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
SheetCA-GRASS-VALLEY-CA · Grass Valley, CA 14,126 pop · income 18th pct · 26 tracts
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 Grass Valley
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Grass Valley on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Grass Valley · this city · lowest
48,850
Grass Valley · this city · lowest
48,850 median HH income
19.5% of the leader · rank #1
Three Rivers · near
48,852
Three Rivers · near
48,852 median HH income
19.5% of the leader · rank #2
Benson · near
48,854
Benson · near
48,854 median HH income
19.5% of the leader · rank #3
Sedan · near
48,854
Sedan · near
48,854 median HH income
19.5% of the leader · rank #4
Vale · near
48,854
Vale · near
48,854 median HH income
19.5% of the leader · rank #5
Alamo · highest
250,001
Alamo · highest
250,001 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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 Grass Valley 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: 14,126.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Grass Valley - the verdict
Grass Valley ranks in the 18th percentile for household income and the 20th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
18th
percentile, household income
82nd
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
20th
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: Grass Valley, CA
California's Grass Valley is a small town, with 14,126 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Grass Valley report a median income of $48,850 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 19.4%. Home values in Grass Valley run a median of $458,400, and the median resident age is 49.6 years. About 32.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 47.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 7 residential building permits were authorized in Grass Valley (Construction Slowdown), down 87% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 2686.6 in FBI UCR data, near the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 56.1°F with 53.2 inches of precipitation per year and 8.6 inches of snowfall.
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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,053 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in California run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Grass Valley'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 reported crime to work and mobility to within-city variation to comparison shortlist to schools and households to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Grass Valley, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Grass Valley?
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 56.1°F, with 53.2 inches of precipitation and 8.6 inches of annual snowfall. 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Grass Valley?
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 9.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 19.4%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What can 26 Census tracts reveal inside Grass Valley?
PlainCities matches 26 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
Which cities make useful reference points for Grass Valley?
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.
Within California, the closest population matches are McFarland (14,138 residents, $51,801 income); Mill Valley (14,064 residents, $208,466 income); East Rancho Dominguez (14,219 residents, $67,645 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Dunmore, PA (14,123 residents); Jericho, NY (14,117 residents); Lone Tree, CO (14,136 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Grass Valley?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2686.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 18% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
2686.6
Violent rate
540.2
Property rate
2146.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Grass Valley?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 71.9%. 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.
Drive alone
71.9%
Work from home
12.8%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 5,542 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for Grass Valley?
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 20 public schools within the city match. 32.0% 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.
Poverty estimate
19.4%
Bachelor's degree+
32.0%
Matched public schools
20
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Grass Valley growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -47 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 7 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
2020 estimate
14,082
2025 estimate
14,035
Period change
-0.3%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Grass Valley, CA
21/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share C+
32.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$48,850
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
19.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
540 /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.
Grass Valley profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 61/100 (C+) · 32.0%
Household income: 19/100 (F) · $48,850
Poverty rate: 14/100 (F) · 19.4%
Violent crime: 13/100 (F) · 540 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Grass Valley sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Grass Valley'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 - Grass Valley highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Grass Valley, CA (this city): home $458,400, crime 2,687/100k
Lone Tree, CO : home $819,800, crime 11,414/100k
Fergus Falls, MN : home $173,300, crime 2,569/100k
East Wenatchee, WA : home $414,000, crime 2,235/100k
Braselton, GA : home $425,900, crime 788/100k
McFarland, CA : home $245,500, crime 1,199/100k
Mill Valley, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 1,098/100k
Hawaiian Gardens, CA : home $509,600, crime 2,839/100k
How does Grass Valley compare to other US cities?
Here's how Grass Valley stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income18% higher than other cities
Home value82% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety20% 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, Grass Valley ranks #337 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 Grass Valley 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 Grass Valley near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Grass Valley ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Grass Valley only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,201 of 1,338
10th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#760 of 1,343
43rd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#196 of 1,450
86th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#581 of 1,458
60th 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
18th percentile nationally for median household income · 20th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Grass Valley's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Grass Valley'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 Grass Valley's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$458,40018th percentilemore affordable than 18% 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
Grass Valley's home-value-to-income ratio: 9.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,290 of 15,516
More affordable than 1% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,265 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 9.4×, Grass Valley sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,290 of 15,516 and #3,265 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
$48,850Grass Valley, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Grass Valley, 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 Grass Valley, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)32.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)19.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
14,126
Median Income
$48,850
Median Home Value
$458,400
Median Age
49.6
Poverty Rate
19.4%
Labor force participation
47.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
32.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2686.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
540.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2146.4
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
56.1°F
Annual Precipitation
53.2"
Annual Snowfall
8.6"
Schools
Total Schools
20
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Grass Valley's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
14,082 residents
2021
14,232 residents
2022
14,102 residents
2023
14,090 residents
2024
14,093 residents
2025
14,035 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
7
housing units authorized
Single-Family
7
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
52
24
28
$7.3M
2020
32
32
0
$4.7M
2021
18
18
0
$5.0M
2022
13
13
0
$4.3M
2023
4
4
0
$1.0M
2024
7
7
0
$2.3M
Permit volume decreased 87% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
71.9%
Carpool
10.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.6%
Work from Home
12.8%
Other
1.3%
Based on 5,542 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 Grass Valley. 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 Grass Valley 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 Grass Valley sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Grass Valley 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, 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.