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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-FAIRFAX-CA · Fairfax, CA 1,654 pop · income 20th 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 Fairfax
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Fairfax on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
McClellan Park · lowest
24,866
McClellan Park · lowest
24,866 median HH income
14.6% of the leader · rank #1
Gonzales · near
50,324
Gonzales · near
50,324 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #2
Fairfax · this city
50,326
Fairfax · this city
50,326 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #3
McDade · near
50,329
McDade · near
50,329 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #4
Camillus · near
50,333
Camillus · near
50,333 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #5
Big Stone City · near
50,333
Big Stone City · near
50,333 median HH income
29.5% of the leader · rank #6
Middletown · highest
170,605
Middletown · highest
170,605 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 Fairfax 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: 1,654.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Fairfax - the verdict
Fairfax ranks in the 20th percentile for household income and the 61st percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
20th
percentile, household income
61st
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
61st
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: Fairfax, CA
1,654 people live in Fairfax, California - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $50,326 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 16.3%. Fairfax's housing stock carries a median value of $277,800, and the median resident age is 32.1 years. 6.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 49.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Fairfax reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1073.1 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
California carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts California at 110.7 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Above Average). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,053 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 88.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Fairfax'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 reported crime to comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Fairfax, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Fairfax?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 6.2% 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 can the FBI record say about safety in Fairfax?
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 1073.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 53% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Fairfax?
Within California, the closest population matches are Seeley (1,654 residents, $56,917 income); Sunnyside-Tahoe (1,658 residents, $121,154 income); Terra Bella (1,658 residents, $62,073 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Moundridge, KS (1,654 residents); Tawas City, MI (1,654 residents); Cedar Glen West, NJ (1,654 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Fairfax?
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 16.3%, 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.
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 Fairfax?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 97.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
0.0%
Drive alone
97.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 572 workers age 16+.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Fairfax, CA
24/100
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 B-
109 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$50,326
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
16.3%
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.
Bachelor's+ share F
6.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Fairfax profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 69/100 (B-) · 109 /100k
Household income: 21/100 (F) · $50,326
Poverty rate: 20/100 (F) · 16.3%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 6.2%
Where Fairfax sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Fairfax'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 - Fairfax highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Fairfax, CA (this city): home $277,800, crime 1,073/100k
Tawas City, MI : home $124,000, crime 1,353/100k
Hartshorne, OK : home $94,400, crime 2,235/100k
Uniontown, AL : home $69,300, crime 416/100k
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 Fairfax compare to other US cities?
Where Fairfax sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income20% higher than other cities
Home value61% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety61% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just California and the picture shifts: Fairfax ranks #73 of 441 California cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Fairfax 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 Fairfax near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Fairfax ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Fairfax only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,183 of 1,338
12th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#1,107 of 1,343
18th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#259 of 1,450
82nd percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,308 of 1,458
10th 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
20th percentile nationally for median household income · 61st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Fairfax's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Fairfax'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 Fairfax's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$277,80039th 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
Fairfax's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,604 of 15,516
More affordable than 12% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,172 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.5×, Fairfax sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,604 of 15,516 and #10,172 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$50,326Fairfax, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Fairfax, 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 Fairfax, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)6.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)49.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,654
Median Income
$50,326
Median Home Value
$277,800
Median Age
32.1
Poverty Rate
16.3%
Labor force participation
49.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
6.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1073.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
108.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
964.4
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
3
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
97.4%
Carpool
2.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
0.0%
Based on 572 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 Fairfax. 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 Fairfax 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 Fairfax sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Fairfax 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.