Best PlacesOak Park, MI 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. Several measures below read low, and the ranked lists name which ones. To work out which city fits you best, start with the best places to live tool.
Oak Park ranks 1,601st of 2,098 U.S. cities on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on walkability by a wide margin, and a weak job market ranks lowest.
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
- WalkabilityBetter than 92% of cities
- BikingBetter than 92% of cities
- Cell coverageBetter than 88% of cities
- TransitBetter than 85% of cities
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 81% of cities
Where Oak Park ranks low
- Local economyBetter than only 1% of cities
- Cheap car insuranceBetter than only 1% of cities
- Crime safetyBetter than only 3% of cities
- School gradeD, better than only 6% of cities
- Low property taxBetter than only 24% of cities
What it costs to buy a home in Oak Park
A household needs to earn about $61,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Oak Park home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $77,254, 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 Oak Park's effective rate of 1.40%, 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 Oak Park
Oak Park's age mix sits close to the national median, 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.
Who works in Oak Park, and how
Work in Oak Park centers on health care & social and manufacturing. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 73%
- Work from home 24%
- Transit, walk, or bike 3%
Life in Oak Park
Oak Park has more restaurants and bars per resident than 69% of cities and more parkland per resident than 81% of cities. Dining, parks, and nightlife 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 87 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 85 degrees. January highs sit near 34, with lows near 23. The comfortable stretch runs May through October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 34° | 28° | 23° |
| April | 59° | 48° | 40° |
| July | 85° | 75° | 66° |
| October | 65° | 55° | 47° |
Flying in and out of Oak Park
Detroit Metro Wayne County sits about 20 miles away. It is a large hub and boarded 16.3 million passengers in 2025, with 168 nonstop destinations.
The best schools in and around Oak Park
Schools across Oak Park average a D, better than 6% of cities.
Top elementary schools
- Northwood Elementary SchoolA · 68% proficient
- Norup International SchoolB · 46% proficient
- Ferndale Upper Elementary CampusC · 30% proficient
Top middle schools
- Royal Oak Middle SchoolB− · 39% proficient
- Ferndale Middle SchoolD · 19% proficient
- Oak Park Preparatory AcademyF · 10% proficient
Top high schools
- Royal Oak High SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- Berkley High SchoolB+ · 51% proficient
- Ferndale High SchoolC+ · 35% 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 2,097 cities.
Who Oak Park suits
Remote workers
Internet is fast and widely advertised and 24% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Oak Park
Is Oak Park a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Oak Park ranks 1,601st of 2,098 cities. It scores highest on walkability, biking, and cell coverage, and lowest on a weak job market and car insurance costs. 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 $214,995. The overall cost of living runs about 6% below the national average. Set against a $77,254 median income, cost of living beats 34% of cities.
Is Oak Park safe?
Oak Park is safer than 3% of cities. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $689 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Oak Park?
July highs average about 85 degrees, and January highs near 34 with lows near 23. That works out to about 87 pleasant days a year, more than 51% of cities.
Is Oak Park good for families?
Schools beat 6% of cities, crime safety beats 3%, and childcare runs $916 a month.
Compare Oak Park with other cities
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.