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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-MOUNTAIN-VIEW-CA · Mountain View, CA 2,072 pop · income 66th 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 Mountain View
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Mountain View on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Homosassa · lowest
60,889
Homosassa · lowest
60,889 median HH income
24.4% of the leader · rank #1
Mellott · near
84,792
Mellott · near
84,792 median HH income
33.9% of the leader · rank #2
Mountain View · this city
84,818
Mountain View · this city
84,818 median HH income
33.9% of the leader · rank #3
North Logan · near
84,821
North Logan · near
84,821 median HH income
33.9% of the leader · rank #4
Madison Lake · near
84,833
Madison Lake · near
84,833 median HH income
33.9% of the leader · rank #5
Surf City · near
84,833
Surf City · near
84,833 median HH income
33.9% of the leader · rank #6
Hidden Hills · highest
250,001
Hidden Hills · highest
250,001 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 Mountain View 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: 2,072.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Mountain View - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Mountain View lands in the 66th percentile for household income and the 15th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
66th
percentile, household income
87th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
15th
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: Mountain View, CA
California's Mountain View is a small town, with 2,072 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in Mountain View brings in $84,818 a year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.5%. Typical homes in Mountain View are valued around $545,100, and the median resident age is 47.1 years. Educational attainment runs 33.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 69.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Mountain View's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 3080.0 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: 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 Mountain View report an average commute of 27.9 minutes, with 55.5% driving alone and 16.7% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 88.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Mountain View'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 comparison shortlist to reported crime to work and mobility to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Mountain View, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Mountain View?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.5%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Mountain View?
Within California, the closest population matches are Centerville CDP (Shasta County) (2,065 residents, $117,356 income); Hidden Hills (2,079 residents, $250,000+ income); Montalvin Manor (2,080 residents, $73,333 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Homosassa, FL (2,072 residents); East Missoula, MT (2,072 residents); Upper Nyack, NY (2,072 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Mountain View?
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 3080.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 35% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Mountain View?
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 55.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 27.9 minutes.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Mountain View?
The NCES join finds 14 public schools within the city match. 33.6% 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
14
Bachelor's degree+
33.6%
Poverty estimate
5.5%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 5.5% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Mountain View, CA
46/100
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+
$84,818
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C+
33.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate C+
5.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
307 /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.
Mountain View profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 64/100 (C+) · $84,818
Bachelor's+ share: 64/100 (C+) · 33.6%
Poverty rate: 62/100 (C+) · 5.5%
Violent crime: 32/100 (F) · 307 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Mountain View sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Mountain View'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 - Mountain View highlighted among 23 peers.Read the chart values
Mountain View, CA (this city): home $545,100, crime 3,080/100k
Pine Level, NC : home $228,000, crime 340/100k
Hidden Hills, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 660/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Mountain View compare to other US cities?
Mountain View measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income66% higher than other cities
Home value87% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety15% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just California and the picture shifts: Mountain View ranks #365 of 441 California cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Mountain View 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 Mountain View near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Mountain View ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Mountain View only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#703 of 1,338
47th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#653 of 1,343
51st percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#791 of 1,450
45th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#556 of 1,458
62nd 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
66th percentile nationally for median household income · 15th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Mountain View's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Mountain View'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 Mountain View's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$545,10013th 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
Mountain View's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,400 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,644 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 6.4×, Mountain View sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,400 of 15,516 and #10,644 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$84,818Mountain View, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Mountain View, 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 Mountain View, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)33.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,072
Median Income
$84,818
Median Home Value
$545,100
Median Age
47.1
Poverty Rate
5.5%
Labor force participation
69.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
33.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3080.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
306.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2773.1
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
14
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
27.9 minutes
Drive Alone
55.5%
Carpool
9.3%
Public Transit
18.5%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
16.7%
Based on 1,127 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 Mountain View. 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 Mountain View 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 Mountain View sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Mountain View 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.