Hi I’m Marcie Billen with Rüya Team Realty and Keller Williams Mulinix and I’m here in Norman, Oklahoma, and today I want to give you an overview of the Oklahoma City metro, or the OKC metro, for short. So I’m gonna point out cities on the map for you, give you a little bit of overview like population, and then give you a little bit of real estate background, as well, so you can get a little better idea of what it’s like living in Oklahoma.

What’s it like living in Oklahoma?

So what is the Oklahoma City metro? Well, to people like us, who are living in Oklahoma City – well, I live in Norman – who live in the Oklahoma City metro, it means that we can get to the city pretty easily. Meaning in 30, maybe 40 minutes to get to our favorite restaurants, go to the doctor, go shopping, whatever. So I’m gonna cover north, south, east, and west in this post. I’m not going to cover all cities – I would have to write whole book, but I’m going to cover the larger cities, and a lot more on the east side because it’s close to Tinker Air Force Base, one of the largest employers in the area, and a reason many families move to the OKC metro area.

If you need more information on living in Oklahoma, check out this video on our YouTube channel. Okay so we’re not gonna talk about all the cities within the Oklahoma City metro because that’s a lot – there are over 30 cities in the OKC metro and nearly 50 different towns. So I’m gonna cover the high points; the ones that people typically ask me about if they’re relocating to Oklahoma City, or if you’re just moving in from a from another area and you want to understand what these different cities are like. Primarily I will be focusing on the east side of the metro because these spots seem to be most popular.

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Norman

To start, I wanted to look at Norman first, because it’s in the south and I live in Norman, so you could say that I’m a bit biased, (which I totally am!) and that’s fine. Norman’s a great place to live. Other cities that are in the south of the Oklahoma City Metro that we could talk about are: Noble, Lexington, Purcell, Slaughterville, Washington, Goldsby, and Moore, which is one we’ll talk about more later on. So, Norman has a population of just under 125,000 people. Norman’s famous because it’s home of the University of Oklahoma, which is our biggest state public university. Students from the University of Oklahoma, do typically stay near campus when school is in session, but they don’t tend to stay at the University during the summer; so during that part of the year, it is very quiet because we don’t have a lot of students in town.

Norman is also the city of festivals! So we have some pretty fun festivals that happen during the year including Norman Music festival, which is a big one; and then Jazz in June, which I think is the biggest one, but Norman Music Festival may have recently surpassed that in size. We also have a big Renaissance Fair in April every year and that one’s pretty amazing too. The average price of real estate in Norman is right around $200,000 and that does vary a little bit, month-to-month. So you can see on the map here, where it outlined what Norman is so you can see how it is, how it sits in a relationship to Oklahoma City.

Moore

Alright next we’re going to cover Moore and it’s just north of Norman. It makes it a really great location if you’re planning to commute to Oklahoma City every day. The city of Moore has really boomed since the 2013 tornado. It’s really famous for that tornado; it did destroy a lot of the town, and since then, they’ve worked really hard on building the city back up. There’s a lot of beautiful new parks like Buck Thomas, and then also a ton of new restaurants and new shopping along the corridor where the tornado did hit. And despite the folklore about Moore, they do not receive yearly tornadoes – not even close! If you want more info on what the weather is like, check out my interview with a local meteorologist. They had a big tornado in 1999 and then also one in 2013, which is scary, I’ll give you that.

The population of Moore is right under 65,000. Now, whenever you’re driving in Moore, it’s definitely gonna seem bigger than that, and the reason is because south Oklahoma City kind of wraps around it. That means that you can be living in Oklahoma City, but may actually be in Moore school districts, which is kind of what we call like Greater Moore. So usually, if someone tells me that they don’t I want to live in Oklahoma City, and instead they want to live in Moore, but in reality, they really just need Moore school districts, we can find them a really great house in South Oklahoma City, that’s also in the Moore school district. The average price of real estate in Moore is right at $165,000 and also that varies month-to-month, of course.

Tri-City Area | Blanchard, Newcastle, Tuttle

So southwest of Oklahoma there are three small towns and they are pretty rural communities, but people really love to live there and one of the reasons is because it’s so easy, I mean SO easy, to get to Oklahoma City, Moore, or Norman from these three cities, called the tri-city area. They feel like small towns, but you don’t have to drive forever to actually get your nearest Target or anything like that. So the three cities that I’m talking about are Newcastle, Blanchard, and Tuttle. Most people in these cities, end up getting to Oklahoma City, or you know wherever they’re working via Highway 44. The average price of homes in the tri-city area, which varies more because there’s not as many homes, is right around $215,000. And in these cities; Blanchard, Tuttle, and Newcastle, you can usually find a house that may have a little bit more land.

Midwest City

Okay so the east side of Oklahoma City, as I said, is quite popular with people, which is where Tinker Air Force Base is. And like I mentioned, Tinker Air Force Base is the largest single-site employer in Oklahoma. Midwest City has a population of just under 60,000 people, and in some places you really can’t tell where where in Midwest City, Del City, or Oklahoma City you are at times, because they are all so close together. Midwest City also has a very popular Community College, called Rose State. Getting around between Oklahoma City from from Midwest City is a really easy drive on Highway 40 and there’s great roads running south of Midwest City to get to that interstate. The average price of a home in Midwest City is quite a bit lower than what we’ve already been talking about; it’s right at $130,000.

Del City

Del City is a smaller town, located west of Midwest City, and even closer to Oklahoma City. It’s quite a bit smaller than Midwest City was. Del City and Midwest City are separated, but only by one road and sometimes you can’t even tell which city you’re in. Many residents of Del City also work for Tinker Air Force Base because it is so close. The real estate is a little bit less expensive in Del City, with the average home price in Del City being right at or right under $100,000.

Choctaw

Further east in the Oklahoma City metro is the city of Choctaw. Choctaw has really seen a growing popularity in the past few years; I sell quite a few of homes out there, and they’re usually fairly new or new-builds. This town actually has a population of just under 15,000 so really it’s not very big, but it’s very rural. Many people who live in Choctaw also end up working at Tinker Air Force Base and one really popular activity in Choctaw, which is famous, and people go to from surrounding cities, is Oktoberfest, which is in October at the old Germany Restaurant in Choctaw. The average price of homes in Choctaw is actually just under $265,000 or right around there and these homes tend to have a little bit more space; it’s pretty easy to find a half acre or more.

Harrah

The next stop on the tour is Harrah, Oklahoma. Harrah is as far east as I’m gonna take you on our little little tour of the Oklahoma City metro and Harrah is one of the smallest towns we’re gonna cover; it only has a population of around 8,000. Harrah does have its own school system, though so you will get that kind of country school feel with the school system. Here, the average sales price of Harrah for real estate is right at $170,000.

Newalla

Newalla is our next stop and has been proven to be a pretty popular community to move into. Now it’s not really a community per se, it’s actually unincorporated. It used to be a town and it’s kind of not a town anymore. They don’t have a public school system, so the kids would go to like Oklahoma City, Mid/Del schools, Norman schools, Little Axe, Harrah, Moore, McLoud; it totally depends on where you live within Newalla. Newalla is actually home to many new builds because there’s a lot of land that was available out there and it has really easy access from the interstate, I-40.

Newalla doesn’t have city limits, necessarily, but instead, kind of encompasses what other towns won’t encompass. And then your address would be Newalla. Because of the proximity to the interstate, you have easy access to Oklahoma City, Moore Choctaw, Harrah, even up to McLoud if you lived in the Newalla area and they are working on finishing up the new Turnpike that would grant easy access to the Tulsa area as well. Newalla’s average home price is around $260,000 and that’s because we see these new-builds and also homes that are built on an acre, up to 20 or more; whatever it is that your heart desires out in Newalla.

Edmond

Alright next, I’m gonna go north of Oklahoma City, which brings us to Edmond. Edmond is one of the biggest cities in Oklahoma; it has a population of just around 95,000; so it’s smaller than Norman, but bigger than all the other cities that I’m gonna be talking about today. The historic Route 66 runs through Edmond and so you’ll see evidence of that in downtown Edmond as well. Edmond is home to one of the fastest growing colleges in Oklahoma, the University of Central Oklahoma, and it’s a huge employer for the city. Right around $270,000 is where the average home price lies in Edmond. Edmond provides more of that suburban feel instead of like a rural setting, which means more homes on smaller lots in Edmond, but still really easy access to Oklahoma City via the Broadway extension and other highways.

Guthrie

The next stop here, is Guthrie – and is actually, the original capital of Oklahoma! This older city is located north of Edmond has a population of just under 12,000. Tourism is really important to this city since it is one of the older cities in Central Oklahoma; definitely not one of the older cities in Oklahoma, in general, but that’s another post for another day. Guthrie has over 2,000 buildings that are historical, so it is a registered national historic district. Whenever you drive through Guthrie, you can see some really cool old buildings and old houses. It’s kind of a hipster spot and you’ll also see some Victorian architecture, which is pretty cool.

Guthrie can be really fun to explore on the weekends and is very active, since they do have a lot of different events like rodeos and 89r Days, and different things like that. So Guthrie can be a really fun place to getaway to on the weekend, or if you’re looking for that small town life that has like this historic “frontier days” feel, and it could be a really cool place to live. The average home price in Guthrie is right at $170,000, but you still have easy access to Edmond and Oklahoma City for all of your shopping and eating needs.

Yukon

Yukon is our next stop in our tour of the Oklahoma City metro. Yukon has a population of right under 45,000 with a big Czech population; it’s known as the Czech capital of Oklahoma. Czech meaning Czechoslovakian people, or from the Czech Republic, or Slovakia as it’s now known. There’s actually even a large Czech Festival that’s held in Yukon every year. Originally the city was a center for farmers (there’s a lot of farming that happens on this side of Oklahoma City because of how flat and plain-like the area is) and there was a big mill operation in the city of Yukon. Now it’s kind of known as a place where people live and then work in Oklahoma City because it’s so easy to get into Oklahoma City from the highways. The average home price in Yukon is right at $200,000.

Mustang

Mustang is where we’re headed next and is where we end the tour. This is a smaller community; the population is just under 25,000. Part of it kind of butts up to our international airport that we have here in Oklahoma City. It’s really a growing community that of course, used to be a farming community, just like Yukon was, but now many residents live out in Mustang and then work in The City itself. Which again, by City, I mean Oklahoma City, because as people who live in the Oklahoma City metro, when we’re talking about Oklahoma City, we just say “The City.” The average home price in Mustang is right at $200,000.

Like I said, the tour of the Oklahoma City Metro has ended and I haven’t even covered any of Oklahoma City itself. And the reason for that is because this is a lengthy blog post and a lot of times, questions that I get are actually for around where people can live outside of Oklahoma City. There’s many reasons people choose to live outside or inside Oklahoma City and I hope that we gave a little bit of insight as to why people might choose one way or another

If you’ve got more questions send me an email or check out my video on the Cost of Living in Oklahoma!

Marcie Billen | [email protected] | 918.691.8982