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Place dossier plate
SheetAK-PALMER-AK · Palmer, AK 6,141 pop · income 50th pct
Instrument codes from this place’s ACS population and household income, BEA state COL, FBI safety, national income percentile, photo-finish peer city, home-value band, and matched Census-tract book - not a moving recommendation.
Income neighbourhood around Palmer
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Palmer on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jonesboro · lowest
50,060
Jonesboro · lowest
50,060 median HH income
26.6% of the leader · rank #1
Palmer · this city
70,550
Palmer · this city
70,550 median HH income
37.5% of the leader · rank #2
Houston · near
70,550
Houston · near
70,550 median HH income
37.5% of the leader · rank #3
Avoca · near
70,552
Avoca · near
70,552 median HH income
37.5% of the leader · rank #4
Brooker · near
70,556
Brooker · near
70,556 median HH income
37.5% of the leader · rank #5
Ogden · near
70,556
Ogden · near
70,556 median HH income
37.5% of the leader · rank #6
Churchville · highest
188,146
Churchville · highest
188,146 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #7
What this shows Neighbourhood peers only - not a full nationwide city board. Open a near peer when the gap is small; open the poles when the spread is wide.
Compare beyond this state
Nationwide peers by population, income, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Palmer on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. Link sets are deduped so each column is a distinct comparison path, not a forecast that peers share a labor market or climate.
Similar population
Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS population. This city: 6,141.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Palmer - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Palmer lands in the 50th percentile for household income and the 60th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
50th
percentile, household income
61st
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
60th
percentile, safety
📝 How we sourced this
Population, income, and housing-cost figures come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-year estimates (B-series tables). Crime data uses FBI UCR; climate uses NOAA Climate Normals; school counts come from NCES Common Core of Data; permits use the Census Building Permits Survey (BPS). See our methodology page for the full ETL pipeline and OMB / FIPS join keys.
Data Snapshot: Palmer, AK
Alaska's Palmer is a small town, with 6,141 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Palmer brings in $70,550 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.2%. Home values in Palmer run a median of $275,900, and the median resident age is 32.9 years. About 23.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 54.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 16 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 75% from five years earlier. Palmer reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1102.1 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 37.1°F with 12.6 inches of precipitation per year.
Alaska tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Alaska scores 102.4 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,467 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Alaska run around $271, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 35.2 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Palmer's data
How this reading path is ordered
This is not a composite city score. It is a city-specific route through the available public records, ordered for this profile so the page starts with questions the joined data can actually answer. The route here runs from schools and households to work and mobility to population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist to reported crime to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Palmer, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Palmer?
The NCES join finds 14 public schools within the city match. 23.8% of adults age 25+ hold a bachelor's degree or higher in the ACS estimate. These measures answer different questions: the school count describes local institutions, while adult attainment describes residents and cannot be used as a school-quality rating.
The city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
What does the journey to work look like in Palmer?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. No single mode completely explains the work trip here. The mix is more useful than a one-number commute grade, especially when comparing places where transit, walking, and remote work divide the non-driving share differently.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +769 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +12.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 16 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Palmer?
Within Alaska, the closest population matches are South Lakes (6,132 residents, $89,632 income); Bethel (6,313 residents, $109,718 income); Chena Ridge (5,927 residents, $140,722 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Yaphank, NY (6,140 residents); Churchville, PA (6,139 residents); Snyderville, UT (6,143 residents). A third, income-matched reference set of 6 out-of-state cities sits in the income neighbourhood chart near the Place Dossier plate. These are mechanical peer sets, not claims that the places share a labor market, climate, culture, or metro context.
Use the in-state set to hold state policy and broad price conditions more nearly constant. Use the nationwide size set to ask whether cities with a similar resident count produce different housing, income, or commute outcomes. The income set is a third lens, deliberately separate from population matching. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
These joined records add useful context, but they do not need another full-size panel. Each remains a separate measure with its own geography and source boundary.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Palmer?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
This is a citywide price-to-income reference, not a mortgage-affordability test; it does not include interest rates, taxes, insurance, household size, or an individual buyer's down payment. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Household income
$70,550
Home value
$275,900
Value / income
3.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Palmer?
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1102.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 52% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
949.0
Violent rate
153.1
Total reported rate
1102.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 37.1°F, with 12.6 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Alaska is 35.2 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
37.1°F
Annual precipitation
12.6 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
35.2
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Above median income · poverty 8.2% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
102.4 (US=100)
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Alaska average
D
City profile score · Palmer, AK
46/100
5 published dimensions · ACS/FBI 2023
Comparative score against U.S. cities with population of 1,000 or more on Census ACS medians
(income, poverty, bachelor's share, cost of living) and FBI UCR violent-crime rates when
published. Higher means a stronger standing on those published figures, not a livability
rating, not a recommendation to move, buy, or pick a "best" city. Missing inputs drop out
and redistribute weight.
How it is calculated.
Violent crime C
153 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income C-
$70,550
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
23.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living F
102.4 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Palmer profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 58/100 (C) · 153 /100k
Household income: 50/100 (C-) · $70,550
Poverty rate: 47/100 (D) · 8.2%
Bachelor's+ share: 45/100 (D) · 23.8%
Cost of living: 29/100 (F) · 102.4 index
Where Palmer sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Palmer's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Palmer highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Palmer, AK (this city): home $275,900, crime 1,102/100k
Plaquemine, LA : home $181,600, crime 4,506/100k
Bethel, AK : home $354,400, crime 3,901/100k
Homer, AK : home $363,700, crime 1,465/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Palmer compare to other US cities?
Where Palmer sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income50% higher than other cities
Home value61% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety60% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Alaska and the picture shifts: Palmer ranks #11 of 23 Alaska cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Palmer against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Alaska only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Alaska-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Palmer near the bottom of Alaska's cities
Among the 228 Alaska cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Palmer ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Palmer only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#96 of 215
55th percentile in Alaska
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 228
0th percentile in Alaska
Median Home Value
#69 of 200
66th percentile in Alaska
Poverty Rate
#128 of 225
43rd percentile in Alaska
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#76 of 228
66th percentile in Alaska
How in-state ranks are ordered
Ranked by raw value (highest first); a higher rank is not automatically "better" for every measure, see each metric's own context above. This is a comparison within Alaska only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
50th percentile nationally for median household income · 60th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Palmer's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Palmer's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Palmer's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$275,90039th percentilemore affordable than 39% of 15,600 US cities
Show national distribution
Each bar is a $25K-wide band; taller bars hold more US cities. The dashed line + filled bar mark this entry. Hover or tap any bar for its full count, share, and where it sits relative to this entry.
Source U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year Estimates · 2023
Palmer's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,430 of 15,516
More affordable than 33% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,187 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.9×, Palmer sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,430 of 15,516 and #8,187 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
How this ratio is calculated
Ratio = Census ACS 2023 median home value ÷ median household income for cities with both fields and population ≥ 1,000.
Rank 1 = lowest ratio (most compact). Bands match the fleet affordability thresholds used on guides (<3.0 / 3.0–5.0 / >5.0).
This is not a mortgage payment estimate and does not include rates, taxes, insurance, or down payment.
Income distribution context
$70,550Palmer, AK median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Palmer, AK median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Palmer, AK.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)23.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,141
Median Income
$70,550
Median Home Value
$275,900
Median Age
32.9
Poverty Rate
8.2%
Labor force participation
54.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
23.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1102.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
153.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
949.0
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Climate
Avg Temperature
37.1°F
Annual Precipitation
12.6"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
14
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Palmer's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
5,941 residents
2021
6,130 residents
2022
6,267 residents
2023
6,370 residents
2024
6,603 residents
2025
6,710 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
16
housing units authorized
Single-Family
16
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
65
13
52
$9.6M
2020
17
17
0
$3.4M
2021
16
13
3
$3.3M
2022
12
12
0
$2.2M
2023
61
40
21
$10.2M
2024
16
16
0
$4.1M
Permit volume decreased 75% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.7%
Carpool
10.1%
Public Transit
0.4%
Walk
3.7%
Work from Home
6.2%
Other
2.9%
Based on 2,724 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Alaska statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $271
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Alaska at $271 (electricity about $131 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Alaska statewide averages, not a meter reading for Palmer. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Alaska's BEA cost-of-living index is 102.4 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Palmer is $1,467/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Alaska statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 35.2 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Alaska statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Palmer sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Palmer compares to similar-size Alaska cities
Same-state peer method
Closest same-state population matches, not geographic neighbors. Population + median household income come from Census Bureau ACS 5-year B01001 and B19013.
Source: U.S. Census Bureau ACS 5-Year 2023, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES CCD, Census BPS 2024, Census ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.