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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-MONTEREY-CA · Monterey, CA 29,772 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 Monterey
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Monterey on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Hazleton · lowest
43,379
Hazleton · lowest
43,379 median HH income
18.0% of the leader · rank #1
Dorothy · near
104,102
Dorothy · near
104,102 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #2
Marco Island · near
104,105
Marco Island · near
104,105 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #3
Monterey · this city
104,110
Monterey · this city
104,110 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #4
Red Oak · near
104,125
Red Oak · near
104,125 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #5
Bethel Park · near
104,129
Bethel Park · near
104,129 median HH income
43.1% of the leader · rank #6
Saratoga · highest
241,348
Saratoga · highest
241,348 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 Monterey 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: 29,772.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Monterey - the verdict
Monterey ranks in the 80th percentile for household income and the 29th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
80th
percentile, household income
97th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
29th
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: Monterey, CA
California's Monterey is a small city, with 29,772 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Monterey report a median income of $104,110 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 8.0%. Monterey's housing stock carries a median value of $1,003,300, and the median resident age is 37.1 years. 54.4% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 51.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 13 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Slowing), down 7% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2163.8 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Monterey's yearly average temperature at 56.8°F with 20.4 inches of precipitation per year and 0.3 inches of snowfall.
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. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in California run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Workers in Monterey report an average commute of 14.8 minutes, with 58.3% driving alone and 20.5% working from home. 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 Monterey'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 reported crime to population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist to climate and hazard context to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Monterey, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, 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. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Monterey?
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 58.3%. The reported mean trip to work is 14.8 minutes.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Monterey?
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 2163.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 5% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Is Monterey growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -1,240 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -4.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 13 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Monterey?
Within California, the closest population matches are San Carlos (29,797 residents, $233,333 income); Atascadero (29,735 residents, $88,830 income); San Lorenzo (29,453 residents, $110,495 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Rahway, NJ (29,748 residents); Orchards, WA (29,716 residents); Gloucester, MA (29,862 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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Monterey?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 9.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.0%, 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.
Household income
$104,110
Home value
$1,003,300
Value / income
9.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 56.8°F, with 20.4 inches of precipitation and 0.3 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for California is 88.7 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
56.8°F
Annual precipitation
20.4 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
88.7
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 54.4% 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.
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.
Matched public schools
6
Bachelor's degree+
54.4%
Poverty estimate
8.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Monterey, CA
48/100
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 A
54.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income B+
$104,110
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
382 /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.
Monterey profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 88/100 (A) · 54.4%
Household income: 79/100 (B+) · $104,110
Poverty rate: 48/100 (D) · 8.0%
Violent crime: 23/100 (F) · 382 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Monterey sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Monterey'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 - Monterey highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Monterey, CA (this city): home $1,003,300, crime 2,164/100k
Rahway, NJ : home $362,300, crime 990/100k
Gloucester, MA : home $587,800, crime 830/100k
Hazleton, PA : home $129,000, crime 725/100k
Galesburg, IL : home $89,800, crime 3,478/100k
Atascadero, CA : home $673,400, crime 1,149/100k
Saratoga, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 689/100k
Suisun City, CA : home $551,000, crime 1,867/100k
How does Monterey compare to other US cities?
Here's how Monterey stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income80% higher than other cities
Home value97% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety29% 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, Monterey ranks #269 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 Monterey 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 Monterey near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Monterey ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Monterey only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#465 of 1,338
65th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#239 of 1,343
82nd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#612 of 1,450
57th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#226 of 1,458
84th 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 · 29th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Monterey's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Monterey'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 Monterey's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$1,003,3003rd 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
Monterey's home-value-to-income ratio: 9.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,324 of 15,516
More affordable than 1% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,279 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 9.6×, Monterey sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,324 of 15,516 and #3,279 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
$104,110Monterey, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Monterey, 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 Monterey, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)54.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)51.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
29,772
Median Income
$104,110
Median Home Value
$1,003,300
Median Age
37.1
Poverty Rate
8.0%
Labor force participation
51.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
54.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2163.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
382.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1781.7
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
56.8°F
Annual Precipitation
20.4"
Annual Snowfall
0.3"
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Monterey's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
30,193 residents
2021
29,878 residents
2022
29,612 residents
2023
29,166 residents
2024
28,875 residents
2025
28,953 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
13
housing units authorized
Single-Family
8
detached homes
Multifamily
5
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
14
4
10
$6.2M
2020
14
4
10
$6.2M
2021
18
4
14
$8.0M
2022
6
6
0
$1.6M
2023
14
14
0
$1.8M
2024
13
8
5
$3.5M
Permit volume decreased 7% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
14.8 minutes
Drive Alone
58.3%
Carpool
4.5%
Public Transit
3.2%
Walk
10.1%
Work from Home
20.5%
Other
3.4%
Based on 16,801 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 Monterey. 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 Monterey 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 Monterey sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Monterey 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.