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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-ALPINE-CA · Alpine, CA 15,470 pop · income 84th 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 Alpine
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Alpine on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Homosassa Spr… · lowest
48,489
Homosassa Spr… · lowest
48,489 median HH income
20.9% of the leader · rank #1
Pitkin · near
111,715
Pitkin · near
111,715 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #2
Somerset · near
111,720
Somerset · near
111,720 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #3
Alpine · this city
111,723
Alpine · this city
111,723 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #4
New Windsor · near
111,731
New Windsor · near
111,731 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #5
East Pepperell · near
111,736
East Pepperell · near
111,736 median HH income
48.1% of the leader · rank #6
Coto de Caza · highest
232,470
Coto de Caza · highest
232,470 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 Alpine 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: 15,470.
Nationally, Alpine sits in the 84th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
84th
percentile, household income
95th
percentile, home value
88th
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: Alpine, CA
Alpine is a small town in California, home to 15,470 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Alpine households earn a median of $111,723 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 7.8%. Alpine's housing stock carries a median value of $810,000, and the median resident age is 42.8 years. Educational attainment runs 32.5% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 55.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
NOAA puts Alpine's yearly average temperature at 62.6°F with 16.1 inches of precipitation per year.
California carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 110.7 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,053 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 88.7 out of 100 (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Alpine'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 climate and hazard context to housing and income to comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Alpine, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What physical conditions frame life in Alpine?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 62.6°F, with 16.1 inches of precipitation. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for California is 88.7 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Alpine?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 7.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.8%, 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. 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Alpine?
Within California, the closest population matches are Walnut Park (15,446 residents, $79,205 income); La Palma (15,375 residents, $115,833 income); Coto de Caza (15,363 residents, $232,470 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Homosassa Springs, FL (15,465 residents); Greenwood, CO (15,485 residents); Buda, TX (15,487 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 NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 32.5% 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.
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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Alpine?
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 81.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.7%
Work from home
10.2%
Drive alone
81.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 6,739 workers age 16+.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
C-
City profile score · Alpine, CA
51/100
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.
Household income A-
$111,723
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C+
32.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
7.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
110.7 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).
Alpine profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 82/100 (A-) · $111,723
Bachelor's+ share: 62/100 (C+) · 32.5%
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 7.8%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
How does Alpine compare to other US cities?
Where Alpine sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income84% higher than other cities
Home value95% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% 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 Alpine against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to California only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
California-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Alpine near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Alpine ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Alpine only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#388 of 1,338
71st percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#362 of 1,343
73rd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#624 of 1,450
56th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#570 of 1,458
61st percentile in California
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 California only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
84th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Alpine's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$810,0005th percentilemore affordable than 5% 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
Alpine's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,790 of 15,516
More affordable than 5% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,149 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 7.3×, Alpine sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,790 of 15,516 and #3,149 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
$111,723Alpine, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Alpine, CA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Alpine, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)32.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)55.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
15,470
Median Income
$111,723
Median Home Value
$810,000
Median Age
42.8
Poverty Rate
7.8%
Labor force participation
55.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
32.5%
Climate
Avg Temperature
62.6°F
Annual Precipitation
16.1"
Annual Snowfall
N/A
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
81.1%
Carpool
6.2%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
0.8%
Work from Home
10.2%
Other
1.0%
Based on 6,739 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
California statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $275
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across California at $275 (electricity about $150 , water and sewer about $70 ).
These are California statewide averages, not a meter reading for Alpine. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
California's BEA cost-of-living index is 110.7 (Well Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Alpine is $2,053/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to California statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 88.7 / 100 (Very High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a California statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Alpine sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Alpine compares to similar-size California 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.