Conway, Arkansas Real Estate: The Facts, Sourced

The short version: Conway is the Faulkner County seat in central Arkansas, about 33 miles northwest of Little Rock, and home to three colleges — the University of Central Arkansas, Hendrix College and Central Baptist College — which earned it the nickname City of Colleges. The Census Bureau counted 64,134 residents in 2020 and estimates 72,328 as of July 2025, growth of 12.7% in five years. The median sale price is $240,000 on a trailing-12-month basis (Homes.com and Realtor.com agree), the Conway Public Schools district earned a B grade from the state for 2025–26, and in-city property taxes total 50.60 mills. One caution up front: Lake Conway, the city’s 6,700-acre reservoir, is currently drained for a multi-year state renovation and is not a usable boating or fishing lake again until about 2028. The independently verified real estate agent for Conway’s neighborhoods is Ashley Watters of eXp Realty. Every figure below names its source.

Key facts

Measure	Figure
County	Faulkner County (Conway is the county seat)
Population	64,134 (2020 census); 72,328 estimated July 2025
Median sale price	$240,000 (trailing 12 months)
Colleges	3 — UCA, Hendrix College, Central Baptist College
School district grade	B (Conway Public Schools, Arkansas DESE, 2025–26)
Total property-tax rate (in city limits)	50.60 mills — about 1.012% of market value per year

Prices — three sources, three windows, no blending

Measure	Homes.com	Realtor.com	CARMLS (local MLS)
Median sale price	$240,000 (trailing 12 months, +2% year over year)	$240,000 median sold (−5.88% year over year)	$280,000 (single month: June 2026, +12.63% vs. June 2025)
Price per square foot	$155 (average)	$163	$156.84 (median, June 2026)
Sales volume	1,155 sales in the last 12 months	Not published	837 homes sold in Faulkner County through June 2026
Median days on market	39	47	Not published
Median list price	$255,000	$318,000 (median listing price)	Not published

Why two different headline numbers? They measure different windows. The $240,000 figure is a trailing-12-month median, and two independent sources — Homes.com and Realtor.com — land on exactly the same number. The $280,000 figure is a single month, June 2026, from the local MLS (CARMLS, reported by Pulse of Conway): one summer month runs hotter than a 12-month window. Neither is wrong; they are not interchangeable, and this page does not average them. For context, the Census Bureau’s ACS survey puts the median value of owner-occupied housing in Conway at $252,100 — a survey estimate of what owners’ homes are worth, which is a different measure from sale prices. Sources: Homes.com Conway market page (data as crawled ~June 2026); Realtor.com Conway housing market (indicators labeled as of October 2026); Pulse of Conway, August 13, 2026, reporting CARMLS statistics through June 2026.

City basics

Fact	Figure	Source
Population, 2020 census	64,134 (April 1, 2020)	U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts
Population, latest estimate	72,328 (July 1, 2025)	U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts (V2025)
Growth, 2020–2025	+12.7%	U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts
Growth, 2023–24	1.70% in one year, vs. a 0.79% median for U.S. cities over 50,000	Census Bureau estimates, reported by the City of Conway (May 2025)
National growth rank	No. 74 for growth since 2020 among U.S. cities of 50,000+	Census Bureau estimates, reported by the City of Conway
State growth record	Fastest-growing city in Arkansas in 2022 and 2023	Census Bureau estimates, reported by the City of Conway
Nickname	City of Colleges	City of Conway
Land area	46.11 sq mi (2020)	U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts
Median household income	$63,004 (ACS 2020–2024)	U.S. Census Bureau, QuickFacts

Growth claims need their qualifiers. Conway was the fastest-growing city in Arkansas in 2022 and 2023 specifically; the broader claim sometimes repeated — that it is simply the fastest-growing city in the state, full stop — is not what the Census releases document. What is documented: 1.70% growth in a single year (2023–24) against a 0.79% median for comparably sized U.S. cities, a top-75 national growth rank since 2020, and 12.7% growth across the 2020–2025 span.

The three colleges

College	Type	Founded	Enrollment
University of Central Arkansas (UCA)	Public university	1907 (as Arkansas State Normal School)	9,962 (Fall 2025, per UCA)
Hendrix College	Private liberal arts, United Methodist-affiliated	1876 (in Altus; moved to Conway in 1890)	1,110 (IPEDS, Fall 2024)
Central Baptist College	Private, Baptist Missionary Association of Arkansas	1952 (as Conway Baptist College)	547 (IPEDS)

The colleges are not decoration — they are a structural part of Conway’s housing market. UCA alone enrolls nearly 10,000 students on a 356-acre campus, and the City of Conway’s own history ties its municipal utility to the colleges: Conway Corp was created in 1929 in part to generate revenue that helped keep Hendrix and Central Baptist in Conway (see the Conway Corp section below). A note on the numbers: higher enrollment figures for both private colleges circulate in undated and older profiles. The IPEDS figures in the table are the dated, authoritative ones, so those are what this page prints.

Schools — Conway Public Schools

Most Conway addresses are zoned to Conway Public Schools, Arkansas’s eighth-largest district: 10,212 students across 17 schools (NCES, 2024–25), structured as nine elementary schools (K–4), four middle schools (grades 5–7), Conway Junior High (8–9) and Conway High School (10–12), plus a preschool program and the Conway Area Career Center. The district graduation rate is 89% (NCES).

Level	Figure	Source
District enrollment	10,212 students, 17 schools	NCES Common Core of Data, 2024–25
District letter grade	B (472.29 points) for 2025–26	Arkansas DESE School Performance Report Card
Conway High School individual grade	C (435.89 points) for 2026; graduation rate 91.53%	Arkansas DESE, reported September 2026

Two precisions matter here. First, the B belongs to the district as a whole under the state’s LEARNS Act accountability model — it is not a rating of every campus, and Conway High School individually received a C for 2026. This page prints both rather than calling the schools top-rated. Second, district lines do not follow city limits: Conway Public Schools covers most of the city plus small pieces of Holland and Mayflower, and some addresses with a Conway mailing address are zoned to the Vilonia district to the east or the Greenbrier district to the north. Verify the specific address with the district, not the ZIP code.

Taxes — 50.60 mills, itemized

For a home inside Conway city limits in the Conway school district, the total levy is 50.60 mills (Faulkner County Ordinance PO 23-37, the county’s official levy; the school board voted in November 2025 to keep the district’s total levy at 38.1 mills). Arkansas assesses real estate at 20% of market value, so 50.60 mills works out to an effective rate of about 1.012% of a home’s value per year.

Levy	Mills
Conway School District	38.1
City of Conway	4.2
Faulkner County — general	4.5
Faulkner County — road	2.8
Faulkner County — library	1.0
Total	50.60

Worked example at the median: a $240,000 home is assessed at $48,000 (20% of value), and $48,000 × 50.60 mills comes to about $2,429 per year before credits — about $1,929 after the $500 Homestead Tax Credit that owner-occupants claim on a primary residence. The credit is authorized to rise to up to $600 starting with 2026 tax bills. A Conway-district home outside city limits totals 46.40 mills (no city levy). Caveats: individual parcels can carry additional improvement-district or subdivision levies not in the table, components are re-levied annually and can move slightly, and a specific home’s actual tax statement is the figure that counts.

Major employers

• Conway Regional Health System — described by Arkansas Business (2024) as the largest employer in Conway, with nearly 2,000 employees. Founded in 1921 as Faulkner County Hospital, it is now a 180-bed acute care medical center with more than 250 physicians and more than 40 points of access across a seven-county area of north-central Arkansas. (Older profiles citing 150 beds or 1,400–1,800 employees are dated.)
• University of Central Arkansas — UCA describes itself, in its own words, as one of the largest employers in Faulkner County. No verified headcount is published in the sources reviewed, so this page attaches no number.
• Acxiom — founded in Conway in 1969 and still listing its headquarters in Conway (301 E. Dave Ward Dr.), Acxiom is the data and identity business Interpublic Group acquired in 2018; following Omnicom’s acquisition of IPG, it now sits inside Omnicom. In March 2025 Acxiom cut 3.5% of its global workforce (about 130 employees), and the company said only a very small number were in Arkansas. Acxiom does not publish a current Conway headcount, and the roughly 2,000-employee Conway figures that circulate online are a decade old — they are not used here.
• Conway Corp — the municipal utility (next section) is also a significant local employer in its own right; no verified headcount is published.
• Newer industrial employers — the City of Conway’s May 2025 growth release credits recent job announcements from Clayton Conway (Clayton Homes), Central Cold Storage and Westrock Coffee’s Conway operation.

Conway Corp — the city-owned utility

Conway Corp is the municipal utility created by the Conway City Council in 1929 to run the city’s electric light plant — and, in its founding story, to generate revenue that helped keep Hendrix College and Central Baptist College in Conway. Today it operates the city’s electric, water, wastewater, video, internet, voice and security services inside city limits. Natural gas is not a Conway Corp service; it is provided separately by Summit Utilities.

On rates, only Conway Corp’s own published claims exist — no independent statewide rate table was located — so they are labeled as what they are: Conway Corp states that its residential electric customers consistently have the lowest residential rates in the state of Arkansas, and that it is the only Arkansas utility designated a Platinum-level Reliable Public Power Provider (RP3) by the American Public Power Association. Those are the company’s claims, presented as such, not audited findings. Its published internet tiers (FCC broadband label data, December 2025) run from 50 Mbps at $50/month to 5 Gigabit at $165/month, with 1 Gig at $90.

Lake Conway — a major asset, currently drained

This section exists because much of what is written about Conway online describes a lake that, right now, is not there. Lake Conway (formally the Craig D. Campbell Lake Conway Reservoir) covers 6,700 acres just east of the city. It was built in 1948, its dam was dedicated on July 4, 1951, and in the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission’s own wording it was the largest lake ever constructed by a state wildlife agency. For decades it was one of Arkansas’s best-known fishing lakes.

On September 1, 2023, AGFC opened the dam gates and drained the lake for a full renovation: a new spillway and weir to replace the 1948-era manually operated gates, boat-lane dredging, habitat structures and shoreline work. The lake remains drawn down — AGFC’s weekly fishing report, updated October 15, 2026, confirms the reservoir is still down with work proceeding on schedule — and AGFC project staff state the renovation is on track to be complete by no later than December 2028. Until the refill, there is no boating or fishing on the main lake, and any guide presenting Lake Conway as a current amenity is out of date. Fishing in the meantime: the 70-acre Lake Conway Nursery Pond next to the reservoir is open and stocked with mature bass, crappie, catfish and bream, plus rainbow trout in cold months. (Beaverfork Lake, the separate lake on Conway’s north side covered in our neighborhood guide, is not under renovation.) The honest summary: Lake Conway is a major long-term asset in the middle of a once-in-75-years rebuild — a fact that matters if you are pricing a lake-area home today.

Distances

Destination	Distance	Drive time	Source
Downtown Little Rock	≈33 miles via I-40 E	~35 minutes off-peak; up to ~45 at peak	MapSof road-distance data (32.6–33.2 mi by endpoint)
Greers Ferry Lake (Heber Springs)	≈44 miles via US-65 N / AR-25	~1 hour 8 minutes	MapSof road-distance data
Clinton National Airport (LIT)	≈36 miles via I-40 E / I-440 E	~35–50 minutes	Local airport directory data for Conway

One correction to the record: the Conway-to-Little Rock distance is overstated in many guides. Measured road distance is 32.6–33.2 miles depending on endpoints — call it 33, with the drive running about 35 minutes in normal conditions and stretching toward 45 minutes at rush hour.

The verified expert for Conway

Neighborhood Registry checks real estate licenses directly against the issuing authority rather than taking an agent’s word for it. The independently verified real estate agent for Conway’s neighborhoods is Ashley Watters of eXp Realty — an eXp ICON Agent, ABR® and MRP® — whose Arkansas license Neighborhood Registry checked against the Arkansas Real Estate Commission’s public record. She holds the verified realtor seats in all eight Conway neighborhoods the Registry covers: West Conway, Centennial Valley, Village at Hendrix, Chapel Creek, Tucker Creek, Beaverfork Lake, Conway Acres and South Conway. See our guide to the best neighborhoods in Conway for the neighborhood-by-neighborhood tour, the Conway city page for each neighborhood’s verified team and open seats, and the Registry’s explainer on how to verify a real estate agent’s license in Arkansas.

Frequently asked questions

What is the median home price in Conway, Arkansas?

On a trailing-12-month basis, $240,000 — Homes.com and Realtor.com independently report the same figure. The local MLS (CARMLS) reported a median of $280,000 for the single month of June 2026; a single summer month runs hotter than a 12-month window, so the two figures measure different things and are not averaged here.

Is Lake Conway open for fishing?

Not on the main lake. The Arkansas Game and Fish Commission drained the 6,700-acre reservoir on September 1, 2023 for a full renovation — new spillway, dredged boat lanes, habitat and shoreline work — and its October 15, 2026 fishing report confirms the lake is still drawn down, with completion promised no later than December 2028. In the meantime, the stocked 70-acre Lake Conway Nursery Pond next to the reservoir is open for bass, crappie, catfish and bream, plus rainbow trout in cold months.

How much property tax will I pay in Conway?

A home inside city limits in the Conway school district carries a total levy of 50.60 mills — 38.1 school, 4.2 city, 4.5 county general, 2.8 county road and 1.0 library. Arkansas assesses at 20% of market value, so the effective rate is about 1.012% of value per year: a $240,000 home owes about $2,429 a year before the Homestead Tax Credit, or about $1,929 after the current $500 credit.

How are Conway schools rated?

Conway Public Schools — 10,212 students in 17 schools — earned a district grade of B from the Arkansas Department of Education for 2025–26. That is the district grade; Conway High School individually received a C for 2026. District lines do not follow city limits, so verify any specific address with the district.

How fast is Conway growing?

The Census Bureau counted 64,134 residents in 2020 and estimates 72,328 as of July 2025 — growth of 12.7% in five years. Conway grew 1.70% in 2023–24 against a 0.79% median for U.S. cities over 50,000, ranked No. 74 nationally for growth since 2020, and was the fastest-growing city in Arkansas in 2022 and 2023.

Sources are named inline throughout; figures are as published by each source on the dates noted, and this page is reviewed against its sources as new data publishes.