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
SheetAZ-FOUNTAIN-HILLS-AZ · Fountain Hills, AZ 23,768 pop · income 80th 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 Fountain Hills
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fountain Hills on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Bayonet Point · lowest
42,157
Bayonet Point · lowest
42,157 median HH income
29.3% of the leader · rank #1
Coal Valley · near
104,781
Coal Valley · near
104,781 median HH income
72.9% of the leader · rank #2
Rockcreek · near
104,785
Rockcreek · near
104,785 median HH income
72.9% of the leader · rank #3
Fountain Hills · this city
104,788
Fountain Hills · this city
104,788 median HH income
72.9% of the leader · rank #4
Peotone · near
104,792
Peotone · near
104,792 median HH income
72.9% of the leader · rank #5
Malone · near
104,792
Malone · near
104,792 median HH income
72.9% of the leader · rank #6
Chantilly · highest
143,786
Chantilly · highest
143,786 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 Fountain Hills 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: 23,768.
Nationally, Fountain Hills sits in the 80th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
80th
percentile, household income
88th
percentile, home value
64th
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: Fountain Hills, AZ
Fountain Hills is a small city in Arizona, home to 23,768 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Fountain Hills report a median income of $104,788 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 5.3%. Fountain Hills's housing stock carries a median value of $575,200, and the median resident age is 60.8 years. 49.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 49.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 61 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Slowing), down 6% from five years earlier. NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 72.1°F with 10.2 inches of precipitation per year.
Arizona tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Arizona at 100.7 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,419 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Arizona run around $215, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 84.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Fountain Hills'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 climate and hazard context to population change to housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fountain Hills, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Fountain Hills?
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.
The NCES join finds 4 public schools within the city match. 49.5% 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.
What physical conditions frame life in Fountain Hills?
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.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 72.1°F, with 10.2 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Arizona is 84.5 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.
Is Fountain Hills growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -250 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 61 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Which cities make useful reference points for Fountain Hills?
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 Arizona, the closest population matches are Anthem (22,622 residents, $117,846 income); Rio Rico (21,798 residents, $63,692 income); Green Valley (21,581 residents, $58,268 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Belton, TX (23,769 residents); Webster Groves, MO (23,771 residents); Roseburg, OR (23,773 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.
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 Fountain Hills?
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 5.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
5.5×
Home value
$575,200
Household income
$104,788
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Fountain Hills?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.0%. 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. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Drive alone
66.0%
Work from home
28.0%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 10,344 workers age 16+.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Arizona average
B-
City profile score · Fountain Hills, AZ
65/100
4 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.
Bachelor's+ share A-
49.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B+
$104,788
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C+
5.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
100.7 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Fountain Hills profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 83/100 (A-) · 49.5%
Household income: 79/100 (B+) · $104,788
Poverty rate: 63/100 (C+) · 5.3%
Cost of living: 37/100 (F) · 100.7 index
How does Fountain Hills compare to other US cities?
Fountain Hills measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income80% higher than other cities
Home value88% pricier than other cities
Median rent64% 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 Fountain Hills against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Arizona only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Arizona-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Fountain Hills near the bottom of Arizona's cities
Among the 394 Arizona cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fountain Hills ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fountain Hills only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#28 of 333
92nd percentile in Arizona
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 394
0th percentile in Arizona
Median Home Value
#15 of 327
95th percentile in Arizona
Poverty Rate
#250 of 393
36th percentile in Arizona
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#30 of 394
92nd percentile in Arizona
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 Arizona only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
80th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Fountain Hills's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$575,20012th percentilemore affordable than 12% 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
Fountain Hills's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,559 of 15,516
More affordable than 13% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,806 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.5×, Fountain Hills sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,559 of 15,516 and #2,806 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$104,788Fountain Hills, AZ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fountain Hills, AZ median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Fountain Hills, AZ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)49.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
23,768
Median Income
$104,788
Median Home Value
$575,200
Median Age
60.8
Poverty Rate
5.3%
Labor force participation
49.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
49.5%
Climate
Avg Temperature
72.1°F
Annual Precipitation
10.2"
Annual Snowfall
0.0"
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Fountain Hills's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
23,875 residents
2021
23,866 residents
2022
23,785 residents
2023
23,928 residents
2024
23,871 residents
2025
23,625 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
61
housing units authorized
Single-Family
59
detached homes
Multifamily
2
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
55
10
$21.4M
2020
133
56
77
$31.2M
2021
192
181
11
$77.0M
2022
107
107
0
$89.2M
2023
62
57
5
$65.5M
2024
61
59
2
$54.7M
Permit volume decreased 6% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
66.0%
Carpool
3.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.8%
Work from Home
28.0%
Other
1.8%
Based on 10,344 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Arizona statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $215
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Arizona at $215 (electricity about $131 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Arizona statewide averages, not a meter reading for Fountain Hills. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Arizona's BEA cost-of-living index is 100.7 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Fountain Hills is $1,419/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Arizona statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 84.5 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Arizona statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Fountain Hills sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fountain Hills compares to similar-size Arizona 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, 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.