Best PlacesOak Forest, NC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Oak Forest, 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.
Oak Forest ranks 3,920th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on an educated workforce by a wide margin, and noise is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Oak Forest
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.
Oak Forest's strengths and weaknesses
Where Oak Forest ranks high
- Educational attainmentBetter than 99% of towns
- Heat safetyBetter than 98% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 97% of towns
- Tree shadeBetter than 94% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of towns
Where Oak Forest ranks low
- QuietBetter than only 4% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 6% of towns
- Low vacancyBetter than only 21% of towns
- Cell coverageBetter than only 36% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 37% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Oak Forest
A household needs to earn about $249,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Oak Forest home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $106,904, 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 Oak Forest's effective rate of 0.59%, 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 Oak Forest
Oak Forest runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Oak Forest.
Who works in Oak Forest, and how
Work in Oak Forest centers on manufacturing and health care & social. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 22%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Oak Forest
The map and measures below break down dining, culture, and green space by neighborhood across Oak Forest.
What the weather is like in Oak Forest, month by month
Oak Forest sees roughly 121 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 84 degrees. January highs sit near 48, with lows near 27. The comfortable stretch runs April through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 48° | 36° | 27° |
| April | 70° | 55° | 43° |
| July | 84° | 72° | 62° |
| October | 70° | 56° | 45° |
Flying in and out of Oak Forest
The nearest airport, Asheville Regional, is about 4 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charlotte/Douglas International, about 92 miles away.
The best schools in and around Oak Forest
Schools across Oak Forest average a B, better than 65% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Estes ElementaryC+ · 40% proficient
Top middle schools
- Koontz IntermediateB · 46% proficient
Top high schools
- Middle CollegeB · 50% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Oak Forest school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Oak Forest 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 Oak Forest against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Oak Forest
Is Oak Forest a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Oak Forest ranks 3,920th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on an educated workforce, heat safety, and health care access, and lowest on noise and an overheated housing market. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Oak Forest expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $980,532. The overall cost of living runs about 3% below the national average. Set against a $106,904 median income, cost of living beats 92% of towns.
Is Oak Forest safe?
Yes, Oak Forest is safer than 73% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $254 per resident a year.
Compare Oak Forest with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Oak Forest. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Oak Forest 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.
Oak Forest detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Oak Forest: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Oak Forest: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Oak Forest: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Oak Forest: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Oak Forest 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.