Best PlacesNichols Hills, OK Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Nichols Hills, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. Local pay runs high here, and housing takes the biggest bite out of it. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Nichols Hills ranks 1,692nd of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on what local pay buys by a wide margin, and the schools rank lowest.
The best neighborhoods in Nichols Hills
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.
Nichols Hills' strengths and weaknesses
Where Nichols Hills ranks high
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$210,870 median, better than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Short commute14.1 minutes each way, better than 98% of towns
Where Nichols Hills ranks low
- School gradeD−, better than only 2% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 6% of towns
- State infrastructureBetter than only 11% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 17% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than only 19% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Nichols Hills
A household needs to earn about $253,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Nichols Hills home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $210,870, so buying stretches a typical household.
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 Nichols Hills' effective rate of 1.00%, and insurance is estimated at 0.4% of home value a year.
Renting versus buying
At today's prices and rents, renting stays cheaper than buying across the first 10 years here, so the case for buying rests on staying much longer or on prices rising faster than assumed. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Nichols Hills
Nichols Hills runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Nichols Hills.
Who works in Nichols Hills, and how
Work in Nichols Hills centers on health care & social and professional & technical. Unemployment is low, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 13%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Nichols Hills
Nichols Hills has more restaurants and bars per resident than 81% of towns. That concentrates in some parts of Nichols Hills and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Nichols Hills, month by month
Nichols Hills sees roughly 119 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 52, with lows near 29. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 52° | 39° | 29° |
| April | 74° | 61° | 50° |
| July | 95° | 84° | 74° |
| October | 77° | 64° | 53° |
Flying in and out of Nichols Hills
The nearest airport, Okc Will Rogers International, is about 11 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas-Fort Worth International, about 185 miles away.
The best schools in and around Nichols Hills
Schools across Nichols Hills average a D−, better than 2% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Emerson Alternative Ed. (es)D+ · 25% proficient
Top middle schools
- Emerson Alternative Ed. (ms)D · 20% proficient
- John Marshall MsF · 4% proficient
Top high schools
- John Marshall HsF · 4% proficient
- Emerson Alternative Ed. (hs)F · 3% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Nichols Hills school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Nichols Hills 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 Nichols Hills against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Nichols Hills
Is Nichols Hills a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Nichols Hills ranks 1,692nd of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on what local pay buys, high incomes, and an educated workforce, and lowest on the schools and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Nichols Hills expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $943,620. The overall cost of living runs about 13% below the national average. Set against a $210,870 median income, cost of living beats 100% of towns.
Is Nichols Hills safe?
Nichols Hills is safer than 28% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $511 per resident a year.
Compare Nichols Hills with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Nichols Hills. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Nichols Hills 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.
Nichols Hills detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Nichols Hills: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Nichols Hills: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Nichols Hills: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Nichols Hills: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Nichols Hills 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.