Best PlacesOklahoma City, OK Best Neighborhoods
2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026
Every neighborhood in the Oklahoma City metro, 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.
Photo by Urbanative, CC BY-SA 3.0, via commons
Oklahoma City ranks 229th of 387 U.S. metro areas on the BestNeighborhood index. It does not top any single list, but it lands above the national middle on cell coverage and state finances. The weaker spots are the schools, state infrastructure, and air quality.
The best neighborhoods in the Oklahoma City metro
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.
The best areas in Oklahoma City
The towns and districts of the Oklahoma City metro, ranked by the BestNeighborhood standard score across every neighborhood in each, highest scoring first. Each note says how that part differs from the rest of the metro.
Edmond
More adults hold degrees, incomes run higher, and local pay stretches further.
Piedmont
Crime runs lower and more households have young kids.
Guthrie & Jones
More residents vote, though biking is worse.
Moore
Fewer homes sit empty.
Mustang, Chickasha & Blanchard
Transit reaches fewer jobs and streets are more car-dependent.
Norman
It is quieter.
Yukon & Bethany
Scores close to Norman, except that tree cover is thinner here.
Midwest City, Del City & Choctaw
Homes cost less, though schools score lower.
Downtown Oklahoma City
Health care is harder to reach and health outcomes score lower.
Oklahoma City shows why a single number is not enough. Some neighborhoods score in the bottom 1% of the country and others in the top 1%. Pick the area first, then the home.
Oklahoma City's strengths and weaknesses
Oklahoma City lands in the middle because its strengths and weaknesses roughly balance. Cell coverage, state finances, and what local pay buys carry most of that.
The drawbacks are real but narrow. The schools, state infrastructure, and air quality hold the score down. The detail is below, and the map is where it turns into a choice of neighborhood rather than just a place.
Where Oklahoma City ranks high
- Cell coverageBetter than 95% of metro areas
- State fiscal healthBetter than 89% of metro areas
- Cost of living vs incomeBetter than 88% of metro areas
- Internet speedBetter than 80% of metro areas
- Housing crash safetyBetter than 78% of metro areas
Where Oklahoma City ranks low
- School gradeC−, better than only 8% of metro areas
- State infrastructureBetter than only 8% of metro areas
- Air qualityBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Voter turnoutBetter than only 9% of metro areas
- Tree shadeBetter than only 14% of metro areas
What it costs to buy a home in Oklahoma City
A household needs to earn about $64,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Oklahoma City home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is below the area's own median income of $82,315, 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 Oklahoma City's 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 7 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.
Who lives in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City runs younger than the country.
Residents by age
Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Oklahoma City.
Who works in Oklahoma City, and how
Work in Oklahoma City centers on health care & social and retail trade. Unemployment is close to the national rate, and jobs are growing.
Largest industries
How people get to work
- Drive or carpool 85%
- Work from home 11%
- Transit, walk, or bike 4%
Life in Oklahoma City
Oklahoma City has more parkland per resident than 69% of metro areas. That concentrates in some parts of Oklahoma City and thins out in others, which the map shows.
Is Oklahoma City growing, and who is moving in?
Oklahoma City has grown about 12% over the last decade. The largest inbound stream comes from Dallas, TX.
Where new residents come from
Where people leaving Oklahoma City go
Move counts are the latest county-to-county migration flows, each county grouped into its metro.
What the weather is like in Oklahoma City, month by month
Oklahoma City sees roughly 98 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 95 degrees. January highs sit near 53, with lows near 26. The comfortable stretch runs April, May, September, and October.
Show the monthly temperatures
| Month | Avg high | Avg | Avg low |
|---|---|---|---|
| January | 53° | 38° | 26° |
| April | 75° | 60° | 47° |
| July | 95° | 82° | 70° |
| October | 77° | 62° | 49° |
Flying in and out of Oklahoma City
The nearest airport, Okc Will Rogers International, is about 6 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Dallas-Fort Worth International, about 180 miles away.
The best schools in and around Oklahoma City
Schools across Oklahoma City average a C−, better than 8% of metro areas.
Top elementary schools
- Clegern EsA+ · 75% proficient
- Pioneer Public SchoolA · 66% proficient
- Oakdale Public SchoolA · 66% proficient
Top middle schools
- Bethany MsB+ · 50% proficient
- Brink JhsB+ · 49% proficient
- Deer Creek MsB · 47% proficient
Top high schools
- Mulhall-orlando HsB+ · 58% proficient
- North HsB+ · 54% proficient
- Norman North HsB+ · 52% proficient
Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Oklahoma City school and its grade on SchoolGrade.
Oklahoma City 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 Oklahoma City against the other 386 metro areas.
Who Oklahoma City suits
Remote workers
Cost of living against local pay beats 88% of metro areas, internet is fast and widely advertised, and 11% already work from home.
Common questions about living in Oklahoma City
Is Oklahoma City a good place to live?
Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Oklahoma City ranks 229th of 387 metro areas. It scores highest on cell coverage, state finances, and what local pay buys, and lowest on the schools and state infrastructure. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.
Is Oklahoma City expensive to live in?
The median home is worth $240,875. The overall cost of living runs about 21% below the national average. Set against a $82,315 median income, cost of living beats 88% of metro areas.
Is Oklahoma City safe?
Oklahoma City is safer than 35% of metro areas. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $486 per resident a year.
What is the weather like in Oklahoma City?
July highs average about 95 degrees, and January highs near 53 with lows near 26. That works out to about 98 pleasant days a year, more than 58% of metro areas.
What are the best neighborhoods in Oklahoma City?
Using the default rankings, the highest-scoring areas are Edmond, Piedmont, and Guthrie & Jones. The ranked list and the re-weightable map above let you re-sort them for your own priorities.
Is Oklahoma City good for families?
Schools beat 8% of metro areas, crime safety beats 35%, and childcare runs $956 a month.
Is Oklahoma City good for remote workers?
Cost of living against local pay beats 88% of metro areas, and the fastest advertised internet here beats 80% of metro areas. About 11% of workers already work from home.
Compare Oklahoma City with other metro areas
Sources and methodology
Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Oklahoma City. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Oklahoma City 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.
Oklahoma City detail on BestNeighborhood maps:
- Walk Grade for Oklahoma City: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
- Noise in Oklahoma City: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
- Conservative vs liberal map of Oklahoma City: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
- Mobile and cell coverage in Oklahoma City: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.
Oklahoma City 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.
- U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program: population growth and net migration behind the population-change section.
- 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.