Moving to OKC, where should I live?

[JennyTree]

My husband will soon be taking a job at Tinker. What area of OKC should we move to? We were thinking about Choctaw or Midwest City. Which areas are the best? Which should we avoid? Thanks for your help!

[dismayed]

Well it really depends on what you are looking for. Midwest City, Del City, and Choctaw are certainly the closet cities to the base. If you're wanting a short drive to work, those would be short. Here are my thoughts....

Choctaw. A rural and out-of-the-way community. Even though it seems like you are way out in the country in this part of town, you're actually just a few minutes away from the city. Also, there are several new housing developments going up in the area, some of them are extremely nice (e.g. gated communities, big houses). There are also many small-town houses to choose from. Not really any local retail to speak of, so you will probably have to go into the city or Midwest City to shop. Nice if you want a place out of the way.

Midwest City. Just five years ago this city always looked so run down and old. And then a very progressive mayor came to town among other things, and now the city is in the middle of a massive revitalization. All along I-40 land is being bulldozed and converted into shopping. In the last two years Lowe's, Target, Steak and Shake, Chili's, Santa Fe Steakhouse, Old Chicago, Starbucks, Panera Bread, and on and on have gone up. And all of it looks so nice. The people around town are nice and are mostly military. There isn't much in the way of new housing as most of the city is well-established.

Edmond. This is probably a 20-30 minute drive from Tinker and is north of OKC. This city has the reputation of being the "rich" part of town. Lots and lots of retail and new housing development is going on in the area. Also it is very close to a lot of fun things to do in OKC. The drawbacks are that real estate is more expensive, there are some traffic problems, and the folks there can be rude.

NW OKC near Penn and Memorial. Lots of new housing is going up around this area. Tons of retail, including a very nice mall, a PF Chang's, Super Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, tons of restaurants, and so on. The area is very pretty and there's a lot going on. The biggest draw-back is the massive traffic. Also, it depends on your tastes. One person might describe the area as "suburban hell," while another might describe it as their shopping dreams come true. To each their own.

Far west NW OKC (e.g. Council and Memorial). This area is 30-40 minutes away from Midwest City. I thought I would list it for drive-time reference. It's another new and growing part of the city. It's still kind of on the outskirts of the city but quickly the city is moving towards it.

Central OKC. Lots of trees, and older neighborhoods. It's kind of hit and miss as older neighborhoods often are. Around NW 50 or 63rd it's pretty nice, but around 10th and 23rd not so much.

South OKC. A lot of people who work in Midwest City live in south OKC. The advantages are it is a big city with a lot of resources, and at least in the past there has been more retail, grocery stores, etc. than in the MWC area (although as I mentioned above that is changing). There is a wide range of housing available, from the cheap to the very nice and gated. New development is going on in far south OKC. 15-20 minute drive to Tinker.

Yukon / far west OKC. New houses and old houses. Folks are really nice. Some places feel like the country, others the city. This is probably a 40 minute drive from Tinker.

Moore. More is south of south OKC, so it's a bit west and south of Tinker. Moore has had a reputation of not being such a great place in the past, but that seems to be changing. There are old parts and new parts of Moore, generally the further south you go the newer (which is the opposite of the north side of town, up there the farther north you go the newer FYI). New development includes stuff along I-35 such as a Lowe's and a soon to be built movie theater that will have tables and serve dinner inside while you watch the movie. 15-20 minute drive to Tinker.

Norman. Norman is just south of Moore. Norman is basically like two communities in one, the east side and the west side. The east side is home to the University of Oklahoma and has a cool "college" atmosphere. The west side is more suburban and is very pretty. Even the older houses are nice and well-kept. Norman is the third largest city in Oklahoma and yet it somehow manages to maintain a small-town atmosphere. There is some concern that may change because of development going on along I-35 (a Super Target, lots of retail, and eventually a Mall of America in about 2 years). Other folks are looking forward to this development. Norman is about 30 minutes away from Tinker (from the west side you can take the highway; from the east side you can take a 'state highway' which is like a big street that goes all the way up to the base).

Hope that helps. Hopefully others will post their opinions too.

[dismayed]

Oh yeah a few more things. If you guys go out on "date nights" and things like that, there are movie theaters and restaurants along I-40 in Midwest City, I-240 (south OKC), I-35 (Moore/Norman), Bricktown (downtown entertainment district, check it out!), Hefner Parkway and Hefner Road (there's a big lake and a few restaurants on the lake. If you go at the right time you can watch sailboats race as you have dinner... very nice), and all along Memorial Road (NW OKC). Also I-35 in Edmond.

Major malls are located in Midwest City (Heritage Park Mall... pretty small one and not doing so well lately), Crossroads Mall in south OKC (a big mall but sometimes some rough looking folks hang out there), Sooner Mall in Norman (a very nice, small or medium-sized suburban mall), Penn Square Mall at NW 50th and Penn in NW OKC (lots of stuff here you can't find elsewhere, like J. Crew), and Quail Springs Mall in NW OKC (at Penn and Memorial... FYI Memorial is the same as like NW 130th or so).

[AFCM]

Welcome to the board! Thankfully, dismayed saved me a lot of time by getting to your question first, which saves me from having to write a 10 paragraph response. Hopefully, the reply answers your question; if not, there will be plenty of folks on the board willing to augment dismayed's post.

No matter where you go in Oklahoma, you'll find a friendly face willing to greet you. Oklahoma is home to some of the nicest people in the world. Now, one thing I think you need to be aware of are Oklahoma statutes. We have some laws here that may seem weird to out-of-towners (e.g., liquor laws), but you'll find some differences on Tinker AFB, which is under federal jurisdiction.

If I had to recommend a particular place, I would tell you to give Midwest City a try. Like dismayed said, five years ago Midwest City was a dump, but has been developing nicely in recent years. I especially like MWC because of it's close proximity to downtown OKC. Because of time contraints, I won't go into detail; but take it from me, Oklahoma City is huge geographically. From any direction in OKC, you can find yourself inside city limits yet 10 miles from downtown. Hope this helps. Best of luck on a safe and speedy move. Welcome to Oklahoma City!

[Karried]

We have some laws here that may seem weird to out-of-towners (e.g., liquor laws),

Tee Hee, it took me about six months after moving here to figure out that the beer I was drinking wasn't 'real beer' - I just couldn't figure out why I had to now drink 2 beers instead of 1 to get a 'buzz' - lol

I obviously didn't do my liquor law research before moving to OK!

[RabidRed]

Well it really depends on what you are looking for. Midwest City, Del City, and Choctaw are certainly the closet cities to the base. If you're wanting a short drive to work, those would be short. Here are my thoughts....

Choctaw. A rural and out-of-the-way community. Even though it seems like you are way out in the country in this part of town, you're actually just a few minutes away from the city. Also, there are several new housing developments going up in the area, some of them are extremely nice (e.g. gated communities, big houses). There are also many small-town houses to choose from. Not really any local retail to speak of, so you will probably have to go into the city or Midwest City to shop. Nice if you want a place out of the way.

Midwest City. Just five years ago this city always looked so run down and old. And then a very progressive mayor came to town among other things, and now the city is in the middle of a massive revitalization. All along I-40 land is being bulldozed and converted into shopping. In the last two years Lowe's, Target, Steak and Shake, Chili's, Santa Fe Steakhouse, Old Chicago, Starbucks, Panera Bread, and on and on have gone up. And all of it looks so nice. The people around town are nice and are mostly military. There isn't much in the way of new housing as most of the city is well-established.

Edmond. This is probably a 20-30 minute drive from Tinker and is north of OKC. This city has the reputation of being the "rich" part of town. Lots and lots of retail and new housing development is going on in the area. Also it is very close to a lot of fun things to do in OKC. The drawbacks are that real estate is more expensive, there are some traffic problems, and the folks there can be rude.

NW OKC near Penn and Memorial. Lots of new housing is going up around this area. Tons of retail, including a very nice mall, a PF Chang's, Super Target, Best Buy, Circuit City, tons of restaurants, and so on. The area is very pretty and there's a lot going on. The biggest draw-back is the massive traffic. Also, it depends on your tastes. One person might describe the area as "suburban hell," while another might describe it as their shopping dreams come true. To each their own.

Far west NW OKC (e.g. Council and Memorial). This area is 30-40 minutes away from Midwest City. I thought I would list it for drive-time reference. It's another new and growing part of the city. It's still kind of on the outskirts of the city but quickly the city is moving towards it.

Central OKC. Lots of trees, and older neighborhoods. It's kind of hit and miss as older neighborhoods often are. Around NW 50 or 63rd it's pretty nice, but around 10th and 23rd not so much.

South OKC. A lot of people who work in Midwest City live in south OKC. The advantages are it is a big city with a lot of resources, and at least in the past there has been more retail, grocery stores, etc. than in the MWC area (although as I mentioned above that is changing). There is a wide range of housing available, from the cheap to the very nice and gated. New development is going on in far south OKC. 15-20 minute drive to Tinker.

Yukon / far west OKC. New houses and old houses. Folks are really nice. Some places feel like the country, others the city. This is probably a 40 minute drive from Tinker.

Moore. More is south of south OKC, so it's a bit west and south of Tinker. Moore has had a reputation of not being such a great place in the past, but that seems to be changing. There are old parts and new parts of Moore, generally the further south you go the newer (which is the opposite of the north side of town, up there the farther north you go the newer FYI). New development includes stuff along I-35 such as a Lowe's and a soon to be built movie theater that will have tables and serve dinner inside while you watch the movie. 15-20 minute drive to Tinker.

Norman. Norman is just south of Moore. Norman is basically like two communities in one, the east side and the west side. The east side is home to the University of Oklahoma and has a cool "college" atmosphere. The west side is more suburban and is very pretty. Even the older houses are nice and well-kept. Norman is the third largest city in Oklahoma and yet it somehow manages to maintain a small-town atmosphere. There is some concern that may change because of development going on along I-35 (a Super Target, lots of retail, and eventually a Mall of America in about 2 years). Other folks are looking forward to this development. Norman is about 30 minutes away from Tinker (from the west side you can take the highway; from the east side you can take a 'state highway' which is like a big street that goes all the way up to the base).

Hope that helps. Hopefully others will post their opinions too.

I hate to be classified as rude.

Tooting horn, Edmond has as nice a school system anywhere around. Several years ago they chose to divide into three high schools at the expense of their athletic prowess. Believing that education was more important then athletics. Several schools are beginning to follow in Edmond's footsteps and doing the same.

[autoMATTic]

I think downtown to 23rd street, between I-235 and Classen, is the best area. Then again, I am young and have no children.

[solitude]

People are still answering the original post which was made in January of 2007. It was resurrected by someone posting an ad for their wife's real estate business.

I know vBulletin (this forum software) has an option where threads older than X date are no longer bumped to the top. You can still post to them, but you no longer have resurrections of years-old threads by them getting a single post. Just a thought.

[okcpulse]

Now, remember, if we support this petition to change Oklahoma liquor laws and vote for the state question in 2008, we're good to go.

[zuluwarrior0760]

Jenny,

In addition to the usual real estate websites, one that my wife and I
found pretty powerful is:

MLSGateway.com

This emulates the password site that the realtors use and is updated
daily with very new listings whereas the national sites might list a home
after it's been on the market for two weeks, best of all, it's searchable
by "neighborhood" something you won't find on realtor.com

I used to check that site by my selected neighborhoods every morning when I got up and one day a house that caught my eye popped up and I called my aunt
to go see it and the listing realtor said "we're having an open house
tomorrow, tell him to come by then" This was during boom time for nice
homes so I insisted we look at it that Friday morning and the moment
we got to the last room, we said we'll take it.....they had 2 contingengy contracts behind us by the end of the day, so there's something to be said for getting there first.....

another kind of obscure site searchable by town is openhouseOK.com - Providing Online Home Tours for Real Estate Properties across Oklahoma
lots of pics, details on both websites....

[Lauri101]

Welcome, Jenny!

I've lived in Midwest City for over 20 years. For proximatey to Tinker, it can't be beat. As others have stated, we've had somewhat of a remodel of MWC's image of late, and the improvements are great!

I work in downtown OKC and can get to work in 10 minutes. Sales tax is a bit lower in MWC, which helps a bit. We have a small community college, Rose State, which offers associate degrees and has community course to take. The school system is pretty good and improving as far as test scores, etc.

There are some new homes being built, primarily in the area between Post Road and Choctaw. In the original MWC boundaries, you can purchase a 3 bedroom, 1500 or so sf home for around 60K or so. These homes are older (40-50 years) but usually well maintined. There are a lot of apartments around, but you want to be careful going north of Reno.

Hope this helps and again, welcome!

[oudirtypop]

another kind of obscure site searchable by town is openhouseOK.com - Providing Online Home Tours for Real Estate Properties across Oklahoma
lots of pics, details on both websites....

Jenny, the best site out there is openhouseok.com. As Zulu said, lots of pics and sortable by city. This is where we found our new house and we love it. It has pictures of every room and a couple of each major room. Very helpful.

You might try goscouthomes.com also. I havent been there but they recently have a tv channel on cox and thats all they do, is residential real estate. worth a gander.

We used a great realtor named Judy Yetter. She was very helpful. We knew what we wanted and were we wanted, but she had lots of good insight to help us fine tune location. We love south moore!

[LandryTeam]

My wife is a Realtor for Churchill Brown here in Oklahoma City and I just wanted to pass along her info. I know it’s sometimes tough to find people you can trust and that you feel comfortable with. She is really a GREAT person and a GREAT Realtor. If you or someone you know would like to buy, build or sale a home she can help. This is a GREAT time to buy in the OKC area BTW. Here is her contact info:

Misty Landry
misty@churchillbrown.com


She is great at what she does and knows this market VERY well!

Eddie

[traxx]

nm

Thought this was a new thread. Was duped by LandryTeam's spam. Maybe we should have one particular forum for people to peddle their wares.

[Karried]

This emulates the password site that the realtors use and is updated

Yes, you are correct about the MLS but with a password Realtors have more detailed information such as how long the house has been on market, original listing price, ( can be invaluable in discerning how 'anxious' the seller is to sell and is useful for successful negotiations,) commission, listing realtor info and special circumstances and showing instructions ie - seller works nights, no showing before noon, dog bites! etc etc.. also CMA info showing other homes and what they have sold for in the area Pendings, Expireds, Actives..

So if you find a house and want more info, call your Realtor and they will find out more details for you.

[zuluwarrior0760]

I'm not advocating using that site as a substitute for a realtor,
but it can be a very valuable tool in terms of the public
getting a look at listings very soon after they hit. Then you
call and get your realtor out of bed and make her show it
to you that morning....

That's in the case of it being a very desireable property...

If it's a fairly average listing, take your time.........

[CMSturgeon]

Hey Jenny, glad to see you took my advice on joining the board here! I also hope I don't offend anyone on here (that may be a realtor) by recommending my realtor if you are planning on buying a house. Her name is Pat Townsend and she owns Metroplitan Real Estate 631-2220. She is really agressive. We loved her.

[Karried]

Good points.

If you really want listings quickly, have your Realtor set up a custom search on MLS which automatically sends new listings to your email address based on your criteria the minute they are put into the system.

You can also ask your Realtor to put out the word on 'hip pocket' listings.. properties that aren't quite ready to be listed but will be soon.

When I was more active in real estate and less active with managing our current company, this is what I did with most of my clients. I would make fliers and pass them out to other offices asking about specific neighborhoods where we were looking or email other offices asking if they knew of something coming on the market.

[oudirtypop]

Jenny, i live in south moore off of 19th street. I live in a brand new house in a nice middle class neighborhood. Houses around 140-220k. I actually live next door to a family that both of the parents work at tinker, the guy across the street is a pilot and two houses down from him are two people that work at tinker. We are about 15 minutes from tinker.

Dismayed gave you a lot of information, and good information. I will just tell you this much. I own a lawn care and landscaping business and i go all around the entire metro area. I grew up in Yukon, church and lots of friends in NW OKC, moved to norman for 5 years, now live in very south moore. I like my location in moore the best. Yukon has a lot to offer. If you have kids, Norman, Yukon, and Moore, and Edmond are the best in the area for sure. I do a lot of work in the Midwest City/Del City/Spencer areas and i personally wouldnt want my kids going to those school districts over the yukons and moores. Not putting down anyone in those areas, but that is something to think about. In South Moore, a brand new high school is opening next fall. Norman, has two great high schools and a variety of good and bad elementary and middle schools.

May i ask, where are you moving from? That could say alot about where you would like about OKC. If you are a stay at home mom, like to shop, Norman and Edmond would be the best, if you like to be out of the mainstream, but still in a nice area, Yukon would do best. If you like a mixture of all of it, I think moore would be best. The problem with Edmond is that while it very nice, the pace is of life is the fastest in the metro and a lot of women are stay at homers, but there is shopping very close and growing. Midwest city is working hard not to get left behind, but they dont have a lot of room to grow like edmond, yukon, moore, or Norman. Another area worth looking into is sw oKC. You can live in SW OKC and go to Moore schools.

Once again, not trying to put down anybody, but i would avoid OKC schools at all costs.

Like i said, we might be able to give you better guidance with some ideas about your current city and state and what you like there and dont like.

Hope this helps.

[metro]

haha good thought traxx, have a "spam" section to our website for posters who plug their business and then leave the site

[Platemaker]

IMO
The 16 Square miles between May - NW 50th - Santa Fe - Reno - Now THAT'S OKC.

Sure there are some ify neighborhoods... but it IS the place to be... and least for me.

[edcrunk]

i grew up in mwc and anyone who says it was / is a dump doesn't know the city that well or are just snobs. the neighborhoods around heritage park mall are upper middle class, but your neighbors are starting to reach retirement age. there are some really nice neighborhoods off of midwest blvd and north of reno. there are many new additions around the carl albert (the east side) area reaching all the way to choctaw. anywhere north of 10th street is definitely ghetto. the area around the new town center is old, but not dangerous.
i'm not sure about the lady from moore, but carl albert is a great school. westmoore is nice, but moore and midwest city are pretty similar. the both have ghetto areas and newly developed areas.
btw, choctaw is currently on the rise

[RealtorJoe]

What type of activities do you and your husband like to do for fun? Golf? Lake? Shopping? Tennis?

[Patchy Proot]

Dang it! Thought it was a new post. Had better start checking the dates.

[blangtang]

sounds like there are quite a few starving relitters in the metro...

Don't Edmond My Norman!