BA is 19th best city to live in U.S.

Broken Arrow once again makes U.S. News & World Report's 'Best Places to Live' list.

The city ranks 19th out of 250 Best Places to Live in the U.S. in 2026-2027.

Of the six Oklahoma cities ranked, Broken Arrow is highest, ahead of Edmond (22nd) and Moore (45th). Enid, Oklahoma City, and Norman rank 64th, 124th, and 182nd, respectively.

Several factors contributed to Broken Arrow's impressive ranking. To illustrate this, consider the following details.

The report touts Broken Arrow's low cost of living compared to other similar-sized metro areas. Housing costs in Broken Arrow were significantly lower, with the median home value at $251,425, compared with the national average of $359,870.

In addition, the average work commute time in Broken Arrow is 20.52 minutes, which is 1.7 minutes less than the national average.

When it comes to employment, the job market in Broken Arrow is also better than the national average. Unemployment in Broken Arrow is 2.4 percent, compared to 4.5 percent nationally. And at $88,906, the median household income is nearly $6,000 higher than the national average at $83,181.

The rankings from U.S. News & World Report are determined based on data from Applied Geographic Solutions (AGS) and U.S. News' internal resources. Importantly, this data is categorized by a Value Index that measures how comfortably the average resident of each city can live within their means.

Furthermore, the report includes a Quality-of-Life Index that examines the quality of education, the quality and availability of healthcare, the air quality index, environmental risk, state economy, and state infrastructure.

Additionally, another important measure in the survey is desirability, which looks at the city's crime rates, weather temperature, culture/leisure index, and commuter index. Taken together with the job market Index, these factors help establish the city's overall ranking.