Real estate investors often focus on the dramatic swings of coastal markets, but Jerry Larkowski, Managing Broker at ESQ. Realty Group, LLC in Little Rock, Arkansas, suggests that the real opportunity lies in a market that maintains a steady, heartbeat-like rhythm. “If you’re on one of the two coasts, the prices go up and down,” Larkowski says. “Here, it’s more like a healthy heartbeat.”
The distinction between a pendulum and a heartbeat is crucial. A pendulum swings wildly in both directions, while a heartbeat maintains a consistent pulse. Larkowski has observed this pattern over nearly seven years and more than 180 closed transactions in the Little Rock and Hot Springs markets. Comparable sales from years ago still hold up as reliable comps today, with prices climbing gradually rather than spiking or collapsing. For investors, this translates into fewer surprises and more predictable returns. A property bought based on current comps is unlikely to look drastically over- or under-priced eighteen months later—a luxury not afforded to those buying in coastal boomtowns.
Larkowski refers to Arkansas as part of the heartland, the middle of the country often dismissed as flyover territory. However, this geography is becoming an asset. Several national organizations have relocated conventions to central cities like Dallas and St. Louis due to shorter travel distances from both coasts. Little Rock sits about four hours from Dallas, a metro area projected to become one of the largest in the country by 2030. Texas draws attention for its lack of state income tax, and Arkansas has been steadily reducing its own. Property taxes in Arkansas remain well below the national average. These factors don't make headlines about growth rates, but they significantly impact an investor's carrying costs.
Larkowski also highlights a less quantifiable factor: pace. Central Arkansas still carries traces of an agricultural economy, which moves more deliberately than the technology-driven markets on the coasts. He doesn't see this as a weakness. “That may force us city folks to slow down just a tad,” he says, half joking, in a conversation about how AI is accelerating everything else. For real estate, a slower-moving local economy tends to produce a slower-moving housing market, which is exactly the point.
What does steady look like for buyers and investors? Larkowski’s long-standing advice is that there is never a bad time to buy or sell a house, only better times and worse times. In a market that behaves like a heartbeat rather than a pendulum, this advice carries more weight. Buyers aren't trying to time a bottom that might not exist, and investors aren't bracing for a correction driven by speculation that never took hold. For out-of-state investors, this predictability is worth considering alongside price per door and cap rate. A market that rarely swings hard in either direction is one where today's underwriting assumptions are more likely to hold up next year. To learn more about Larkowski’s background as both a broker and an attorney, visit his about page.
