Best PlacesOkatie, SC Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in and around Okatie, 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.
Okatie ranks 11,277th of 50,333 U.S. towns on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on health care access by a wide margin, and summer heat is the weak spot.
The best neighborhoods in Okatie
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.
Okatie's strengths and weaknesses
Where Okatie ranks high
- Healthcare accessBetter than 99% of towns
- Educational attainmentBetter than 95% of towns
- Voter turnoutBetter than 94% of towns
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 89% of towns
- Low property taxBetter than 87% of towns
Where Okatie ranks low
- Heat safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Disaster safetyBetter than only 1% of towns
- Housing crash safetyBetter than only 14% of towns
- Air qualityBetter than only 15% of towns
- Local economyBetter than only 34% of towns
What it costs to buy a home in Okatie
A household needs to earn about $137,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Okatie home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That runs well above the area's median income of $97,833, 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 Okatie's effective rate of 0.41%, 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 Okatie
Okatie 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 Okatie.
Who works in Okatie, and how
Work in Okatie centers on retail trade and professional & technical. Unemployment runs well above the national rate, and the job base is shrinking.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 69%
- Work from home 23%
- Transit, walk, or bike 8%
Life in Okatie
The coast is about 20 minutes away. Distance to the water changes a lot across Okatie, which the map shows.
What the weather is like in Okatie, month by month
Okatie sees roughly 118 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 89 degrees. January highs sit near 60, with lows near 44. The comfortable stretch runs February through May and October through December.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 60° | 51° | 44° |
| April | 75° | 67° | 60° |
| July | 89° | 83° | 77° |
| October | 78° | 71° | 64° |
Flying in and out of Okatie
The nearest airport, Hilton Head, is about 15 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Charleston AFB/International, about 67 miles away.
The best schools in and around Okatie
Schools across Okatie average a B+, better than 81% of towns.
Top elementary schools
- River Ridge AcademyA · 62% proficient
- Okatie ElementaryB · 50% proficient
- Red Cedar ElementaryB · 45% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bluffton MiddleB+ · 49% proficient
Top high schools
- Bluffton HighA · 72% proficient
- Ridgeland Secondary Academy Of ExcellenceD · 20% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Okatie school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Okatie 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 Okatie against the other 50,332 towns.
Common questions about living in Okatie
Is Okatie a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Okatie ranks 11,277th of 50,333 towns. It scores highest on health care access, an educated workforce, and civic engagement, and lowest on summer heat and disaster risk. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Okatie expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $552,354. The overall cost of living runs about 10% below the national average. Set against a $97,833 median income, cost of living beats 89% of towns.
Is Okatie safe?
Yes, Okatie is safer than 73% of towns. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $321 per resident a year.
Compare Okatie with other towns
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Okatie. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Okatie 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.
Okatie detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Okatie: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Okatie: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Okatie: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Okatie: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Okatie 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.