Best PlacesOak Park, CA Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Oak Park, 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 Park ranks 776th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on the weather by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Oak Park
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 Park's strengths and weaknesses
Where Oak Park ranks high
- Nice weatherabout 229 pleasant days a year, better than 99% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 99% of towns
- BikingBetter than 99% of towns
- Big-city accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Household income$164,042 median, better than 98% of towns
Where Oak Park ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,601 a month, better than only 2% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 7% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 8% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 11% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Oak Park
A household needs to earn about $285,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Oak Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $164,042, 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 Park's effective rate of 0.85%, 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 Park
Oak Park runs older than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Oak Park.
Who works in Oak Park, and how
Work in Oak Park centers on professional & technical and retail trade. Unemployment sits above the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 67%
- Work from home 31%
- Transit, walk, or bike 2%
Life in Oak Park
Oak Park has more parkland per resident than 94% of towns. The coast is about 24 minutes away. That concentrates in some parts of Oak Park and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Oak Park, month by month
Oak Park sees roughly 229 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 70, with lows near 46. The comfortable stretch runs October through June.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 70° | 57° | 46° |
| April | 79° | 64° | 52° |
| July | 95° | 78° | 65° |
| October | 88° | 71° | 58° |
Flying in and out of Oak Park
Bob Hope sits about 24 miles away. It is a medium hub and boarded 3.1 million passengers in 2025, with 54 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Oak Park
Schools across Oak Park average an A, better than 92% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Red Oak ElementaryA+ · 73% proficient
- Brookside ElementaryA · 70% proficient
- Vista ElementaryA · 69% proficient
Top middle schools
- Medea Creek MiddleA+ · 74% proficient
- Alice C. Stelle MiddleA− · 54% proficient
- Sinaloa MiddleC · 33% proficient
Top high schools
- Westlake HighA · 67% proficient
- Oak Park HighB+ · 56% proficient
- Calabasas HighB− · 45% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Oak Park school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Oak Park 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 Park against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Oak Park
Is Oak Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Oak Park ranks 776th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on the weather, population health, and biking, and lowest on childcare costs and air quality. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Oak Park expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $1,083,512. The overall cost of living runs about 39% above the national average. Set against a $164,042 median income, cost of living beats 91% of towns.
Is Oak Park safe?
Yes, Oak Park is safer than 79% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $227 per resident a year.
Compare Oak Park with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Oak Park. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Oak Park 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 Park detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Oak Park: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Oak Park: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Oak Park: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Oak Park: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Oak Park 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.