Best PlacesOak Park Heights, MN Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Oak Park Heights, scored on 40 measures of daily life and ranked to fit what matters to you. This page is for people who live here or already know they want to. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Oak Park Heights ranks 2,201st of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on biking by a wide margin, and childcare costs are the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Oak Park Heights
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 Heights' strengths and weaknesses
Where Oak Park Heights ranks high
- BikingBetter than 98% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 96% of towns
- TransitBetter than 96% of towns
- Healthcare accessBetter than 95% of towns
- Health outlookBetter than 93% of towns
Where Oak Park Heights ranks low
- Cheap childcare$1,682 a month, better than only 1% of towns
- QuietBetter than only 18% of towns
- Low income/sales/gas taxBetter than only 20% of towns
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 37% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than only 40% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Oak Park Heights
A household needs to earn about $110,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Oak Park Heights home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $93,043, 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 Heights' effective rate of 0.88%, 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 10 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Oak Park Heights
Oak Park Heights runs older than the country, and households here run smaller than average.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Oak Park Heights.
Who works in Oak Park Heights, and how
Work in Oak Park Heights centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is low, and employment has held roughly flat.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 75%
- Work from home 20%
- Transit, walk, or bike 5%
Life in Oak Park Heights
Oak Park Heights has more restaurants and bars per resident than 88% of towns and more parkland per resident than 99% of towns. Dining, parks, and nightlife concentrates in some parts of Oak Park Heights and thins out in others, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Oak Park Heights, month by month
Oak Park Heights sees roughly 126 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 26, with lows near 12. The comfortable stretch runs May through September.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 26° | 19° | 12° |
| April | 57° | 46° | 37° |
| July | 85° | 74° | 65° |
| October | 60° | 50° | 43° |
Flying in and out of Oak Park Heights
Minneapolis-St Paul International/Wold-Chamberlain sits about 22 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 17.5 million passengers in 2025, with 195 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Oak Park Heights
Schools across Oak Park Heights average an A−, better than 87% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- Gate 4/5A+ · 88% proficient
- Andersen ElementaryB+ · 52% proficient
- Rutherford ElementaryB+ · 51% proficient
Top middle schools
- Stillwater Middle SchoolA− · 55% proficient
- Oak-land Middle SchoolB · 44% proficient
Top high schools
- Stillwater Area High SchoolA− · 64% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Oak Park Heights school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Oak Park Heights 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 Heights against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Oak Park Heights
Is Oak Park Heights a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Oak Park Heights ranks 2,201st of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on biking, civic engagement, and transit, and lowest on childcare costs and noise. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Oak Park Heights expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $418,291. The overall cost of living runs about 5% below the national average. Set against a $93,043 median income, cost of living beats 79% of towns.
Is Oak Park Heights safe?
Yes, Oak Park Heights is safer than 75% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $244 per resident a year.
Compare Oak Park Heights with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Oak Park Heights. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Oak Park Heights 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 Heights detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Oak Park Heights: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Oak Park Heights: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Oak Park Heights: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Oak Park Heights: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Oak Park Heights 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.