Oklahoma City? Tinker Air Force Base

[SaveTheSeaTurtles]

Hi, there !

I am hoping that there is someone on the boards who can help me with information. Like everyone else, we have been affected by the poor economy but the good news is that my spouse found a new job finally !

However, the job is in Oklahoma - very near Tinker Air Force Base. Can someone help me with finding links for living information, what the area is like (weather-wise, cost of living, etc) . Where are the bad parts of the area? Where are the nice areas? I am looking for the REAL info on the area - not the tourist blurbs, if you know what I mean.

Is the housing market there still depressed, as it seems to be everywhere? What are average rent costs for a 1 bedroom apartment?

We have to sell our house here so we are looking for something as inexpensive as possible without being in a bad area or a "ratty" apartment...

Any help is greatly appreciated. It is SO hard to move to an area where you know nothing about the state at all.

Thanks in advance!

 

[SaveTheSeaTurtles]

Can anyone help with this?

 

[tchrrx]

I live in Oklahoma and sent you a PM. I don't have a ton of information, but I'll try to help as much as possible.

 

[surfergirl602]

HI! I live right outside of Ft. Sill, which is in OKlahoma as well. When we moved here we learned very quickly that you won't find any of this information that you are looking for over the internet. There are hardly any houses available to look at online - you really need to come to the area and just drive around. Literally. We looked at 60 houses - no joke - before we found one in a good area with good schools. Tinker is in OKC, I think, so try looking for an area out of the city. Also, realtors in this area have their own listings, so visit as many as you can and get a listing of what you are looking for, and drive through the area, especially at night. The economy is still pretty bad here, but the cost of living is low. I couldn't find a job that pays enough so I just stay at home with the kids now. We came from NY, where everything is go go go all the time, so it was quite a shocker moving here. We'll have been in OK for a year in January. The winters are cold and windy, and the summers are really hot, but its not too bad, coming from new England. We did have an ice storm last winter that shut everything down for four days - they don't have plows or sand trucks here so everything just.... stopped. The military pays our rent, but just to give you an idea, we live in a new neighborhood, 5 bedroom house, and our rent is $1400.00 a month. A good website to check out is ahrn.com

 

[ktlm]

HI! I live right outside of Ft. Sill, which is in OKlahoma as well. When we moved here we learned very quickly that you won't find any of this information that you are looking for over the internet. There are hardly any houses available to look at online - you really need to come to the area and just drive around. Literally. We looked at 60 houses - no joke - before we found one in a good area with good schools. Tinker is in OKC, I think, so try looking for an area out of the city. Also, realtors in this area have their own listings, so visit as many as you can and get a listing of what you are looking for, and drive through the area, especially at night. The economy is still pretty bad here, but the cost of living is low. I couldn't find a job that pays enough so I just stay at home with the kids now. We came from NY, where everything is go go go all the time, so it was quite a shocker moving here. We'll have been in OK for a year in January. The winters are cold and windy, and the summers are really hot, but its not too bad, coming from new England. We did have an ice storm last winter that shut everything down for four days - they don't have plows or sand trucks here so everything just.... stopped. The military pays our rent, but just to give you an idea, we live in a new neighborhood, 5 bedroom house, and our rent is $1400.00 a month. A good website to check out is ahrn.com

Surfergirl, I've seen your posts before -I didn't know you were a fellow Oklahoman (sort of)! It is so funny to see how transplants view Oklahoma, as opposed to someone like me who has lived here all my life! I love NY and have been there often as DH grew up in New Jersey, and I can just imagine how different it is for you. SavetheSeaTurtles, Ft. Sil is down by Lawton, so it is about an hour and a half from the OKC area. It is a much smaller town with a much slower pace than the OKC area. Actually for things up here, you will find quite a bit of information on the internet. A good source for looking at available houses for sale in the OKC area is openhouseok.com. I'm not real sure about looking for apartments. Apartmentguide.com might be a decent source to start.

Weather wise, there is a saying in Oklahoma: "If you don't like the weather- just wait- it will change". You never know what you are going to get. It is windy a lot here. In January, you might get one day that is 70 or 80, and the next day it is 30-40 degrees. We don't get much snow and ice. When we do, as SurferGirl noted, it can be crazy because people here just don't know how to deal with it, or drive on it. Actually, I've lived here for 40 years, and the 2 ice storms in the last few recent years are the worst I can remember ever.

The cost of living is actually very low here. Also, the economy in the OKC area is not that bad, in fact we have made several national news stories and magazines as being one of the cities least affected by the economy and being one of the most recession proof. I think one publication even put us at No. 1. The OKC area housing market is not really very depressed. We did not have the housing bubble with overly inflated prices that many areas around the country had before the recession. Housing was still reasonable here, and as a result prices have not fallen very much, if at all. My neighbor down the street sold his house 2 days after he put it on the market for the full asking price. I can't tell you what the average apartment costs are, but hopefully someone else can.

 

[ktlm]

I should have added one more thing that might make you feel better since you are a Diser--- We do have a Disney Store at Quail Springs Mall which is in North Oklahoma City near Edmond. Also, OKC is only a 3 hour drive from Dallas (2 1/2 from Norman)- Dallas has lots of things to do, and Grapevine Mall down there has a great Disney outlet store.

 

[surfergirl602]

It's funny you say that quote about the weather... because its the same thing people say in Maine, (where I'm from) and in NY, where we lived for 6 years. lol

 

[SaveTheSeaTurtles]

Thanks for the responses ! I am guessing that he will need to just go there and stay at a hotel for a couple of weeks so he can find an apartment until we can buy a house (after selling this one) - maybe a Residence Inn or something so the costs are not unreasonable??

Yikes - he starts in 3 weeks. The more I think about this, the more nervous I am, although I am grateful he found a job. Just to be able to have the health insurance is a blessing.