Best PlacesOtter Creek Crystal, Little Rock, AR Best Neighborhoods

2026–2027 edition · Data updated July 2026

Every neighborhood in and around Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock, 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.

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Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock ranks 4,727th of 5,983 U.S. neighborhoods on the BestNeighborhood index. It scores highest on affordable childcare by a wide margin, and distance from a big city ranks lowest.

#4,727
of 5,983 neighborhoods
BestNeighborhood rank
Defaults weight crime safety, affordability, schools, and weather highest: the things hardest to change after a move
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of 5,983 neighborhoods
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The best neighborhoods in Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock

Map of the best neighborhoods in the Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock area, with better matches in green and worse matches in red
Click the map to explore
National median
Worse match Better match
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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.

Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock's strengths and weaknesses

Top 5%Affordable childcare
Top 10%State finances
Each measure against the national median. Bars to the right beat the median; bars to the left fall short. Percentiles compare Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock with other neighborhoods.

Where Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock ranks high

  • Cheap childcare$671 a month, better than 96% of neighborhoods
  • State fiscal healthBetter than 92% of neighborhoods
  • Low vacancyBetter than 83% of neighborhoods
  • Tree shadeBetter than 78% of neighborhoods
  • Housing crash safetyBetter than 77% of neighborhoods

Where Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock ranks low

  • Big-city accessBetter than only 3% of neighborhoods
  • School gradeD−, better than only 7% of neighborhoods
  • WalkabilityBetter than only 8% of neighborhoods
  • Air qualityBetter than only 14% of neighborhoods
  • Heat safetyBetter than only 17% of neighborhoods

What it costs to buy a home in Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock

A household needs to earn about $70,000 a year to comfortably buy the median Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock home, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate. That is only a little above the area's median income of $64,011; the gap is small, which keeps homes within reach of local pay.

Income to buy the median home
$70,000
a year, at 20% down and today's 30-year rate
Estimated monthly payment
$1,634
principal, interest, tax, and insurance on a $267,199 home
Median rent
$1,094
a month, across all home sizes

Where the monthly payment goes

Principal & interest$1,362
Property tax$182
Homeowners insurance$89

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 Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock's effective rate of 0.82%, 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 9 years, then pulls ahead as rent keeps rising and the mortgage builds equity. The chart tracks the running cost of each.

Cumulative cost of renting versus owning the median home, first 10 years. Illustrative estimate.

Who lives in Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock

Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock runs younger than the country, and households here run smaller than average.

Median age
38
younger than the U.S. median of 41
Residents 65 and older
13%
versus 18% nationally
Average household
2.4
below the U.S. average of 2.6

Residents by age

Under 1828%
18 to 3418%
35 to 4920%
50 to 6421%
65 and older13%

Racial and ethnic makeup has its own map. See the race and diversity map for Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock.


Who works in Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock, and how

Work in Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock centers on health care & social and finance & insurance. Unemployment is low, and the job base is shrinking.

Work from home
18%
above the national average
Unemployment
3.5%
below the national average
Job growth
−3.5%
/y 2019-2023, slower than the national pace

Largest industries

Health care & social26%
Finance & insurance13%
Education12%
Retail trade10%
Public administration9%

How people get to work

  • Drive or carpool 80%
  • Work from home 18%
  • Transit, walk, or bike 2%

Life in Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock

Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock has more restaurants and bars per resident than 72% of neighborhoods. That concentrates in some parts of Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock and thins out in others, which the map shows.

Places to eat and drink
62
restaurants, bars, and fast food, about 68.8 per 10,000 residents, more than 72% of neighborhoods

What the weather is like in Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock, month by month

Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock sees roughly 74 pleasant days a year. July highs average about 93 degrees. January highs sit near 53, with lows near 33. The comfortable stretch runs March through May and October.

Average daily high, mean, and low in degrees Fahrenheit, NOAA station data 2016 to 2025.
Show the monthly temperatures
MonthAvg highAvgAvg low
January53°42°33°
April75°63°53°
July93°83°74°
October77°65°55°

Flying in and out of Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock

The nearest airport, Bill and Hillary Clinton Ntl/Adams Field, is about 12 miles away and is a small airport. The nearest major hub is Memphis International, about 142 miles away.

Nearest airport
LIT
Bill and Hillary Clinton Ntl/Adams Field, about 12 miles
Airport size
Small hub
102nd-busiest in the US, 47 nonstop destinations
Average drive
18 min
from the area, with no traffic

The best schools in and around Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock

Schools across Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock average a D−, better than 7% of neighborhoods.

Top elementary schools

Top middle schools

Top high schools

Grades come from K-12 test scores, with scores projected for schools missing data. See every Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock school and its grade on SchoolGrade.


Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock 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 Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock against the other 5,982 neighborhoods.


Common questions about living in Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock

Is Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock a good place to live?

Using BestNeighborhood's default rankings, Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock ranks 4,727th of 5,983 neighborhoods. It scores highest on affordable childcare, state finances, and few empty homes, and lowest on distance from a big city and the schools. How good it is for you depends on which of those you weight most, which the map lets you set.

Is Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock expensive to live in?

The median home is worth $267,199. The overall cost of living runs about 14% below the national average. Set against a $64,011 median income, cost of living beats 44% of neighborhoods.

Is Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock safe?

Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock is safer than 48% of neighborhoods. Safety varies a lot by neighborhood. Crime costs an estimated $689 per resident a year.


Compare Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock with other neighborhoods


Sources and methodology

Every measure on this page is scored for each neighborhood, then rolled up to Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock. Scores are absolute rather than ranked, which means a 60 in Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock 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.

Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock detail on BestNeighborhood maps:

  1. Walk Grade for Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock: walkability, transit, and biking, measured on the real street network rather than by straight line distance.
  2. Noise in Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock: road, rail, and aviation sound modeling calibrated against federal ground truth measurements.
  3. Conservative vs liberal map of Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock: precinct level election results apportioned to neighborhoods.
  4. Mobile and cell coverage in Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock: carrier by carrier coverage behind the cell score.

Otter Creek Crystal, Little Rock detail on related sites:

  1. CrimeGrade: neighborhood crime rates behind the crime safety score.
  2. ISPreports.org: provider by provider internet availability and advertised speeds.
  3. CoverageWatch: the car insurance premiums behind the cheap car insurance score.

Federal and public data:

  1. 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.
  2. NOAA Global Surface Summary of the Day: the daily station record behind the monthly temperatures and the pleasant-day count.
  3. FAA Passenger Boarding Data: airport size and annual passenger counts.
  4. Freddie Mac Primary Mortgage Market Survey: the 30-year fixed rate used in the cost-to-buy estimate.
  5. FBI Crime Data Explorer: reported offenses behind the tangible crime cost estimate.
  6. U.S. EPA Air Quality System: five year average air quality index.
  7. FEMA National Risk Index: expected annual loss from natural hazards.
  8. CDC PLACES: disease burden, preventable risk, and barriers to care.
  9. National Center for Education Statistics: school enrollment and assessment inputs behind the school grade.
  10. FCC National Broadband Map: internet and wireless availability.
  11. U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics: employment and job growth behind the local economy score.
  12. Religious activity uses a proprietary religious signal measurement.