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-LIVE-OAK-CA · Live Oak, CA 16,866 pop · income 82nd 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 Live Oak
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Live Oak on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Milledgeville · lowest
39,669
Milledgeville · lowest
39,669 median HH income
19.9% of the leader · rank #1
Live Oak · this city
107,500
Live Oak · this city
107,500 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #2
Culloden · near
107,500
Culloden · near
107,500 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #3
Flensburg · near
107,500
Flensburg · near
107,500 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #4
Highland Falls · near
107,500
Highland Falls · near
107,500 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #5
Jacobus · near
107,500
Jacobus · near
107,500 median HH income
53.8% of the leader · rank #6
Moraga · highest
199,800
Moraga · highest
199,800 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 Live Oak 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: 16,866.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Live Oak lands in the 82nd percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
82nd
percentile, household income
97th
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: Live Oak, CA
Live Oak is a small town in California, home to 16,866 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $107,500 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 5.9%. Typical homes in Live Oak are valued around $975,900, and the median resident age is 41.3 years. 41.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 63.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 8 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,053 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Live Oak report an average commute of 19.3 minutes, with 63.3% driving alone and 15.1% working from home. 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 Live Oak'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Live Oak, 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.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Live Oak?
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 8 public schools within the city match. 41.5% 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Live Oak?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 63.3%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.3 minutes.
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Which cities make useful reference points for Live Oak?
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.
Within California, the closest population matches are El Segundo (16,863 residents, $149,149 income); Moraga (16,790 residents, $199,800 income); Truckee (16,942 residents, $125,995 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Damascus, MD (16,864 residents); Milledgeville, GA (16,873 residents); Long Beach, MS (16,876 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Live Oak?
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 9.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
C
City profile score · Live Oak, CA
56/100
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-
$107,500
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B+
41.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate C+
5.9%
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).
Live Oak profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 80/100 (A-) · $107,500
Bachelor's+ share: 76/100 (B+) · 41.5%
Poverty rate: 60/100 (C+) · 5.9%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
How does Live Oak compare to other US cities?
Where Live Oak sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income82% higher than other cities
Home value97% 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 Live Oak 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 Live Oak near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Live Oak ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Live Oak only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#428 of 1,338
68th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#251 of 1,343
81st percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#765 of 1,450
47th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#394 of 1,458
73rd 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
82nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Live Oak's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$975,9003rd percentilemore affordable than 3% 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
Live Oak's home-value-to-income ratio: 9.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,254 of 15,516
More affordable than 2% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,252 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 9.1×, Live Oak sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,254 of 15,516 and #3,252 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
$107,500Live Oak, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Live Oak, 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 Live Oak, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)41.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
16,866
Median Income
$107,500
Median Home Value
$975,900
Median Age
41.3
Poverty Rate
5.9%
Labor force participation
63.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
41.5%
Schools
Total Schools
8
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.3 minutes
Drive Alone
63.3%
Carpool
12.2%
Public Transit
1.8%
Walk
4.1%
Work from Home
15.1%
Other
3.5%
Based on 8,833 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 Live Oak. 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 Live Oak 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 Live Oak sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Live Oak 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, 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.