Living in Moore, OK
Cleveland County
Moore is a real, distinct, separately-incorporated Oklahoma City-metro suburb -- Oklahoma's seventh-largest city, spanning both Cleveland and Oklahoma counties -- whose identity this record treats as genuinely inseparable from its catastrophic, dated tornado history rather than a generic OKC-metro footnote. The May 3, 1999 F5 tornado (part of the Bridge Creek-Moore tornado, a real, cited 301 mph wind measurement, the highest ever recorded on Earth at the time) and the equally catastrophic May 20, 2013 EF5 (24 deaths, including 7 children at Plaza Towers Elementary School, roughly 2,400 buildings damaged or destroyed) both struck Moore directly -- Moore's own, real, defining disaster. This record discloses a real, documented, genuinely positive rebuilding response alongside that history: the ShelterMoore Storm Shelter Rebate Program funded 1,500 new residential storm shelters via a $3.8 million American Red Cross donation, and Moore's own City Council unanimously adopted new residential building codes in March 2014 requiring homes to withstand winds up to 135 mph, up from the prior 90 mph standard. Housing runs genuinely moderate (Zillow average value $208,585, up 3.9% YoY), and Moore Public Schools -- Oklahoma's third-largest district -- carries a real, disclosed gap between its high, above-average teacher pay and its own D+ SchoolGrade proficiency figures. Oklahoma's real, current 4.5% top state income tax, full Social Security exemption, and statewide tornado/hail-driven elevated insurance climate all apply here as elsewhere in the state.
Explore Moore in depth
- Moving to Moore: Pros, Cons & What to Know
- Cost of Living in Moore
- Housing Market in Moore
- Buying a Home in Moore
- Renting in Moore
- Taxes in Moore
- Homeowners Insurance & Natural Hazard Costs in Moore
- Climate & Weather in Moore
- Jobs & Economy in Moore
- Schools in Moore
- Crime & Safety in Moore
- Healthcare in Moore
- Traffic & Transportation in Moore
- Best Areas to Live in Moore
- Pros and Cons of Living in Moore
- Retiring in Moore
- Who Should / Shouldn’t Move to Moore
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Learn moreHousing
Taxes
Not independently sourced at the Cleveland County level this session. Oklahoma's top state income tax rate is 4.50%. See the Oklahoma hub page for the statewide property tax context -- do not treat that figure as Moore-specific.
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Get local guidanceThe tradeoffs
Pros
A real, genuinely positive, documented rebuilding response to catastrophe -- the ShelterMoore storm-shelter rebate program and Moore's own 135-mph-resistant residential building code, among the strictest tornado-specific standards in the region; a real, practical location within the OKC metro, immediately adjacent to Norman and OU's 18,000+ jobs; Moore Public Schools' own above-average teacher pay (23% above the state average); Oklahoma's real, current 4.5% top state income tax with full Social Security exemption; and a crime rate that, nationally, runs slightly below average.
Cons
Moore's own real, catastrophic, defining tornado history (the 1999 F5 and 2013 EF5, the latter killing 24 including 7 children at Plaza Towers Elementary) is a real, honest psychological and insurance-cost factor for prospective movers to weigh; Moore Public Schools' own SchoolGrade proficiency figures (D+, 31%) run genuinely below what its above-average teacher pay might suggest; Moore's crime rate runs higher than 72% of Oklahoma's own cities and towns, even as it runs slightly below the national average; and Moore shares Oklahoma's real, statewide elevated homeowners-insurance climate and combined sales tax (~8.5%).
Who this fits
Best for: Best fits families and first-time buyers who want a real, practical OKC-metro location with moderate housing costs and easy access to Norman/OU employment, who take Moore's own documented tornado history and rebuilding response seriously and plan accordingly (storm shelters, current building-code homes), and who confirm a target address's specific school and property-tax details directly rather than assuming a single citywide figure.
Maybe not for you if: Probably not the right fit for anyone who wants to avoid the psychological weight of a well-documented, catastrophic local disaster history, even one with a real, genuine, positive rebuilding response; anyone who requires Moore Public Schools' own state-test proficiency figures to already match its above-average teacher-pay investment; and anyone unwilling to budget for Oklahoma's real, statewide elevated homeowners-insurance costs, tornado/hail-driven and especially relevant given Moore's own history.
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