Best for vets

OKC ranks highly for places for vets to live after serving.

Another Veteran’s Day has come and gone, but Oklahoma City is proving itself to be an excellent place for retiring service members. Oklahoma City ranks first and fifth in two separate studies examining the best cities for members of the U.S. armed forces to live after transitioning into civilian careers following active-duty service. The surveys, conducted by Navy Federal Credit Union and Veterans United Home Loans, examined various metrics ranging from quality of life, economic stability and access to veteran health care. “Congratulations to Oklahoma City,” said Brian Parker, spokesman for Navy Federal Credit Union. “It scored the highest in a lot of different metrics. (Oklahoma City) scored really high in terms of high income, unemployment among veterans and the number of veteran owned businesses.” Oklahoma City finished first overall in the Navy Federal Credit Union survey, which was the first year this study was conducted by the credit union. “This is our first year we did this because we found a lot of our veterans were moving and we wanted to find out where they wanted to live,” Parker said. Many of these service members transitioning out of the military are young, working men and women. Nearly 74 percent of the service members to transition out are between ages 17 and 34, according to the National Center for Veterans Analysis & Statistics. About 250,000 transition every year. “You want a good slug of veterans because they tend to be very entrepreneurial, and they tend to start small businesses that tend to grow into mediumand large-size businesses,” said Robert Frick, an economist for the credit union. While Oklahoma City finished fifth in the Veterans United Home Loans study, it scored well in several categories based on affordability and employment rates. The city had the second best percentage of monthly income spent on rent, the fifth best median veteran income adjusted for local cost of living and the sixth best veteran unemployment rate. Rich Anthony is an Army veteran and owns a local Mosquito Joe franchise. He

grew up in Oklahoma City but spent time outside the state after his active-duty military career before ultimately settling back home. As a small-business owner, Anthony said he often feels respect for his service.

“Oklahoma people have been really great,” Anthony said. “People ask what branch you were in, and then when you tell them they say, ‘Awesome.’ ”

Researcher Bert Sperling, however, noticed some areas for potential improvement in the city.

“Oklahoma City has a crime rate that is higher than the metro average, but it’s not out of line for places of the same size, which is an important consideration,” Sperling said. “Further, the state of mass transit needs to grow to compare with larger metros, and in order to reduce traffic congestion in general.”

All things considered, the high overall ranking is one of many things Oklahoma City is doing right, Parker said.

“For Oklahoma City, I think that’s another feather in your cap,” Parker said.