By Zack Stovall
Arkansas News Bureau
LITTLE ROCK — A national search for the fastest-growing communities over the past decade found Cabot the community in Arkansas deserving of the title “boomtown.”
The BusinessWeek.com survey, conducted in association with the Little Rock-based Gadberry Group, considered growth in households from 2000 to 2008 and from 2007 to 2008, as well as change in household income, among other factors.
In Cabot, a Lonoke County city of 22,092 located in the Little Rock metropolitan area, the number of households grew by 45 percent to 10,250 between 2000 and 2008, and household income grew by 83 percent during the period, to $98,555 last year.
Home values there average $136,000, according to the survey.
BusinessWeek.com said the area developed rapidly in part because of the growth of nearby Little Rock Air Force Base, which benefited from the most recent round of base closures with expansion of its mission as the Air Force’s largest C-130 air crew training base.
Mayor Eddie Joe Williams called the report “wonderful,” and said the title is appropriate for a city that is boasting economic progress during a national economic slump.
“The main reason people come here is for their families,” said Williams. “Our education system is top shelf. We take the best and the brightest minds in the state and give them the best education possible. People notice that and move here wanting that for their children.”
Williams said the resulting population increase is the foundation for the economic development of Cabot.
“Last year, we had 47 ribbon cuttings,” the mayor said. “Most of these businesses are retail, so they’re going to where the people are going. We’re bringing a lot of people in because of the neighborhood atmosphere that Cabot provides.”
Roughly 40 percent of the 15,000 military and civilian employees at the air base live in Cabot, Williams said.
Billye Everett, executive director of the Cabot Chamber of Commerce, said while business is certainly booming in Cabot, effects of the national recession are being felt there, primarily in the housing and building business.
“We’ve certainly felt a bit of a pinch with our building development with the recent economic downturn,” Everett said. “But we expect those numbers to be on the rise again.”
Real estate values are rising in Cabot, according to Williams, while home values are flat or depreciating elsewhere around the state.
Everett said the city’s economic development forecast is for a population well over 25,000.
“We have to go by our official population numbers, but we look at a number of different factors, like water connections, to gauge where we are right now as a city.
Former Mayor Stubby Stumbaugh, who served from 2003 though 2006, said much of his administration was devoted to making the city more business-friendly and improving infrastructure for a swelling community that has averaged more than 1,000 new residents annually since 2000.
“We had to raise some taxes for water and waste management and the fire and police departments. Those are important things that people consider when they’re looking at moving to Cabot.”
Everett said the city is becoming more diverse as it grows. The 2000 census listed the city as 96.7 percent white, but Everett said community lifestyle is attracting more Hispanic, Asian and black families the area.