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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-LOST-HILLS-CA · Lost Hills, CA 1,861 pop · income 10th 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 Lost Hills
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lost Hills on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lost Hills · this city · lowest
42,333
Lost Hills · this city · lowest
42,333 median HH income
16.9% of the leader · rank #1
Mayodan · near
42,336
Mayodan · near
42,336 median HH income
16.9% of the leader · rank #2
Walden · near
42,344
Walden · near
42,344 median HH income
16.9% of the leader · rank #3
Ray City · near
42,344
Ray City · near
42,344 median HH income
16.9% of the leader · rank #4
Clinton · near
42,344
Clinton · near
42,344 median HH income
16.9% of the leader · rank #5
Bell Canyon · highest
250,001
Bell Canyon · 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Lost Hills 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: 1,861.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Lost Hills lands in the 10th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
10th
percentile, household income
34th
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: Lost Hills, CA
1,861 people live in Lost Hills, California - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $42,333 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 21.8%. Home values in Lost Hills run a median of $169,900, and the median resident age is 23.1 years. 3.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 60.1% 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: the state registers 110.7 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,053 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts California's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). 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 Lost Hills'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 schools and households to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lost Hills, 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.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Lost Hills?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 21.8%, 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.
What does the education layer cover for Lost Hills?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 3.2% 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 does the journey to work look like in Lost Hills?
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 85.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lost Hills?
Within California, the closest population matches are Yosemite Valley (1,848 residents); Byron (1,876 residents, $92,813 income); Anza (1,842 residents, $53,814 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Navarre, OH (1,861 residents); Livingston, LA (1,860 residents); Memphis, MO (1,860 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.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 21.8% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Lost Hills, CA
7/100
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 F
$42,333
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
21.8%
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.
Bachelor's+ share F
3.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Lost Hills profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 10/100 (F) · $42,333
Poverty rate: 10/100 (F) · 21.8%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 3.2%
How does Lost Hills compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lost Hills stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income10% higher than other cities
Home value34% 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 Lost Hills 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 Lost Hills near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lost Hills ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lost Hills only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,263 of 1,338
6th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#1,289 of 1,343
4th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#165 of 1,450
88th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,379 of 1,458
5th 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
10th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Lost Hills's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$169,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 66% 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
Lost Hills's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#10,746 of 15,516
More affordable than 31% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,395 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.0×, Lost Hills sits in the moderate band:
national rank #10,746 of 15,516 and #8,395 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$42,333Lost Hills, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lost Hills, 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 Lost Hills, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)3.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)21.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,861
Median Income
$42,333
Median Home Value
$169,900
Median Age
23.1
Poverty Rate
21.8%
Labor force participation
60.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
3.2%
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
85.7%
Carpool
11.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.0%
Work from Home
0.0%
Other
1.6%
Based on 673 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 Lost Hills. 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 Lost Hills 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 Lost Hills sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lost Hills 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.