re: Enrollment in Fayetteville officially 26,754.

That's not the primary issue driving rents. Apartment vacancies all over NWA are at all-time lows because the whole area is booming right now. 99.9% of the students live in Fayetteville, but a lot of people prefer living here to Springdale for easy to understand reasons.

Fayetteville average apartment rents are actually somewhat lower than Bentonville. Not everybody can afford to live downtown, but that's ok. There are still affordable places in Fayetteville, if you can find vacancies to meet your need.

The last thing the city needs is a bunch of cheaper apartments.