Press Release: 2026 Metrotrends Demographic Review and Outlook

The Future of Housing

September 22, 2026 — Metroplan announces release of the 2026 Demographic Review and Outlook, which chronicles demographic trends for the Little Rock-North Little Rock-Conway Metropolitan Statistical Area (MSA).

With a national discussion ongoing about housing markets and affordability, Metroplan took a look at future housing demand.

Central Arkansas gained 15,300 new households from 2020 to 2025. This was faster growth than the previous 2015–2020 period. Metroplan forecasts 15,800 new housing units from 2025 to 2030, based on prevailing demographic and economic trends.

Metroplan forecasts that Central Arkansas’ population will grow by 106,000 residents reaching 886,000 by 2060. Looking toward the future of housing, families are becoming smaller with single-person households more common.

We also analyzed housing and economic data, and talked with local developers about today’s housing trends:

• Local single-family housing construction saw strong gains during 2025. Cities within Pulaski County saw the biggest jump.
• Regional multi-family construction was up from 2024, but still below average for the 2016–2025 period.
• Roughly half of the housing growth in the region’s three largest cities—Little Rock, North Little Rock and Conway—is multi-family in nature, often built on urban and suburban infill sites.
• Demand is strong for townhouse-type single-family units with small yards or no yard at all, often in mixed-use developments with shopping and services close by.
• New homes with easy access to bike and pedestrian trails also hold a competitive advantage.
• The region’s suburban edge communities also continue building “greenfield” developments of conventional low-density single-family housing.
• Conway is now the region’s second-largest city, after Little Rock.
• Faulkner and Saline Counties are the region’s fastest growing counties.
• The regional economy has grown faster in the 2020 decade so far than the previous one, and this has probably lured people to the region.

If you would like to schedule an interview please contact our Public Engagement Planner, Sydney Dozier, at sdozier@metroplan.org.

Metroplan publishes Metrotrends twice yearly. All articles, tables and figures are available for republishing with credit. Further information on this issue may be obtained in the new 2026 Demographic Review and Outlook, available as a PDF or paper copy from Metroplan.