Best PlacesBadger Lee, OK Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Badger Lee, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Badger Lee ranks 40,835th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on cell coverage by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Badger Lee
BestNeighborhood is the only ranking that scores 40 measures of daily life neighborhood by neighborhood and lets you re-weight every one of them yourself.
Badger Lee's strengths and weaknesses
Where Badger Lee ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 99% of towns
- State fiscal healthBetter than 89% of towns
- Crime safetyBetter than 81% of towns
- Short commute22.1 minutes each way, better than 79% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 76% of towns
Where Badger Lee ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 5% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than only 7% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 10% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 11% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than only 12% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Badger Lee
A household needs to earn about $30,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Badger Lee home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $51,875, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.
Where the monthly payment goes
Assumes a 20% down payment, a 6.6% 30-year fixed rate, and a 28% share of income going to the payment. The rate is the 2026-07-23 30-year fixed average, series MORTGAGE30US from the St. Louis Fed, which publishes Freddie Mac's weekly survey. Against the median home value, property tax uses Badger Lee's effective rate of 0.51%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices, buying tends to cost more than renting for about the first 5 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Badger Lee
Badger Lee runs younger than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Badger Lee.
Who works in Badger Lee, and how
Work in Badger Lee centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 91%
- Work from home 5%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Badger Lee
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Badger Lee.
What the weather is like in Badger Lee, month by month
Badger Lee sees roughly 78 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 94 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs March through May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 51° | 39° | 30° |
| April | 73° | 60° | 50° |
| July | 94° | 82° | 72° |
| October | 77° | 63° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Badger Lee
The nearest airport, Fort Smith Regional, is about 27 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas Love Field, about 216 miles away.
The best schools in and around Badger Lee
Schools across Badger Lee average a D+, better than 13% of towns.
Top middle schools
- Sallisaw MsC− · 27% proficient
Top high schools
- Sallisaw HsD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Badger Lee school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Badger Lee measure by measure
Cards are ordered by how much each measure matters to you, so the ones you weighted highest come first. Expand to see every measure. Percentages compare Badger Lee against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Badger Lee
Is Badger Lee a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Badger Lee ranks 40,835th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on cell coverage, state finances, and low crime, and lowest on noise and thin health care access. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Badger Lee expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $119,600. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $51,875 median income, cost of living beats 18% of towns.
Is Badger Lee safe?
Yes, Badger Lee is safer than 81% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $266 per resident a year.
Compare Badger Lee with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Badger Lee. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Badger Lee represents the same real quantity as a 60 anywhere else, and the ranking is a weighted average of those absolutes. The map colors come from a national scale calibrated against a population weighted random sample of 5,000 neighborhoods. That absolute scoring is what no other places-to-live ranking does: it puts a single neighborhood, a town, a metro, and a state on one scale, so the same 40 measures answer both which metro to move to and which street inside it to buy on. Read the full methodology.
Badger Lee detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Badger Lee: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Badger Lee: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Badger Lee: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Badger Lee: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Badger Lee detail on related sites:
- CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
- ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
- CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.
Federal and public data:
- U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey: income, home value, rent, vacancy, commute time and mode, educational attainment, home age, age structure, household type, industry, and race.
- NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
- FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
- Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
- FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
- U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
- FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
- CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
- National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
- FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
- U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
- Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.
Your priorities
Move a slider to say how much a measure matters. Zero turns it off.