Best PlacesCuster County, OK Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in Custer County, 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.

See the map of best neighborhoods

Custer County ranks 2,052nd of 3,144 U.S. counties on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on fast internet by a wide margin, and civic engagement ranks lowest.

#2,052
of 3,144 counties
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
N/A
of 3,144 counties
Your rank
Set your priorities to see your rank

The best neighborhoods in Custer County

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Custer County area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
Colorblind friendly off
Popular priorities:

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.

Custer County's strengths and weaknesses

Top 3%Fast internet
Top 10%Walkability
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Custer County with other counties.

Where Custer County ranks high

  • Internet speedBetter than 98% of counties
  • WalkabilityBetter than 92% of counties
  • Cell coverageBetter than 89% of counties
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 84% of counties
  • Short commute19.0 minutes each way, better than 84% of counties

Where Custer County ranks low

  • Voter turnoutBetter than only 6% of counties
  • Air qualityBetter than only 8% of counties
  • State infrastructureBetter than only 9% of counties
  • Tree shadeBetter than only 10% of counties
  • QuietBetter than only 16% of counties

What it costs to buy a home in Custer County

A household needs to earn about $48,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Custer County home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $62,901, so a typical household can afford the median home outright.

Income to buy the median home
$48,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,127
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $186,316 home
Median rent
$844
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$950
Property tax$115
Homeowners insurance$62

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 Custer County's effective rate of 0.74%, 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 8 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Custer County

Custer County runs younger than the country.

Median age
34
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
14%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.5
near the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1826%
18 to 3428%
35 to 4916%
50 to 6415%
65 and older14%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Custer County.


Who works in Custer County, and how

Work in Custer County centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.

Work from home
4%
below the national average
Unemployment
2.8%
below the national average
Job growth
−0.6%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social14%
Retail trade13%
Education11%
Hospitality & food9%
Manufacturing7%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 92%
  • Work from home 4%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 3%

Life in Custer County

Custer County has more parkland per resident than 88% of counties. That concentrates in some parts of Custer County and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
140
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 49.1 per 10,000 residents, more than 57% of counties
Coffee shops
13
about 4.6 per 10,000 residents, more than 42% of counties
Parkland
297 acres
about 10.4 acres per 1,000 residents, more than 88% of counties
Living on campus
878
students living in college or university housing

Is Custer County growing, and who is moving in?

Custer County has lost about 4% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Oklahoma City, OK.

Population growth
-4%
over the decade, vs about 6% nationally
Population
28,266
down from 29,509
Population by year. Source: U.S. Census Population Estimates Program.

Where new residents come from

Oklahoma City, OK713 / yr
Washita County, OK328 / yr
Woodward County, OK175 / yr
Caddo County, OK174 / yr
Tulsa, OK167 / yr

Where people leaving Custer County go

Oklahoma City, OK696 / yr
Beckham County, OK203 / yr
Tulsa, OK124 / yr
Washita County, OK118 / yr
Caddo County, OK107 / yr

Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.


What the weather is like in Custer County, month by month

Custer County sees roughly 122 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 51, with lows near 28. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January51°37°28°
April74°59°48°
July95°83°72°
October76°62°51°

Flying in and out of Custer County

The nearest airport, Okc Will Rogers International, is about 70 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas-Fort Worth International, about 210 miles away.

Nearest airport
OKC
Okc Will Rogers International, about 70 miles
Airport size
Small hub
68th-busiest in the US, 68 nonstop destinations
Average drive
100 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Custer County

Schools across Custer County average a C−, better than 27% of counties.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Custer County school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Custer County 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 Custer County against the other 3,143 counties.


Who Custer County suits

Families

Schools land around the 27th percentile.

See the families priority ↑

Remote workers

Internet is fast and widely advertised and 4% already work from home.

See the remote-work priority ↑

Retirees

The weather beats 76% of counties.

See the retirees priority ↑


Common questions about living in Custer County

Is Custer County a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Custer County ranks 2,052nd of 3,144 counties. It scores highest on fast internet, walkability, and cell coverage, and lowest on civic engagement and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Custer County expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $186,316. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $62,901 median income, cost of living beats 31% of counties.

Is Custer County safe?

Custer County is safer than 22% of counties. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $560 per resident a year.

What is the weather like in Custer County?

July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 51 with lows near 28. That works out to about 122 pleasant days a year, more than 76% of counties.

Is Custer County good for families?

Schools beat 27% of counties, crime safety beats 22%, and childcare runs $878 a month.


Compare Custer County with other counties


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Custer County. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Custer County 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.

Custer County detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Custer County: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Custer County: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Custer County: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Custer County: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Custer County detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
  3. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  4. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  5. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  6. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  7. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  8. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  9. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  10. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  11. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  12. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  13. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.