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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-MONTCLAIR-CA · Montclair, CA 37,809 pop · income 58th 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 Montclair
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Montclair on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Winchester · lowest
49,190
Winchester · lowest
49,190 median HH income
31.4% of the leader · rank #1
Lincoln · near
76,330
Lincoln · near
76,330 median HH income
48.7% of the leader · rank #2
Northwood · near
76,332
Northwood · near
76,332 median HH income
48.7% of the leader · rank #3
North Hartland · near
76,333
North Hartland · near
76,333 median HH income
48.7% of the leader · rank #4
Montclair · this city
76,338
Montclair · this city
76,338 median HH income
48.7% of the leader · rank #5
Fruitvale · near
76,339
Fruitvale · near
76,339 median HH income
48.7% of the leader · rank #6
Pacifica · highest
156,819
Pacifica · highest
156,819 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 Montclair 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: 37,809.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Montclair - the verdict
Montclair ranks in the 58th percentile for household income and the 6th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
58th
percentile, household income
87th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
6th
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: Montclair, CA
37,809 people live in Montclair, California - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $76,338 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 13.7%. Home values in Montclair run a median of $549,600, and the median resident age is 33.5 years. About 17.8% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 56.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 819 residential units were authorized in 2024 (High Activity). Montclair's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 4289.8 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, above the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Montclair'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 housing and income to work and mobility to population change to comparison shortlist to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Montclair, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits.
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.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Montclair?
The NCES join finds 11 public schools within the city match. 17.8% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Montclair?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 7.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 13.7%, 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 journey to work look like in Montclair?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.4%. 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 Montclair?
Within California, the closest population matches are Adelanto (38,010 residents, $68,419 income); Monrovia (37,553 residents, $97,083 income); Pacifica (37,527 residents, $156,819 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Hilton Head Island, SC (37,805 residents); Tupelo, MS (37,825 residents); Longview, WA (37,836 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
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.
Population change
Is Montclair growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -372 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 819 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-1.0%
2025 estimate
37,563
2020 estimate
37,935
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Montclair?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 4289.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 88% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
3645.7
Violent rate
644.1
Total reported rate
4289.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 13.7% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Montclair, CA
26/100
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.
Household income C
$76,338
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
17.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
13.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
644 /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.
Montclair profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 56/100 (C) · $76,338
Bachelor's+ share: 28/100 (F) · 17.8%
Poverty rate: 25/100 (F) · 13.7%
Violent crime: 8/100 (F) · 644 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Montclair sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Montclair'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 - Montclair highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Montclair, CA (this city): home $549,600, crime 4,290/100k
Tupelo, MS : home $201,300, crime 4,168/100k
Longview, WA : home $339,000, crime 3,392/100k
Rome, GA : home $214,700, crime 3,976/100k
Adelanto, CA : home $318,300, crime 1,560/100k
Monrovia, CA : home $891,700, crime 2,612/100k
Pacifica, CA : home $1,211,700, crime 1,451/100k
La Puente, CA : home $593,200, crime 1,700/100k
La Quinta, CA : home $612,800, crime 2,122/100k
How does Montclair compare to other US cities?
Here's how Montclair stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income58% higher than other cities
Home value87% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety6% 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, Montclair ranks #418 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 Montclair 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 Montclair near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Montclair ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Montclair only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#836 of 1,338
38th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#645 of 1,343
52nd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#336 of 1,450
76th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#956 of 1,458
34th 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
58th percentile nationally for median household income · 6th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Montclair's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Montclair'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 Montclair's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$549,60013th percentilemore affordable than 13% 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
Montclair's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,766 of 15,516
More affordable than 5% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,139 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 7.2×, Montclair sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,766 of 15,516 and #3,139 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
$76,338Montclair, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Montclair, 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 Montclair, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)17.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)13.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)56.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
37,809
Median Income
$76,338
Median Home Value
$549,600
Median Age
33.5
Poverty Rate
13.7%
Labor force participation
56.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
17.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
4289.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
644.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3645.7
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
11
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Montclair's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
37,935 residents
2021
37,953 residents
2022
37,808 residents
2023
37,754 residents
2024
37,747 residents
2025
37,563 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ High Activity
Total Permits (2024)
819
housing units authorized
Single-Family
28
detached homes
Multifamily
791
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
21.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
6
6
0
$0.6M
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
9
9
0
$0.7M
2024
819
28
791
$148.6M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.4%
Carpool
15.0%
Public Transit
1.1%
Walk
1.8%
Work from Home
5.8%
Other
1.9%
Based on 16,253 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 Montclair. 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 Montclair 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 Montclair sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Montclair 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.