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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-EAST-PALO-ALTO-CA · East Palo Alto, CA 29,143 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 East Palo Alto
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest East Palo Alto on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Russellville · lowest
48,708
Russellville · lowest
48,708 median HH income
35.6% of the leader · rank #1
Collinsville · near
104,808
Collinsville · near
104,808 median HH income
76.6% of the leader · rank #2
Huntertown · near
104,808
Huntertown · near
104,808 median HH income
76.6% of the leader · rank #3
Silver Peak · near
104,821
Silver Peak · near
104,821 median HH income
76.6% of the leader · rank #4
Lawai · near
104,826
Lawai · near
104,826 median HH income
76.6% of the leader · rank #5
East Palo Alto · this city
104,832
East Palo Alto · this city
104,832 median HH income
76.6% of the leader · rank #6
Eastern Golet… · highest
136,839
Eastern Golet… · highest
136,839 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 East Palo Alto 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: 29,143.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
East Palo Alto - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, East Palo Alto lands in the 80th percentile for household income and the 22nd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
80th
percentile, household income
98th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
22nd
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: East Palo Alto, CA
California's East Palo Alto is a small city, with 29,143 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $104,832 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 7.0%. Home values in East Palo Alto run a median of $1,124,000, and the median resident age is 34.2 years. 25.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 65.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 0 residential units were authorized in 2024 (No Permits), down 100% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2526.8 in FBI UCR data, near the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
California carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, California scores 110.7 (Well Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,053 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in California run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in East Palo Alto report an average commute of 21.6 minutes, with 66.1% driving alone and 14.3% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 88.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of East Palo Alto'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 housing and income to reported crime to schools and households to population change 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 East Palo Alto, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
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
How far does income reach against housing in East Palo Alto?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 10.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.0%, 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in East Palo Alto?
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 2526.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 11% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the education layer cover for East Palo Alto?
The NCES join finds 7 public schools within the city match. 25.8% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for East Palo Alto?
Within California, the closest population matches are Suisun City (29,205 residents, $97,083 income); Eastern Goleta Valley (29,411 residents, $136,839 income); San Lorenzo (29,453 residents, $110,495 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Statesville, NC (29,161 residents); Mehlville, MO (29,089 residents); Easton, PA (29,079 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.
Population change
Is East Palo Alto growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,087 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.6% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-3.6%
2025 estimate
28,872
2020 estimate
29,959
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in East Palo Alto?
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 66.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 21.6 minutes.
Public transit
2.0%
Work from home
14.3%
Drive alone
66.1%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 15,465 workers age 16+.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · East Palo Alto, CA
41/100
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.
Household income B+
$104,832
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C-
7.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C-
25.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
607 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
East Palo Alto profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 79/100 (B+) · $104,832
Poverty rate: 53/100 (C-) · 7.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 51/100 (C-) · 25.8%
Violent crime: 9/100 (F) · 607 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where East Palo Alto sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
East Palo Alto'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 - East Palo Alto highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
East Palo Alto, CA (this city): home $1,124,000, crime 2,527/100k
Easton, PA : home $169,200, crime 1,387/100k
Sachse, TX : home $366,100, crime 810/100k
Russellville, AR : home $166,500, crime 1,734/100k
Suisun City, CA : home $551,000, crime 1,867/100k
Twentynine Palms, CA : home $238,400, crime 1,194/100k
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 East Palo Alto compare to other US cities?
East Palo Alto 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 value98% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety22% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to California alone, East Palo Alto ranks #313 of 441 California cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares East Palo Alto 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 East Palo Alto near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, East Palo Alto ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares East Palo Alto only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#456 of 1,338
66th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#184 of 1,343
86th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#684 of 1,450
52nd percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#728 of 1,458
50th 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
80th percentile nationally for median household income · 22nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
East Palo Alto's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
East Palo Alto'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 East Palo Alto's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$1,124,0002nd percentilemore affordable than 2% 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
East Palo Alto's home-value-to-income ratio: 10.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,407 of 15,516
More affordable than 1% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,296 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 10.7×, East Palo Alto sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,407 of 15,516 and #3,296 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
$104,832East Palo Alto, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context East Palo Alto, 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 East Palo Alto, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)25.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)65.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
29,143
Median Income
$104,832
Median Home Value
$1,124,000
Median Age
34.2
Poverty Rate
7.0%
Labor force participation
65.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
25.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2526.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
607.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1919.5
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.
Schools
Total Schools
7
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
East Palo Alto's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
29,959 residents
2021
28,935 residents
2022
28,540 residents
2023
28,691 residents
2024
28,973 residents
2025
28,872 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
6
6
0
$0.6M
2020
4
4
0
$0.4M
2021
17
17
0
$3.3M
2022
2
0
2
$0.7M
2023
132
7
125
$22.6M
2024
0
0
0
-
Permit volume decreased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
21.6 minutes
Drive Alone
66.1%
Carpool
11.3%
Public Transit
2.0%
Walk
1.9%
Work from Home
14.3%
Other
4.4%
Based on 15,465 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 East Palo Alto. 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 East Palo Alto 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 East Palo Alto sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How East Palo Alto 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, FBI UCR, 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.