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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-LA-MESA-CA · La Mesa, CA 60,835 pop · income 66th 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 La Mesa
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest La Mesa on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Corvallis · lowest
63,807
Corvallis · lowest
63,807 median HH income
42.4% of the leader · rank #1
Port Neches · near
84,335
Port Neches · near
84,335 median HH income
56.0% of the leader · rank #2
La Mesa · this city
84,337
La Mesa · this city
84,337 median HH income
56.0% of the leader · rank #3
Forest · near
84,337
Forest · near
84,337 median HH income
56.0% of the leader · rank #4
Long Hill CDP… · near
84,338
Long Hill CDP… · near
84,338 median HH income
56.0% of the leader · rank #5
Troutdale · near
84,339
Troutdale · near
84,339 median HH income
56.1% of the leader · rank #6
Encinitas · highest
150,471
Encinitas · highest
150,471 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 La Mesa 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: 60,835.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
La Mesa - the verdict
Nationally, La Mesa sits in the 66th percentile for household income and the 37th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
66th
percentile, household income
94th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
37th
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: La Mesa, CA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 60,835 residents in La Mesa, a small city within California. Households in La Mesa report a median income of $84,337 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.2%. Home values in La Mesa run a median of $738,800, and the median resident age is 37.1 years. Educational attainment runs 38.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 62.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 184 residential building permits were authorized in La Mesa (Slowing), down 9% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. La Mesa reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1794.5 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,053 per month statewide. 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 La Mesa'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to reported crime 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 La Mesa, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
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.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in La Mesa?
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 8.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for La Mesa?
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 Pico Rivera (60,821 residents, $86,956 income); Santa Cruz (60,953 residents, $111,427 income); San Rafael (60,604 residents, $109,317 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Vineland, NJ (60,692 residents); Jupiter, FL (61,097 residents); Bristol, CT (61,129 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.
What does the journey to work look like in La Mesa?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 71.4%. 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in La Mesa?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1794.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 21% lower 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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for La Mesa?
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 17 public schools within the city match. 38.4% 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
7.2%
Bachelor's degree+
38.4%
Matched public schools
17
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,186 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.9% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 184 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.
2020 estimate
61,100
2025 estimate
59,914
Period change
-1.9%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 7.2% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · La Mesa, CA
42/100
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 B
38.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C+
$84,337
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C-
7.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
416 /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.
La Mesa profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 72/100 (B) · 38.4%
Household income: 64/100 (C+) · $84,337
Poverty rate: 51/100 (C-) · 7.2%
Violent crime: 21/100 (F) · 416 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where La Mesa sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
La Mesa'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 - La Mesa highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
La Mesa, CA (this city): home $738,800, crime 1,795/100k
Vineland, NJ : home $218,200, crime 3,123/100k
Bristol, CT : home $252,300, crime 1,016/100k
Corvallis, OR : home $480,600, crime 2,695/100k
Meriden, CT : home $221,600, crime 1,817/100k
Pico Rivera, CA : home $621,400, crime 2,485/100k
Santa Cruz, CA : home $1,180,100, crime 3,128/100k
San Rafael, CA : home $1,246,200, crime 3,015/100k
Woodland, CA : home $505,200, crime 1,693/100k
Montebello, CA : home $660,700, crime 3,108/100k
Encinitas, CA : home $1,466,000, crime 1,156/100k
How does La Mesa compare to other US cities?
La Mesa measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income66% higher than other cities
Home value94% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety37% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at California, La Mesa ranks #196 of 441 California cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares La Mesa 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 La Mesa near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, La Mesa ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares La Mesa only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#710 of 1,338
47th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#408 of 1,343
70th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#665 of 1,450
54th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#460 of 1,458
68th 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
66th percentile nationally for median household income · 37th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
La Mesa's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
La Mesa'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 La Mesa's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$738,8006th percentilemore affordable than 6% 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
La Mesa's home-value-to-income ratio: 8.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,206 of 15,516
More affordable than 2% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#709 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 8.8×, La Mesa sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,206 of 15,516 and #709 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$84,337La Mesa, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context La Mesa, 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 La Mesa, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)38.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
60,835
Median Income
$84,337
Median Home Value
$738,800
Median Age
37.1
Poverty Rate
7.2%
Labor force participation
62.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
38.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1794.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
415.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1378.6
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
17
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
La Mesa's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
61,100 residents
2021
60,775 residents
2022
60,679 residents
2023
60,593 residents
2024
60,463 residents
2025
59,914 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
184
housing units authorized
Single-Family
135
detached homes
Multifamily
49
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
202
15
187
$17.7M
2020
268
38
230
$24.3M
2021
142
68
74
$12.0M
2022
89
51
38
$13.2M
2023
120
93
27
$12.8M
2024
184
135
49
$25.8M
Permit volume decreased 9% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
71.4%
Carpool
7.3%
Public Transit
2.4%
Walk
2.1%
Work from Home
14.9%
Other
1.9%
Based on 31,273 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 La Mesa. 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 La Mesa 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 La Mesa sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How La Mesa 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.