Expensive living????!!!! (Oklahoma City, Tulsa, Norman: low crime, homes, good schools)

[chefwendy]

I have been doing some research online on housing prices in Edmond, and the homes seem very reasonable to me. Maybe I am jadded by living in Las Vegas where it's 375-400k for 1500 square feet with no driveway or yard to speak of. I have seen great homes priced at 180k-220k, is that an average home price in Edmond/OKC?...if so, I'm packing my bags right now! Just curious. Thanks.

[Synopsis]

Home prices in OkC are MUCH cheaper than in places like Las Vegas. The average home price in Edmond is probably just right around the 180k - 220k you mentioned, if not even slightly less. You can have a mansion in Oklahoma for the prices you pay in places like Las Vegas or California. From what I hear, Edmond is a nice place as well - good schools, low crime, etc. The property taxes in Oklahoma are also low, but they do have a state tax, unlike Nevada. Altogether, it's much cheaper to live in Oklahoma than in Vega$.

[Crasher]

I also would like to have some real info about Oklahoma City. I hear about Edmond and Norman a lot, but I have heard both are a 10 min drive to Oklahoma City and that Oklahoma City is between both anyway. I have heard about the revitalization of Oklahoma City downtown and I would like real entertainment like a big city. I live in Dallas and I am planning on moving to Oklahoma City or Tulsa. This forum seems to be driven by rivalry. All I have read is that Tulsa is the greatest place to live on earth. Is Oklahoma City the same?

[Synopsis]

They're both good places; the rivalry talk you hear is much the same as you'll read on the "Dallas versus Houston" threads in the Texas forum. I prefer Tulsa, but that's because I'm more into the geography and general feel of the city. But to be honest, OkC has more going for it in certain areas. For example, Tulsa's downtown doesn't have near as much activity going on as OkC, but they're working to change that. Tulsa has a tad more of an East coast feel about it (IMO) and OkC has more of a Southwestern flair.

There is a reason for that; when Tulsa was booming in the 30s the rich oil men from the East coast wanted to make Tulsa into the Philadelphia of the Southwest/Lower Midwest. They invested huge sums of money into the infrastructure and essentially built up Tulsa into more of a cultural city.

Those days are long gone but Tulsa still has that feel about it due to all of the buildings, art museums, and so on. But, OkC is bigger and has more development going on these days. Tulsa kind of rested on it's laurels so long as being sometimes called on of America's most beautiful cities and such that they really just didn't invest much in the infrastructure or try to attract any new business. As a result, they fell behind in the current development boom going on across America and more specifically in Oklahoma.

But, Tulsa is trying to improve things. In the last couple of years, the voters in Tulsa approved a program called Vision2025 (Welcome) that is pumping new life into the city with a new, fabulous state of the art arena downtown (do a search on BoK arena), improvements to the roads, and a slew of other development in the city and county.

[Parkerpa]

Tulsa is light years behind OKC. Way to much going on in OKC for Tulsa catch
up in quality of life. In 1993 we were sitting here with a city in the bottom of an oil bust. for about 10 years we had sank further and further. A mayor with vision, asked us to pick our butts up and make a change. He told us no body was coming to bail us out. We voted for the MAPS projects which you can check out. Those projects have launched OKC 20 yrs. ahead of Tulsa.The folks of tulsa miss calculated what could be done in OKC. OKC is on MAPS 3
now. Our infrastucture is in place, we can afford toys for everyone now.
light rail, river boats, more trailsETC. Tulsa we love ya like a little brother!
Move to OKC and have a ball!!

[kimberly81]

In the simplest terms, the most convenient definitions:

Norman: Latte Town (college kids, local shops, museums and music)
Edmond: White Collar Families (tons of shopping, tons of restaurants)
Midwest City: Blue Collar Families (restaurants and shopping)
North OKC: The Mixing Bowl (a little something for everyone here)

Since moving here, I must say all of these areas our great places to live. Its just about what your looking for, the prices our great here Oklahoma City and I'd have to say the people are to.