Fort Smith vs Texarkana
Metro-area medians — Fort Smith, AR-OK Metro Area vs Texarkana, TX-AR Metro Area — not the cities proper.
Fort Smith comes out ahead, winning 5 of the 7 clearly-decided measures.
Fort Smith and Texarkana cost about the same to live in, but Fort Smith households earn about 4% more. Adjusted for local prices, a typical paycheck stretches about as far in either.
For your salary & household
Enter your pay and household size to see what it's really worth here — the numbers update live and the link stays shareable.
On $75,000 for just you, Texarkana leaves you about $4,791/yr better off after tax and local prices.
Take-home estimates a single filer taking the standard deduction (2025 federal brackets, FICA, and state income tax) and isn't tax advice. “Real value” rebases take-home to average U.S. prices using the BEA cost-of-living index; the per-person figure uses the OECD square-root equivalence scale.
Choose Fort Smith for
- + Livability (CityLedger)
- + Median household income
- + Median rent
- + Unemployment
- + Air quality (median AQI)
Fort Smith vs Texarkana — frequently asked
- Is Fort Smith cheaper than Texarkana?
- They are about even — the overall cost of living in the Fort Smith and Texarkana metros is within 3% of each other (BEA Regional Price Parities), so neither is meaningfully cheaper.
- Which has higher household income, Fort Smith or Texarkana?
- Fort Smith has the higher median household income — $60,327 versus $58,000 (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS), about 4% more.
- Does a paycheck go further in Fort Smith or Texarkana?
- It is roughly a wash. After adjusting income for local prices, a typical paycheck is worth about the same in both metros ($70,239 versus $69,038).
- Which has cheaper rent, Fort Smith or Texarkana?
- Fort Smith has cheaper rent — a median of $906/mo versus $939/mo (U.S. Census Bureau, ACS).