
A different geography, not a breakdown. The figure above covers the municipality; these zips cover everywhere the Post Office calls Waldo — often including townships beyond the city limits. Both come straight from Zillow, and they are not expected to average out.