re: NWA. The Next Austin?

Fayetteville will be fine as long as the University is fine. I totally agree about all the shitty student housing and how those places will become dated and rundown very quickly. In addition, tons of places are just being bought as investment properties with absentee or infrequently visiting owners. This takes away from the vibrant downtown and makes it really hard to actually have students, artists, and service workers afford to actually live downtown.

My bigger concern for Fayetteville is the University and the fate of higher education in general. All that student housing is okay as long as the University is growing, but if the higher education bubble bursts.... all that student housing is going to become abandoned slums.