Isn't all of the South hot and humid in the summertime? I understand everyone's toleration of humidity is different. Most of the Midwest and East Coast can be quite hot and humid for long stretches of time in the summertime too.

It will definitely be warmer and more humid in Hot Springs than Fayetteville. Different environment in each; booming economy in the NW, home of Walmart, University of Arkansas, Crystal Bridges, Beaver Lake, etc. Hot Springs more of a retirement community. Located nearby 3 lakes, Oaklawn Park, Hot Springs National Park,

What are you looking for in a community?

I visit both areas for different reasons.

Both areas are beautiful. My preference would be Northwest Arkansas because it has more growth and is not stagnating like other parts of the state. It's more of a cultural center. IMO, transplants who are used to a bit 'more' will find they fit in better although parts of Hot Springs attract retirees from all over.

Arkansas is hot and humid in the summer even in the mountains. I find it less so than Florida and Texas.

Thanks for the comments. Elmer, hot and humid is worse in some areas than in others, which is why I am hoping for input from those who live in Arkansas full time and have experienced all seasons, for several years. We currently live in the San Antonio area which can get pretty hot and humid, but nothing like Houston, for example.

jrb451, we are scouting out retirement areas, of course we are going to visit several times prior to making a decision but I was hoping for input from people who live there. Husband is leaning more toward Hot Springs because of increasing growth in the Fayetteville area, I am leaning more toward Fayetteville because of less heat/humidity.

I can't help you with Arkansas ( we live in North Alabama and I am from Mobile), but heat and humidity are great. What I couldn't stand is the below zero and snow.

70* is good, 80* is better, 90* is fine, and 100* isn't bad! Shorts and t shirts or a bathing suit and the pool. Lemonade or margaritas. Bring on the heat.

I know, kadefol, and I know San Antonio. I spent a summer plus a bit there some years ago. It's certainly very hot and humid, and I know by comparison the coast and Houston in particular can be some fewer degrees of heat lower but more humid. Texas can be muggy and hot all the same. Both SA and Houston have summers many find uncomfortable.

I understand it's relative and slightly variable. I didn't know what your frame of reference is. I've been to Arkansas in the summertime too and for me, it was the same heat and humidity that so much of that part of the country has. If you want cooler or more comfortable summers, you may need to think a bit west and maybe a bit north of where you are, like N Mexico or Colorado. Both can offer the climate tempering effect of a bit of altitude.

Good luck.

Arkansas is a pretty diverse state. NWA is in the Ozarks with temps more moderate and less hunidity than central and southern Ark. Absolutely beautiful area. All other things equal, I'd choose NWA over HotSprings for the climate and NWA has more to offer in terms of art, shopping, lectures, etc. and I do like Hot Springs. COLA would probably be slightly higher in NWA.

My mother grew up in Fayetteville and I spent a lot of time there in the summer as a child. My first cousin (age 85) still lives there. She spent about 60 years living in Stuttgart, so Fayetteville is nirvana after that place.

Hot Springs is more of a resort area, due to the horse racing. There is a lot of money there and some pretty spectacular houses on the lakes. It just has a totally different atmosphere than NW Arkansas. Fayetteville is very congested due to the University being there. My late aunt always said she thought each student arrived in the fall with 3 cars! Rogers is a quieter town and Bentonville is very quiet. It's a very pretty little town, thanks to Walmart.

NW Arkansas is a beautiful area due to the Ozark mountains. Before the interstate came in between Fayetteville and Ft Smith, it was a gorgeous is hair-raising drive "down the mountain".

Both areas will get cold in the winter - both are prone to the ice storms which plague the south rather than massive snow fall. Both are hot and humid in the summer, but Hot Springs is hotter.

People move to Arkansas for the low housing prices, natural beauty and general low cost of living. It's a poor state, though, and that is reflected in many areas. NW Arkansas has greatly benefited from Tyson and Walmart - jobs where there were none. There is a substantial Latina population in NW - these are the people who work at Tyson plucking chickens -jobs native US citizens don't want to do. I cousin's daughter teaches English as a Second Language there.

It's going to be very different than San Antonio.

Wow, thanks for the input, everyone!! From what I've heard, the Fayetteville area is growing rapidly and expected to continue to do so. So we are trying to keep that in mind as well. Other than that, it is a beautiful area. We are planning to visit in August when it is supposedly the hottest/most humid, and also in January, just to check it out.

I really like that Arkansas has so much public land, whereas here in TX most places are private property and there really aren't that many large parks. Kind of difficult to go for long hikes and enjoy nature when you are surrounded by "no trespassing" signs.

I live between Houston and Galveston, and it is hot and humid, but usually a breeze.....okay, a warm breeze. The hottest place I have ever been.....I thought I would die....and I can take the heat...was Nashville, Tennessee and some place in Missouri...in the Ozarks. I can't remember the town....

It may have been cooler at night, but during the day, not even a hint of a breeze.

I hope this allowed here, but to get the lay of the land and good advice, this website - city-data.com has great forums. There are forums by state, as well as general topics. I spend a good bit of time there browsing---------not as much as houzz but still a good option.

I live in NW AR, about an hour from Fayetteville near Eureka Springs, very close to the MO state line. We moved here from central east coast (congested) FL. It’s less hot and humid than FL but it’s still hot and humid in the summer. A lot depends on your tolerance. There are a lot of bodies of water here and we live close to the White River and Beaver Lake, so yes, humid. We wanted 4 seasons and we got them. I haven’t been to Hot Springs so I can’t compare.

Since we moved here almost 30 years ago, it’s grown tremendously in the Rogers/Springdale/Fayetteville area. The work on I-49 is easing a lot of the congestion and traffic seems to move pretty smoothly unless there’s an accident, but we don’t drive it everyday, just when we need to get to Fayetteville. A lot of people who work in Fayetteville have moved to outlying areas like Pea Ridge and Bella Vista, judging by the number of housing developments. That’s probably why there’s so much traffic but having 3 lanes each direction in certain areas sure helps.

There’s lots to do here. Lots of shopping and entertainment. We live in the woods and property can still be purchased for a reasonable price. 40 wooded acres near us just sold for $79K.

The people here are nice. The weather is good most of the time, lots of rain and lots of sun, some ice and some occasional big snowfalls but it usually melts within a week or so. Pretty autumns. Gorgeous spring flowers and so green here in the summer. Winters are unpredictable, last week we were in the teens and yesterday it was 68, I had the doors open. Today will be 70!

Hope that helps.

Visiting an area for a week or two and living there for a number of years are two different things. It's hot and humid here in Williamsburg in the summer, but it's not hot and humid continuously. So if you were to visit here and happen to come during a hot and humid spell you would think that's what the summer is like. We may have a day or two even a week of not nice weather but then we get a break, making it very tolerable. With that in mind, I would pay more attention to the comments you get from people who have actually lived there for a number of years.

salonva....I looked at your link: city-data.com to see how relevant the information was to the town I just left & the town I just moved to. The information had bits and pieces of "truth"...and the important-to-me facts were left out completely. Like....crime rates? Homeless population? Ease of getting to and from the grocery store. :0) Interesting!

Nicole-- there are 2 parts to that website-- one is data and the other is the forums. You can ask specific questions on those forums (see by state, and then by city) and get more of a feel (depending on who replies)

I used to live in Mountain View about 25 years ago, I have no idea what its like now. I lived in other parts of the Ozarks, its pretty and lots of water and used to be lots of woods. I don't know about now. I always thought about moving back there. The only thing I didn't like were the ticks, chiggers and snakes.

Marilyn, for me the humidity was the worst in NJ even though summers weren't really all that hot. I'd be drenched walking the few feet from my office to the car.

Salon, thank you for the link, that looks like a really informative website!

FlamingO, thanks so much for all the info, it sounds almost perfect. And sounds like you still really like it after 30 years, that says a lot. Weather seems similar to here, we had cold temps recently, but 60's and up this week til Thursday night when the temps drop again. And property prices/taxes are a lot more affordable than here as well.

Georgysmom, the reason for the Aug/Jan visits are to compare temps to our current location. August is usually hottest and most humid here and Jan. coldest, so we want to see how those months compare.

katrina, heard about the ticks and chiggers and snakes and supposedly they can be kept in check by keeping grass around the house very short. Hopefully that's true. :)

I don't live that far away from you. I can tell you from talking to relatives that we've had a lot more sunshine this winter than Arkansas. Our cold doesn't usually dip down like theirs. You are going to see more of the four seasons in Arkansas. Here, we get very few days in the 30's and even less in the 20's. My relatives in Arkansas have had quite a few snow days and dreary days that are icky, but no snow. They get fall with the changing colors of the leaves. We don't really get that, but that may be due to all of the live oaks the HOA neighborhoods have. Arkansas does seem to get more tornadoes during the changing of the seasons. They tend to take certain paths so you may never see any. We have to start mowing in March here. You won't have to do that until May or June there.

Arkansas does have ticks, chiggars and snakes. Keeping the grass and bushes and trees cut and away from the house does help. There is also some granular stuff you can put on your lawn. If you get into any weeds or go out in the woods, take a shower and put your clothes directly in the wash machine and don't set them on the bed. Don't go pick all the pretty wildflowers for a bouquet either. Chiggars love them. If you have pets, watch them and use the flea/tick preventative stuff because pets will bring ticks into the house . You will have snakes, but keeping the rodent population down helps with that.

Adella, thanks for the info. Four seasons sounds nice, not much of that here except Lost Maples State Park does have lots of autumn color. Or did, before the fires.

We do have cats, but they are indoors. There are plenty of deer ticks around here as well.

"Arkansas does have ticks, chiggars and snakes."

A few Guinea hens will take care of all of those! ;-)

I can remember my mother having a "shaker" of a smelly green powder that was put on me when we were in Fayetteville in the summer. It was to help against chiggers, which can itch like the devil. I think it had sulfur in it. I'm sure there are far better things to use these days, plus I no longer roll around on the grass!

The thing that many longtime residents of Fayetteville dislike today is how the University has grown - it's now huge and sometimes appears to have "devoured" the town. Heck, about 30 years ago, they tore down the University President's house in order to build more dorms!

Dickson St is jam packed on weekends (and to some degree, week nights as well - do they never study?) as it has become a long strip or places where the students love to gather. They sure must have a lot more "discretionary" income than we did - who can afford this?

Buena Vista - my parents used to talk about that place - it was where they carried out a lot of their courtship in the late 1930's. At that time, it was a rather fashionable place. It later was abandoned and sat desolate for decades but has been rediscovered and is now very much alive and well and quite popular.

If one is looking for an "older" home, there are few from which to choose. They have all been torn down! Fayetteville and Bentonville do have "historic districts" (not sure about Springdale or Rogers), and anything built before 1950 is "historic". Other than that, it's one subdivision after another, built in what used to be pasture land. Not a lot of big trees in these subdivisions and utterly devoid of charm. My grandmother's house is now "historic" and it was a 1920's bungalow. These houses go for a premium due to their rarity.

I've been visiting Hot Springs and Fayetteville for more than 40 years and neither is the quaint town that it was on those first visits; but where is? Hot Springs was once called "The Saratoga of the South" for the racing festival held there in the spring. (I don't have to explain that if you follow Thoroughbred racing.) U of A football coach, Lou Holtz once stated on Johnny Carson's Tonight Show that "Fayetteville wasn't the end of the Earth but you could see it from there." (That didn't play well back home.)

In San Antonio, one of the problems is unrestricted building so there is lots and lots of unnecessary sprawl and land waste, and developments are so spread out that public transportation becomes almost impossible.

If you are looking for quaint there are other towns in Arkansas that might suit you. However there are few central hospitals if that will be a concern in future years. FIL lived just north of the state line and most people that needed hospital care beyond the small regional hospitals were sent to Springfield, MO. I have a friend who was sent to KU Med in KCK because there were no doctors that would even attempt to diagnose much less treat his muscular degenerative problems. It does give me a chance to see him more frequently than once a year but not good for him when he was at his worst.

Transportation to a different hospital sounds ok except for many it is air ambulance and not always covered by insurance.

Washington Regional Med Center in Fayetteville is fine for most things; if one has a serious or rare problem, many go to Little Rock to the medical school, or to St Louis or Kansas City. I'm very familiar with the hospitals in Springfield, MO as my parents lived near one of the hospitals there. There are some good doctors in Springfield and the hospital they went to took very good care of them. It's a Regional med center.

There seem to be several hospitals and medical centers with good ratings in Hot Springs, plus lots of private practice docs with positive ratings. So hopefully medical care will be sufficient. If not, Little Rock would be it because Fayetteville is a lot further.

kadefol, DH were just in SAT for 4 days and I was thinking it would be a nice place to retire to. No?

bpath, lots of people retire to SA and like it. It is certainly a very popular city that many people seem to like. There has been a huge influx of newcomers and there is no sign of a slowdown.

The city is sprawling and there is constant new housing development construction to accommodate all the new arrivals. There are traffic jams and slowdowns pretty much any time of the day now, complicated by road expansion, so it takes a lot longer to get from one part of the city to another. Summers are usually hot, humid and uncomfortable. Public transportation is not great. So a car is pretty much mandatory unless you live right downtown, which is quite walkable but very expensive.

On the plus side, it is pretty laid-back, people are usually friendly, lots of ethnic markets, the River Walk, the Alamo, many historic missions, good museums, very nice city parks. Many lovely old homes especially in the King William neighborhood, lots of shopping/antique stores, Mexican Imports, etc. The main grocery store is HEB, which is the best grocery store we've ever shopped at anywhere. Also, lots of really great hospitals and general medical care. The downtown area is pretty and there is great Tex Mex food to be had all over the city. Also, no state income tax, but if you buy a house, property taxes are really high.

You live in San Antonio now? We visited there last year to see relatives and do some touristy stuff. We stayed on the north end, and traffic was so crazy we called taxis/uber for all our sightseeing needs. It was expensive but well worth it to us. The traffic/highways/construction was just too much for us to drive ourselves.

Fayetteville has tons of building going on and lots of congestion. Public transportation? You're kidding, right? Everyone has multiple cars!

I did speak with my cousin tonight. She grew up in Fayetteville and has lived there since her husband died about 10-15 years ago. She has also had a house in Hot Springs when they lived in another AR town. I asked her which she would choose between the two and she said definitely Fayetteville. She said that Hot Springs is very touristy and has a lot more crime than Fayetteville. One 85 year old woman's opinion...

Knowing both places well, I second Anglo's cousins opinion. A second home in HS would be fun, but for full time I would choose NWA. I lived 45 -55 min from HS for over 30 years and went to school and grad school in Fayetteville as did DD (and DH). I also often traveled to NWA for pleasure and work many tims over the years. Don't restrict your search to Fayetteville proper, it is really a small scale megaplex now from Fayetteville to Rogers and there are also some smaller towns nearby but more off the beaten path.

For Hot Springs, look at HotSprings village (pretty self contained) or the Lake Catherine area (more peaceful than being on Lake Hamilton in town.

Edited to Add: If you are visiting Fayetteville in August, be sure to go before fall move in time at the dorms. It's crowded and hard to find a hotel room with so many parents in town.

Littlebug, we don't live in SA proper, just in the area, but drive within the city fairly often. Well, less often lately with the influx of too many people and the construction. I don't blame you for not wanting to drive in that mess.

Anglo, crime is certainly a consideration, as is lots of traffic. Public transportation is problematic in most places in the US, so I realize that's not a realistic criteria. Which is too bad, considering the aging population and the eventual need to be driven rather than drive. But that's a whole other subject. :)

Mojo, thanks for the tip, didn't know that there is a hotel room shortage in August. That is helpful to know.

We really would like to avoid dealing with HOA's, so Hot Springs Village, Bella Vista, etc. are probably out. But we'll definitely check out other towns besides Fayetteville and Hot Springs as well.

Be sure to include a side trip over to Eureka Springs when checking out Fayetteville.

I think you’ll find that most new subdivisions just about anywhere include an HOA. Ones built in the past 30 years, too.

I’m interested in why, being near SA, you’re not looking in the Texas Hill Country. I know a couple of people who retired there and they love it!

Anglo, the entire Hill Country is certainly beautiful and there are many pretty towns to explore. But husband and I are outdoorsy and the lack of public land is getting old. We'd like to move to an area where there are lots of outdoor activities we can do most of the year, while we are still able to enjoy them. Around here, other than parks and a few public natural areas, everything is private property and fenced off.

As for subdivisions, from looking at various homes for sale on real estate sites there still seem to be quite a lot without an HOA so we should be able to find something suitable.

Whether people hate or love a homeowners association depends on one's personal attitudes and also how a particular association conducts itself.

I have two personal homes in neighborhoods with a homeowners association and I LIKE them a lot. A good homeowners association works for the common good and protects the group overall from the poor judgement or selfish judgement of individual homeowners. And itself avoids nosy or inappropriate actions, both personally by the board members and as a board overall.

Board members are subject to election and re-election. If you don't like the conduct of particular board members, don't vote for them. Better yet, communicate your disagreements to your neighbors in appropriate ways and enter the election yourself to replace the one you disagree with.

Elmer, I am sure there can be benefits to HOA's, but judging by personal experience and accounts by others, the potential for mismanagement and general drama is something we want to avoid, if possible. Board members can change and a good HOA can go bad in no time. Another consideration are HOA fees that are affordable initially, but continue to increase every year. That can be more difficult to deal with when on a fixed income.