Home / Markets / Oklahoma City Guides / Nichols Hills, The Village, Warr Acres & Bethany

Neighborhood Guide

Nichols Hills, The Village, Warr Acres & Bethany, OK

Four small cities, each fully surrounded by Oklahoma City in the north-central metro, covered together because none individually supports its own guide — from Nichols Hills' 1929 country-club streets to Bethany's Nazarene-college roots, each keeps its own distinct character.

Jump to Neighborhood FAQ ↓

A stately brick home along a tree-lined street in Nichols Hills, one of the Oklahoma City area's most affluent enclaves — A home in Nichols Hills. Photo: MARELBU, CC BY 3.0.

What Nichols Hills, The Village, Warr Acres & Bethany is actually like

Nichols Hills, The Village, Warr Acres, and Bethany share one thing structurally: each is a small, independently incorporated city entirely enclosed by Oklahoma City in the metro's north-central core, none big enough on its own to support a standalone guide the way Edmond or Norman does. Combined, they run from roughly 3,850 residents (Nichols Hills) to about 20,300 (Bethany), for a combined population near 44,000 — but treating them as one undifferentiated place would flatten real, sometimes dramatic differences, starting with home values that run roughly five times higher in Nichols Hills than in the other three.

Nichols Hills is the outlier. Developer Dr. G.A. Nichols began building it in 1929 as “an exclusive residential area” on 1,280 acres, hiring landscape architects Hare and Hare to lay out curving streets named for English towns, along with parks, golf courses, and bridle paths; the city incorporated that same September (Wikipedia). The Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club, designed by golf architect Perry Maxwell, sits inside the city. Nichols Hills ranked first statewide for per capita income as of the 2010 Census, and its median household income reached roughly $207,500–$218,500 as of 2020–2024, with a median home value estimated around $818,500 (Wikipedia; Data USA). Notable residents include OKC Thunder co-owner Clayton Bennett, Love's founder Tom Love, former Oklahoma Governor Frank Keating, Chesapeake Energy co-founder Aubrey McClendon, and NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (Wikipedia).

The Village, directly adjoining Nichols Hills, is described in its own historical record as “a city almost enclaved by Oklahoma City.” It's home to the corporate headquarters of Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores and to Casady School, an independent K-12 school, with shopping along Village Park North and South, North Park Mall, and French Market Mall (Wikipedia). Its population was an estimated 9,276 as of July 2025, down 2.8% since the 2020 Census — the only city in this cluster that's shrinking rather than growing — with a median household income of $77,108 (U.S. Census Bureau).

Warr Acres was developed after World War II by businessman C.B. Warr and incorporated in February 1948, after residents of eleven subdivisions — including the 1909 Putnam City plat — petitioned to join together; a legal challenge from neighboring Bethany failed at the Oklahoma Supreme Court. Like many mid-century Oklahoma City-area subdivisions, Warr Acres enforced racially restrictive covenants into the 1960s; today it's a racially diverse city, with a 2020 Census population that was 45.8% White, 29.1% Hispanic or Latino, and 10.3% Black (Wikipedia). Its commercial spine developed along MacArthur Boulevard and old Route 66 (39th Street) through the 1960s and '70s. Population was an estimated 10,552 as of July 2025, with a median household income of $53,273 (U.S. Census Bureau).

Bethany was founded July 28, 1909 by Church of the Nazarene members seeking a community where they could “practice their religious beliefs without interference” — early town rules banned alcohol, tobacco, gambling, dancing, movies, swearing, and Sunday work. The town's most consequential day came decades later: an F4 tornado struck on November 19, 1930, killing 23 people and destroying 652 buildings, the defining severe-weather event for this cluster of cities the way Moore's 2013 EF5 is for the OKC metro overall (Wikipedia). Bethany is still home to Southern Nazarene University, which enrolled 2,110 students (1,656 undergraduate, 454 graduate) as of 2024 on a 200-acre campus, the smaller of the two university identities in this build alongside Edmond's UCO and OKC-proper's OU (Wikipedia). Population was an estimated 20,315 as of July 2025, with a median household income of $56,591 and a 20.5% poverty rate — the most economically mixed of the four cities in this guide (U.S. Census Bureau).

Home values in Nichols Hills, The Village, Warr Acres & Bethany

Home values vary sharply across these four cities, which is the whole reason they're written up individually rather than averaged together. Nichols Hills: Redfin's median sale price was $919,500 over the three months ending June 2026, down 1.9% year-over-year (Redfin) — by far the highest of any city in this build, consistent with the Census Bureau's separately measured median home value of roughly $818,500 (a different, owner-estimated figure, not a sale-price index) (Data USA). The Village: the Census Bureau's American Community Survey median home value (2020–2024) was $211,800 (U.S. Census Bureau). Warr Acres: Zillow's Home Value Index was $177,121 as of January 31, 2026, down 1.8% year-over-year (Zillow). Bethany: Zillow's Home Value Index was $176,832 as of July 31, 2026, down 1.4% year-over-year (Zillow) — both Warr Acres and Bethany are currently seeing flat-to-declining values, unlike the broader metro's modest growth, and both run well below the Oklahoma City-Shawnee CSA norm. As across the rest of this metro, Oklahoma runs a genuine state income tax (topping out at a 4.5% marginal rate), assesses and collects property tax entirely at the county level rather than through any statewide rate, and charges a 4.5% state sales tax (Wikipedia). Confirm current Oklahoma County millage directly with the county assessor for a specific address in any of these four cities.

Getting around

All four cities are car-dependent like the rest of the metro, and none has EMBARK fixed-route service of its own (the metro transit authority's routes stop at Oklahoma City proper and Norman). Each city is also small — The Village covers 2.55 square miles and Warr Acres 2.84, for instance — so internal trips stay short even without transit, and all four sit close enough to Oklahoma City's own street grid (Western Avenue, May Avenue, MacArthur Boulevard, NW Expressway) that reaching downtown OKC or the Uptown 23rd/Plaza District corridor is typically a short drive rather than a highway commute.

Nichols Hills, The Village, Warr Acres & Bethany FAQ

Why are four different cities covered in one guide?

Nichols Hills, The Village, Warr Acres, and Bethany are each small, independently incorporated cities fully surrounded by Oklahoma City, none large enough on its own to support a standalone guide -- but they're genuinely different places, not one place under four names, so this guide covers each with its own facts rather than averaging them into a single generic description.

Is Nichols Hills really that expensive?

Yes -- Redfin's median sale price there was $919,500 over the three months ending June 2026, roughly five times Warr Acres' or Bethany's Zillow-measured home values (both around $177,000). Nichols Hills has ranked first statewide for per capita income and is home to Oklahoma Thunder co-owner Clayton Bennett, Love's founder Tom Love, and NBA MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander, among others.

What happened in Bethany's 1930 tornado?

An F4 tornado struck Bethany on November 19, 1930, killing 23 people and destroying 652 buildings -- the area's defining historical severe-weather event, similar in local significance to Moore's 2013 EF5 elsewhere in the metro.

What is Southern Nazarene University?

Southern Nazarene University is a Church of the Nazarene-affiliated university on a 200-acre campus in Bethany, enrolling 2,110 students as of 2024. Bethany itself was founded in 1909 by Nazarene church members seeking a community centered on their faith.

Is Warr Acres racially diverse today, and what's its history?

Yes -- as of the 2020 Census, Warr Acres was 45.8% White, 29.1% Hispanic or Latino, and 10.3% Black. Like many mid-century Oklahoma City-area subdivisions, it enforced racially restrictive covenants into the 1960s before becoming the diverse city it is today.

Who lives in The Village, and what company is headquartered there?

The Village is home to the corporate headquarters of Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores and to Casady School, an independent K-12 school. Its population, an estimated 9,276 as of mid-2025, has actually declined slightly since the 2020 Census -- the only city in this cluster that's shrinking rather than growing.

Nearby alternatives*

Edmond

North via Western Avenue or May Avenue -- a much larger suburb (about 100,500 residents) built around the University of Central Oklahoma, with newer housing stock and lower per-square-foot prices than Nichols Hills.

Uptown 23Rd Western Avenue

Directly south, bordering Nichols Hills -- a walkable Oklahoma City shopping and dining corridor along NW 23rd Street and Western Avenue, distinct from this cluster's four separately incorporated suburb cities even though the two border each other.

Yukon

West across Oklahoma City -- a Canadian County suburb with a railroad-town history and home values well below Nichols Hills', closer to Warr Acres' or Bethany's range.

Compare Nichols Hills, The Village, Warr Acres & Bethany to these side by side →

See what makes Oklahoma City stand out — verified, named medical, dietary, sports, and other specialty resources you won't find in most metros.

Explore Specialty Resources →

Quick facts

County: Oklahoma County (four separate incorporated cities)
Transit: Only Bethany appears on Walk Score's ranking of Oklahoma's 30 largest cities, scoring 47 out of 100 (“Car-Dependent” to “Somewhat Walkable”) and the highest Walk Score of any city in this Cluster B build; Nichols Hills, The Village, and Warr Acres are all too small to appear on that list at all, so no comparable city-wide score exists for them (Walk Score). EMBARK's fixed-route bus network covers only Oklahoma City proper and Norman, so none of these four enclave cities has a dedicated route (Wikipedia).
Landmarks: The Oklahoma City Golf and Country Club in Nichols Hills; Love's Travel Stops & Country Stores' corporate headquarters and Casady School in The Village; the MacArthur Boulevard/Route 66 commercial corridor in Warr Acres; and Southern Nazarene University, Eldon Lyon Park, Wiley Post Airport, and the Stinchcomb Wildlife Refuge in Bethany
Commute to Downtown: N/A as a single figure — all four cities border Oklahoma City directly (Nichols Hills, The Village, and Warr Acres along the Western Avenue/May Avenue/MacArthur Boulevard corridors just north of OKC's Uptown 23rd and Plaza districts; Bethany along old Route 66/the NW 39th Expressway), so trips to downtown Oklahoma City typically run well under 15 minutes each way. No ACS or Data USA commute-time figure is broken out separately for these small cities the way it is for Yukon or Mustang.
Flood & storm risk: Tornado, not flood, is the defining weather risk across all four cities — Bethany's own November 19, 1930 F4 tornado killed 23 people and destroyed 652 buildings, the area's historical benchmark severe-weather event.
more
As across the rest of the Oklahoma City metro, the genuinely distinctive hazard for Nichols Hills, The Village, Warr Acres, and Bethany is severe convective storms and tornadoes, not flooding. Bethany's own history makes the point concretely: an F4 tornado struck the town on November 19, 1930, killing 23 people and destroying 652 buildings (Wikipedia), and Oklahoma as a whole still averages roughly 62 tornadoes a year, concentrated in a severe-weather season running roughly April through June (Wikipedia; Wikipedia). Flood risk by contrast is minor for all four: they're small, fully-built-out residential grids without a major river or floodplain running through their cores. Always check FEMA's Flood Map Service Center for a specific address regardless.
Nearest hospital: INTEGRIS Baptist Medical Center, a full-service hospital at 3300 NW Expressway in Oklahoma City, sits directly adjacent to this cluster of cities and functions as the primary hospital serving all four (Healthgrades).
Property taxes: County & state rates →
Relocating here: Employers, licensing & the metro basics →
Zoning & HOA character: Local rules & HOA character →
Utilities: OG&E (Oklahoma Gas & Electric) provides 100% of electric service to all four cities (FindEnergy). Water and sewer differ city by city: Nichols Hills is the outlier, self-supplied from 23 city-owned wells drawing the Garber-Wellington Aquifer with 8,750,000 gallons of storage across five reservoirs, though its sewage is treated by the City of Oklahoma City at its North Canadian plant (City of Nichols Hills). The Village, Warr Acres, and Bethany each bill water and sewer through their own municipal utility-billing departments rather than sharing Nichols Hills' well system; confirm the specific provider and rate structure for an address with the relevant city directly.

Metro context ▾

Weather facts for the whole metro are on the Oklahoma City metro snapshot →.

Schools

Schools vary city by city within this cluster: Nichols Hills and The Village are both zoned to Oklahoma City Public Schools (OKCPS); Warr Acres is zoned to Putnam City Schools; Bethany is split between its own small independent Bethany School District (central Bethany) and Putnam City Schools (the majority of the city). Confirm the specific zoned school for an address via the relevant district's own attendance-boundary maps before making an offer.