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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-LOS-OSOS-CA · Los Osos, CA 15,048 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 Los Osos
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Los Osos on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Talladega · lowest
46,820
Talladega · lowest
46,820 median HH income
30.2% of the leader · rank #1
Oatfield · near
103,483
Oatfield · near
103,483 median HH income
66.9% of the leader · rank #2
Forest Hill · near
103,500
Forest Hill · near
103,500 median HH income
66.9% of the leader · rank #3
Salado · near
103,500
Salado · near
103,500 median HH income
66.9% of the leader · rank #4
Los Osos · this city
103,504
Los Osos · this city
103,504 median HH income
66.9% of the leader · rank #5
Longport · near
103,523
Longport · near
103,523 median HH income
66.9% of the leader · rank #6
Discovery Bay · highest
154,792
Discovery Bay · highest
154,792 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 Los Osos 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: 15,048.
Nationally, Los Osos sits in the 80th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
80th
percentile, household income
93rd
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: Los Osos, CA
15,048 people live in Los Osos, California - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Los Osos brings in $103,504 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.8%. Typical homes in Los Osos are valued around $728,000, and the median resident age is 47.3 years. About 50.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 58.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 3 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. 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 Los Osos'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 work and mobility to housing and income to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Los Osos, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Los Osos?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 69.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
How far does income reach against housing in Los Osos?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 7.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.8%, 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.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 50.1% 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 Los Osos?
Within California, the closest population matches are Camp Pendleton South (15,011 residents, $66,265 income); Pacific Grove (15,003 residents, $105,568 income); Susanville (14,992 residents, $57,607 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Port Royal, SC (15,047 residents); Tonawanda, NY (15,044 residents); Talladega, AL (15,041 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.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
C+
City profile score · Los Osos, CA
60/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A-
50.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B+
$103,504
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B
3.8%
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).
Los Osos profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 84/100 (A-) · 50.1%
Household income: 78/100 (B+) · $103,504
Poverty rate: 73/100 (B) · 3.8%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
How does Los Osos compare to other US cities?
Where Los Osos sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income80% higher than other cities
Home value93% 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 Los Osos 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 Los Osos near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Los Osos ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Los Osos only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#470 of 1,338
65th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#415 of 1,343
69th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#963 of 1,450
33rd percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#274 of 1,458
81st 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. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Los Osos's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$728,0007th percentilemore affordable than 7% 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
Los Osos's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,681 of 15,516
More affordable than 5% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,114 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 7.0×, Los Osos sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,681 of 15,516 and #3,114 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
$103,504Los Osos, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Los Osos, 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 Los Osos, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)50.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
15,048
Median Income
$103,504
Median Home Value
$728,000
Median Age
47.3
Poverty Rate
3.8%
Labor force participation
58.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
50.1%
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
69.4%
Carpool
8.0%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
4.0%
Work from Home
15.7%
Other
2.6%
Based on 7,117 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 Los Osos. 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 Los Osos 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 Los Osos sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Los Osos 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.