Norman/Oklahoma City, OK

[alf2016]

Hi!

I am most likely moving to OKC to attend OUHSC in the fall! Does anyone have any recommendations about living? Is it better to live in OKC or Norman/Edmond? Also, does anyone know anything about the apartments on the OUHSC campus? I'm open to whatever and any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

[Neist]

10 hours ago, alf2016 said:

Hi!

I am most likely moving to OKC to attend OUHSC in the fall! Does anyone have any recommendations about living? Is it better to live in OKC or Norman/Edmond? Also, does anyone know anything about the apartments on the OUHSC campus? I'm open to whatever and any advice is greatly appreciated!

Thanks!

What sort of budget you aiming for? Edmond and Norman are definitely nicer than the majority of OKC, but also more expensive than the majority of OKC. Also, I'm not sure about the quality of HSC apartments, but the area around the school has steadily been gentrifying over several years. Meaning that if you want to live close to campus, I'd live in university owned apartments. I bet that other options are expensive.

What sort of things do you value living around? I've lived in the greater metro area my entire life. I could pinpoint general areas with some more details.

Edited March 14, 2016 by Neist

[alf2016]

@Neist I would like to live relatively close to the campus but I realize that might not be possible with my budget. I would like to stay under $800 for a one bedroom. I'd really like to live where other students do but other than that I'm really open to living wherever (as long as it's considered a safe area)! Thanks for your help! 

[Neist]

1 hour ago, alf2016 said:

@Neist I would like to live relatively close to the campus but I realize that might not be possible with my budget. I would like to stay under $800 for a one bedroom. I'd really like to live where other students do but other than that I'm really open to living wherever (as long as it's considered a safe area)! Thanks for your help! 

Are you aiming for $800 pre or post utilities? If it's the former, you can probably stay close to anywhere you'd like (as long as it's not close to the gentrifying downtown area, which is getting rather expensive). Oklahoma City has a fairly low cost of living, almost absurdly low. Even in Norman, which is one of the pricier cities in the greater metro area (because it's a college town and all), you can can get studio-sized apartments in the $400-500 range. I live in OU-owned apartments in Norman and I pay under $700 all bills paid, including internet and basic cable, for an unfurnished two bedroom apartment. As an example, here's the rates of a company I used to live in's apartments. 

http://www.elite2900.com/rates.html

They aren't stupendously nice, but they are well-managed.

One bit of advice that I'd definitely offer is be careful of areas in the greater downtown area that seem awfully cheap compared to other offerings. The downtown OKC area can be fantastic, but it can also be not so fantastic. If the "nicer" options close to the HSC campus are too expensive, and you don't want to try to get university housing, I'd look towards Edmond or Norman or even Moore. It's pretty easy to leave the HSC campus and go north or south to any of those areas.

If I were in your situation, I'd strongly consider university owned housing at HSC or Norman. I live in university-owned housing, albeit on a different campus, and I have no complaints. It's very well-managed and affordable. Also, any hesitations about safety are probably somewhat negated by the bubble a campus tends to impose on surrounding areas. And I suggest Norman because you'd have access to study locations other than the HSC campus if you didn't want to commute. Again, just my preference, but Norman is a town in which a person can generally move about the greater campus area without car, and if I were to commute, I probably wouldn't want to drive a car any more than was necessary.

All that said. These are just my opinions. Feel free to disregard them if you like.  Have you asked HSC if they have suggestions for housing? That might help. Also, if you live closer to Bricktown, be wary of the traffic on weekends. They tend to stack sporting/music events at the same time, making traffic horrible.

Let me know if you have any other specific questions!

Edited March 14, 2016 by Neist

[advanturous]

@Neist Hello. Your reply has been lota help for getting an idea. I think I will spend next five years at OU. I need help to arrange everything. I am moving from another country in late July and it will be about 2 weeks before I start the school. If you or anyone else could answer the following questions, it will be greatly appreciated. I thank you for your reply in advance.

 I was wondering the price range for renting an apartment(1bed, 1bath furnished) in Norman. Would 700 do? I do not intend to share living room, but am willing to use laundry if there are bunch of washing machines. Would it be better to buy furniture off the craigslist or better to rent a furnished apartment if I will live for the next five years? If you were me, would you consider commuting to the university via car from say, OKC or Moore and settle there or would it be better to stay in Norman? How is the area near Sooner Mall, Walmart, Parkway Plaza in Norman compared to shops at Moore and Walmart area in Moore? What is the best way to buy a car? 

I am sorry to have so many questions, but if you have answers to any of the questions, it will save me. Thank you so much.

[Neist]

On 4/9/2016 at 1:01 PM, advanturous said:

@Neist Hello. Your reply has been lota help for getting an idea. I think I will spend next five years at OU. I need help to arrange everything. I am moving from another country in late July and it will be about 2 weeks before I start the school. If you or anyone else could answer the following questions, it will be greatly appreciated. I thank you for your reply in advance.

 I was wondering the price range for renting an apartment(1bed, 1bath furnished) in Norman. Would 700 do? I do not intend to share living room, but am willing to use laundry if there are bunch of washing machines. Would it be better to buy furniture off the craigslist or better to rent a furnished apartment if I will live for the next five years? If you were me, would you consider commuting to the university via car from say, OKC or Moore and settle there or would it be better to stay in Norman? How is the area near Sooner Mall, Walmart, Parkway Plaza in Norman compared to shops at Moore and Walmart area in Moore? What is the best way to buy a car? 

I am sorry to have so many questions, but if you have answers to any of the questions, it will save me. Thank you so much.

Sorry for not getting to this response sooner!

1. To be honest, I'm not sure. I've never rented furnished apartments in the area, so I'm not sure if 700 would be sufficient. Kraettli, the university-owned apartments I live in (and highly recommend) are 750 a month furnished, but the 750 is all-inclusive. There's no additional utility costs. Cable TV, internet, electric, trash, garbage, etc. are all included. However, you can find quite a few apartments in the 500-600 range, and some are small enough that buying furniture for them might be affordable. If you want some specific recommendations for very small, cheap apartments. Send me a pm, and I'll see what I can find.  
2. You're probably going to have to use laundry facilities in that price range. There's definitely some apartments that have laundry machines inside each unit, but it's the exception, not the rule, and those apartments are usually more expensive. Even so, all but the cheapest apartment complexes typically have private laundry mats that are only accessible to tenants. 
3. Commuting to Moore or OKC is actually pretty easy, but would I do it personally? Nope!  I hate driving. I'd lose 1 to 1.5 hours a day commuting, and that's time that I could spend doing homework, studying, or spending time with my family. Additionally, if you commute, would you drive to Norman, stay all day, then drive home? If you're in Norman, you could travel back and forth to campus several times a day, if necessary. Living outside of Norman is possible, and I know people who've done it, but I wouldn't claim that either choice is necessarily better than the other. Living out of Norman will be cheaper, and being in Norman will be more convenient. It's a personal, value proposition.
4. All the areas you asked about in Norman are nice.  However, these areas are shopping districts, so traffic can get heavy periodically. The areas in Moore are similarly nice, but traffic in Moore can be considerably worse. Moore is a stereotypical suburb, so at the end of a workday there's a lot of cars going through that area because people often go shopping after work.
5. If it were me, I'd look into buying furniture, but I realize that's considerably more expensive. If I were single, I doubt I'd need much.  
6. If I were to buy a car after moving from another country, I'd consider visiting a car dealership and see what used cars they offer. There's quite a few very large dealerships in Norman. You could try to find a car off Craigslist or Autotrader.com, but you risk getting screwed, and if I were relocating from another country, I'm not sure if I'd want to take on that sort of risk. However, I'm pretty paranoid about that sort of thing.

I'm sorry if some of these answers are kind of vague! If need any specific clarifications, let me know, and I'll be more than happy to help! I like feeling useful.  

[Le Chat]

Reviving this thread for anyone going to OU in Fall 2017!

[Neist]

On 5/4/2017 at 2:21 PM, abnumber5 said:

Reviving this thread for anyone going to OU in Fall 2017!

Let me know if you want to know anything about Norman. If you're from Texas, it's possible that you might already be familiar with Norman, but I thought I'd offer, all the same.  

[ellieotter]

All they need to know is to avoid Lindsey st., am I right? Just kidding..sort of

[Le Chat]

On 5/6/2017 at 1:23 PM, Neist said:

Let me know if you want to know anything about Norman. If you're from Texas, it's possible that you might already be familiar with Norman, but I thought I'd offer, all the same.  

I am from Texas, but I visited Norman for the first time last week. The only questions I still had were about local medical services. I may need to travel to OKC for certain medical specialists, although I believe I saw 2 hospitals located in Norman?

[Neist]

16 hours ago, abnumber5 said:

I am from Texas, but I visited Norman for the first time last week. The only questions I still had were about local medical services. I may need to travel to OKC for certain medical specialists, although I believe I saw 2 hospitals located in Norman?

 

You are correct. There are two hospitals in Norman. Also, depending on one's need for particular specialists, you may or may not be able to locate a provider in Norman. I've only rarely had to leave the city to look for health care providers, but I typically do not require highly specific specialists, either.  

On 5/6/2017 at 8:43 PM, ellieotter said:

All they need to know is to avoid Lindsey st., am I right? Just kidding..sort of

Haha. That's definitely true! But one could make the same argument for a lot of streets in Norman. 

[11Q13]

I have an offer at a university in the OKC area to be an assistant professor and I'm wondering, since the last reply to this was from 2017, if anyone can update me about life around OKC in the post-Trump era. First, I would have a salary of 50k (pre-tax), is that enough to live comfortably in a one-bedroom apartment (in unit washer/dryer) in a nice part of town? What are the cool places of town to live in if I want to be social? Should I try to move to the OU neighborhood even if that's not where I will be working or would downtown OKC be better? I wouldn't mind commuting 30 minutes or so to work.

[Neist]

15 hours ago, 11Q13 said:

I have an offer at a university in the OKC area to be an assistant professor and I'm wondering, since the last reply to this was from 2017, if anyone can update me about life around OKC in the post-Trump era. First, I would have a salary of 50k (pre-tax), is that enough to live comfortably in a one-bedroom apartment (in unit washer/dryer) in a nice part of town? What are the cool places of town to live in if I want to be social? Should I try to move to the OU neighborhood even if that's not where I will be working or would downtown OKC be better? I wouldn't mind commuting 30 minutes or so to work.

I still live in the greater OKC area, though I sadly cannot comment directly in regards to city life in the last couple years. Been rather a shut-in! That said, for one person, $50k is probably fine for an individual, but that's going to depend on your standard of living. I've supported a family of three, renting an entire house, for about $60k. It's not an especially high cost of living city. 

The Norman area, where OU is located, is a great area, but it's definitely going to be around a 30 minute trek to get to downtown Oklahoma City. More so during rush hour.

I'm not sure if I can answer any of the other specifics, but if you have any additional questions, I'll keep an eye on this thread. :)