Best PlacesLawton, OK Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Lawton metro, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. The averages are not the whole story, and the strongest areas score well above them. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Photo by Ken Lund, CC BY-SA 4.0, via geo
Lawton ranks 368th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It ranks low mainly on civic engagement and the schools. It does better on fast internet, which keeps it off the bottom.
The best neighborhoods in the Lawton metro
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.
The best areas in Lawton
The towns and districts of the Lawton metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Elgin & Fletcher
Fewer homes sit empty, more residents vote, and prices have run up less.
Walters
It is quieter, though fewer households have young kids.
Downtown Lawton
Advertised internet is faster.
Cache
Scores close to Downtown Lawton, except that commutes are longer here.
Fort Sill
Heat risk is lower, though local pay stretches less far.
Scores across Lawton run from about the 1st to the 78th percentile nationally. The map is where that becomes a choice of area.
Lawton's strengths and weaknesses
Lawton ranks near the bottom because several of the basics fall short at once. Fast internet, cell coverage, and short commutes carry most of that.
The weak spots are broad rather than narrow: civic engagement, the schools, and tree cover all drag on the score. Those are area averages, and the map below shows which parts run well above them.
Where Lawton ranks high
- Internet speedBetter than 95% of metro areas
- Cell coverageBetter than 94% of metro areas
- Short commute18.7 minutes each way, better than 93% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 79% of metro areas
Where Lawton ranks low
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 3% of metro areas
- School gradeD+, better than only 5% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 6% of metro areas
- Crime safetyBetter than only 7% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 7% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Lawton
A household needs to earn about $44,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Lawton home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $65,893, 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 Lawton's effective rate of 0.75%, 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 Lawton
Lawton runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Lawton.
Who works in Lawton, and how
Work in Lawton centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 86%
- Work from home 9%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Lawton
Lawton has more restaurants and bars per resident than 85% of metro areas and less late-night activity than most metro areas. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Lawton and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Lawton growing, and who is moving in?
Lawton has lost about 3% of its population over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Oklahoma City, OK.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Lawton go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Lawton, month by month
Lawton sees roughly 77 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 96 degrees. January highs sit near 55, with lows near 30. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 55° | 41° | 30° |
| April | 76° | 62° | 50° |
| July | 96° | 84° | 73° |
| October | 78° | 64° | 52° |
Flying in and out of Lawton
The nearest airport, Lawton-Fort Sill Regional, is about 3 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas-Fort Worth International, about 143 miles away.
The best schools in and around Lawton
Schools across Lawton average a D+, better than 5% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Flower Mound Public SchoolA− · 57% proficient
- Crosby Park EsB− · 43% proficient
- Bishop Public SchoolB− · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Cache MsC · 34% proficient
- Elgin MsC · 32% proficient
- Eisenhower MsD+ · 25% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Lawton school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Lawton 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 Lawton against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Lawton suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 9% already work from home.
Retirees
Set weather, quiet, and health care weights on the map to test the fit.
Common questions about living in Lawton
Is Lawton a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Lawton ranks 368th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on fast internet, cell coverage, and short commutes, and lowest on civic engagement and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Lawton expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $169,497. The overall cost of living runs about 20% below the national average. Set against a $65,893 median income, cost of living beats 27% of metro areas.
Is Lawton safe?
Lawton is safer than 7% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $646 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Lawton?
July highs average about 96 degrees, and January highs near 55 with lows near 30. That works out to about 77 pleasant days a year, more than 36% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Lawton?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Elgin & Fletcher, Walters, and Downtown Lawton. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Lawton good for families?
Schools beat 5% of metro areas, crime safety beats 7%, and childcare runs $916 a month.
Is Lawton good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 27% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 95% of metro areas. About 9% of workers already work from home.
Compare Lawton with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Lawton. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Lawton 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.
Lawton detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Lawton: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Lawton: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Lawton: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Lawton: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Lawton 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.