Seeking a house?

Iwas wondering which Arkansas city is the best place to purchase a home. Could it be Bald Knob? Weiner? Perhaps Possum Grape?

In search of an answer, I happened across UnitedStatesZipCodes.Org, which, sure enough, had the answers I was seeking contained in its study called the “ZIPs in Arkansas that are better to buy than rent.”

Bet you can’t guess the community that ranked No. 1. I’d never heard of Datto before learning the farming town is located in Clay County at the northeastern-most tip of our state.

Datto’s population has steadily declined over the decades since its 1900 formation from a high of 275 in 1930 to fewer than 100 today, which I suppose also would make houses cheaper. The only problem with buying a home in Datto, short of maybe owning a farm, is trying to scrape together enough of a living to cover even a modest house note.

Roe, in Monroe County not far from far more populated Brinkley, was second. As with Datto, Roe’s population of late reportedly has dropped below 100. I can’t see much real estate investment opportunity there either.

Surely the third-best buying opportunity has to improve. I can’t see where the circumstances could get worse, right?

Welcome, valued readers, to thirdranked Ulm in Prairie County, latest population about 150.

It is followed in fourth place by Arkansas City in Desha County, tucked against the Mississippi border in the southeast of our state. Like the others, its population has steadily declined from a high of 1,485 in 1910 to about 325.

At this point, I was beginning to sense a pattern.

Finishing in fifth place is Lake City in Craighead County. This community shattered that pattern, having grown steadily from its earliest recorded population of 434 in 1900 to 2,451 as of 2017. As part of the Jonesboro Metropolitan Statistical Area, Lake City appears to be the best bet of all these communities for living in a thriving community.

The worst places in which to buy were Edgemont, followed by Sidney, Bonnerdale, Scott and the 72207 ZIP in Little Rock. The website’s analyses of real estate ratios found people are better off financially when they lease in these cities as opposed to purchasing.

At the risk of putting you to sleep with numbing explanations, the priceto-rent ratio, as explained by those responsible for its creation, represents the median home value divided by the median annual rent, which serves as a benchmark for understanding whether it’s better to rent or buy in an area.

When home prices rise significantly faster than local rents, the ratio will rise, they say, indicating a possible housing bubble where it may be better to rent.

And now you may know more than you did yesterday.

Needless cursing

Speaking of patterns, we weren’t far into watching the popular Netflix series Stranger Things when we began noticing a tendency of the writers to include irrelevant and profane “G**d***” references in the script.

At this point I should emphasize that, while I’m about as far as one can get from being a prude, I also still find it offensive that any program sees fit to needlessly curse in vain the divine force which created everything we know as reality, as if unnecessarily defaming God’s name is somehow justifiable as clever or funny.

It’s happening so frequently (we’ve noted similar language from other films) that any adult capable of rational thought can see the crusade of cursing must be calculated to desensitize viewers (young and old) by using such needless expletives.

If Netflix were ever to seek my advice on how to improve their offerings (I’ll not wait for the call), it would be to quit trying its best to spiritually and culturally denigrate God under the guise of entertainment, especially before our youth. Not only is this notso-subtle attempt at social engineering obvious, it’s offensive to most of a society that clearly has its vital underpinnings in the Judeo-Christian faith.

Winging it

Surely you didn’t think I could let that rampaging rooster story out of Jasper flap by without comment, did ya?

After being terrorized a while by a fowl-humored rooster who was cocky enough to think this entire peace-loving town was his harem, the lawmakers of Jasper are considering an ordinance restricting chickens and their red-tailed boyfriends to pens rather than strutting free to continue terrorizing the Ozarks community that lacks an animal control officer.

While sorta winging it (and in hopes I’m not ruffling anyone’s feathers), I arrived at a choice of names for this banty terrorizer that once attacked passersby who’d obviously fried his last nerve.

After flirting with Russell Crow, Henry Pecked or perhaps Cluck Norris, I finally named him Gregory Peck.

And make no mistake, before being cooped up amid the squawking, that ol’ chicken had crossed the road whenever and wherever he pleased. But nobody ever crossed him.