Wow, Poor Oklahoma took quite a beating
Yeah I live here, not the greatest of all places, but it seems to be home. If my whole family and career (as well as my wife's family) werent here we would probably move. I was born here and have never lived anywhere else so probably familiarity is what makes it tolerable.
To answer your specific questions:
What areas should I avoid?
Quite a few if you get more serious I would be more than willing to help.
Whats the downtown area like?
Suckville. There is an entertainment area that show some promise, but it could very well be abandon in 3 years.
How much would it cost to buy a house in a nice area?
Oklahoma City's only saving grace. Housing is incredibly cheap for what you can buy. Nice house in a decent heighborhood can be found for 100k
Really nice house, good schools and neighbors (2500 sq. ft, 3 car garage w/pool) for 200k
What's there to do on weekends?
Lots of college sports, lots of drinking, Mow your yard. If you want to have fun Dallas is 3 hours drive away. Stuff to do seems to be lacking, but at my advanced age sometimes staying home is just as fun as anything.
What are the job prospects?
Poor. Dell is moving here (sales center), but currently have 10x the number of apps as jobs available. Tons of CSR call centers SprintPCS, Hartford, AOL etc.
What are the winters like?
Relatively mild, 5 days of snow or ice tops, lots of mild days during winter. Spring storms can be rough, Summer is hot as crap, fall is nice. Windy as hell about 90% of the time.....OK 80% of the time.
Tornados? Lived here 39 years, have never even seen one except on TV. They are a lot like earthquakes and hurricanes nobody thinks about them until one happens.
Lot slower pace of life. I think we have a low crime rate, at least me personally, I have had a low crime rate. I think our house was broken into about 10 years ago, that is about the worst.
Feel free to PM me if you have any more questions.
EDIT
DonVito may have a point, we do seem to have quite a few more mentally unstable people here. Of course maybe that is why I fit in so well here.
