Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetAL-BROOK-HIGHLAND-AL · Brook Highland, AL 8,428 pop · income 68th 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 Brook Highland
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Brook Highland on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Atmore · lowest
33,104
Atmore · lowest
33,104 median HH income
13.2% of the leader · rank #1
Mammoth Lakes · near
87,121
Mammoth Lakes · near
87,121 median HH income
34.8% of the leader · rank #2
Altoona · near
87,123
Altoona · near
87,123 median HH income
34.8% of the leader · rank #3
Brook Highland · this city
87,143
Brook Highland · this city
87,143 median HH income
34.9% of the leader · rank #4
Johnson · near
87,150
Johnson · near
87,150 median HH income
34.9% of the leader · rank #5
Davie · near
87,171
Davie · near
87,171 median HH income
34.9% of the leader · rank #6
Villanova · highest
250,001
Villanova · highest
250,001 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Brook Highland on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 8,428.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Brook Highland lands in the 68th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
68th
percentile, household income
77th
percentile, home value
1st
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Brook Highland, AL
8,428 people live in Brook Highland, Alabama - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Brook Highland brings in $87,143 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 1.6%. Home values in Brook Highland run a median of $401,100, and the median resident age is 36.6 years. About 56.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 78.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Living costs in Alabama run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Alabama scores 88.8 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $936 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $245 across Alabama, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 61.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Brook Highland'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Brook Highland, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Brook Highland?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Brook Highland?
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.
Within Alabama, the closest population matches are Atmore (8,389 residents, $33,104 income); Arab (8,573 residents, $60,985 income); Orange Beach (8,244 residents, $89,034 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Edgewood, KY (8,429 residents); Northfield, NJ (8,427 residents); New Windsor, NY (8,427 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Brook Highland?
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Cost of living A+
88.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Poverty rate A
1.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share A
56.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B-
$87,143
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Brook Highland profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 90/100 (A+) · 88.8 index
Poverty rate: 89/100 (A) · 1.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 89/100 (A) · 56.4%
Household income: 66/100 (B-) · $87,143
How does Brook Highland compare to other US cities?
Where Brook Highland sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income68% higher than other cities
Home value77% pricier than other cities
Median rent1% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Brook Highland against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Alabama only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Alabama-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Brook Highland near the bottom of Alabama's cities
Among the 556 Alabama cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Brook Highland ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Brook Highland only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#56 of 530
89th percentile in Alabama
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 556
0th percentile in Alabama
Median Home Value
#12 of 517
98th percentile in Alabama
Poverty Rate
#495 of 556
11th percentile in Alabama
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#16 of 556
97th percentile in Alabama
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 Alabama only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
68th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Brook Highland's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$401,10023rd percentilemore affordable than 23% 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
Brook Highland's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,186 of 15,516
More affordable than 21% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,305 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.6×, Brook Highland sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,186 of 15,516 and #9,305 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
$87,143Brook Highland, AL median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Brook Highland, AL median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Brook Highland, AL.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)56.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)78.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,428
Median Income
$87,143
Median Home Value
$401,100
Median Age
36.6
Poverty Rate
1.6%
Labor force participation
78.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
56.4%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.5%
Carpool
10.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.5%
Work from Home
14.5%
Other
0.8%
Based on 5,468 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Alabama statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $245
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Alabama at $245 (electricity about $138 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Alabama statewide averages, not a meter reading for Brook Highland. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Alabama's BEA cost-of-living index is 88.8 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Brook Highland is $936/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Alabama statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 61.5 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Alabama statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Brook Highland sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Brook Highland compares to similar-size Alabama 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, 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.