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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-PALM-DESERT-CA · Palm Desert, CA 51,551 pop · income 61st 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 Palm Desert
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Palm Desert on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Harrisonburg · lowest
59,752
Harrisonburg · lowest
59,752 median HH income
42.8% of the leader · rank #1
Inwood · near
79,500
Inwood · near
79,500 median HH income
56.9% of the leader · rank #2
Ferryville · near
79,500
Ferryville · near
79,500 median HH income
56.9% of the leader · rank #3
Palm Desert · this city
79,508
Palm Desert · this city
79,508 median HH income
56.9% of the leader · rank #4
Gothenburg · near
79,519
Gothenburg · near
79,519 median HH income
56.9% of the leader · rank #5
Middleborough… · near
79,520
Middleborough… · near
79,520 median HH income
56.9% of the leader · rank #6
Levittown · highest
139,696
Levittown · highest
139,696 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 Palm Desert 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: 51,551.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Palm Desert - the verdict
Nationally, Palm Desert sits in the 61st percentile for household income and the 14th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
61st
percentile, household income
84th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
14th
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: Palm Desert, CA
California's Palm Desert is a small city, with 51,551 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Palm Desert households earn a median of $79,508 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.7%. Typical homes in Palm Desert are valued around $491,600, and the median resident age is 56.7 years. About 39.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 46.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 109 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 73% from five years earlier. Palm Desert's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 3151.0 incidents per 100,000 residents, above the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
California carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts California at 110.7 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Above Average). 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. Commute times here average 19.3 minutes, with 69.6% driving alone and 14.1% working from home, per Census ACS commuting 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 Palm Desert'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to reported crime to schools and households to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Palm Desert, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
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. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Palm Desert?
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 home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Palm Desert?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 69.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.3 minutes.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Palm Desert?
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.
Within California, the closest population matches are Lincoln (51,629 residents, $108,108 income); Glendora (51,350 residents, $111,915 income); Aliso Viejo (51,320 residents, $137,970 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Levittown, NY (51,557 residents); Dunwoody, GA (51,563 residents); Harrisonburg, VA (51,492 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Palm Desert?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 3151.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 38% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
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 Palm Desert?
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.
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 39.9% 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.
Poverty estimate
7.7%
Bachelor's degree+
39.9%
Matched public schools
6
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Palm Desert growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2,066 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +4.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 109 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
2020 estimate
51,193
2025 estimate
53,259
Period change
+4.0%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 7.7% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
D
City profile score · Palm Desert, CA
43/100
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 B+
39.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income C
$79,508
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate D
7.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
324 /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.
Palm Desert profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 75/100 (B+) · 39.9%
Household income: 59/100 (C) · $79,508
Poverty rate: 49/100 (D) · 7.7%
Violent crime: 30/100 (F) · 324 /100k
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Where Palm Desert sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Palm Desert'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 - Palm Desert highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
Palm Desert, CA (this city): home $491,600, crime 3,151/100k
Dunwoody, GA : home $579,400, crime 3,497/100k
Harrisonburg, VA : home $278,200, crime 1,960/100k
Mooresville, NC : home $348,500, crime 2,369/100k
Little Elm, TX : home $390,300, crime 557/100k
West New York, NJ : home $410,200, crime 1,760/100k
Lincoln, CA : home $628,500, crime 657/100k
Glendora, CA : home $820,800, crime 2,168/100k
Aliso Viejo, CA : home $863,800, crime 1,003/100k
Watsonville, CA : home $657,700, crime 1,581/100k
Cathedral City, CA : home $420,700, crime 1,504/100k
Delano, CA : home $270,300, crime 1,456/100k
How does Palm Desert compare to other US cities?
Here's how Palm Desert stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income61% higher than other cities
Home value84% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety14% 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: Palm Desert ranks #375 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 Palm Desert 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 Palm Desert near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Palm Desert ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Palm Desert only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#782 of 1,338
42nd percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#707 of 1,343
47th percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#632 of 1,450
56th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#426 of 1,458
71st 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
61st percentile nationally for median household income · 14th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Palm Desert's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Palm Desert'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 Palm Desert's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$491,60016th percentilemore affordable than 16% 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
Palm Desert's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,244 of 15,516
More affordable than 8% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#594 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 6.2×, Palm Desert sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,244 of 15,516 and #594 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$79,508Palm Desert, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Palm Desert, 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 Palm Desert, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)39.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)46.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
51,551
Median Income
$79,508
Median Home Value
$491,600
Median Age
56.7
Poverty Rate
7.7%
Labor force participation
46.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
39.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3151.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
323.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2827.3
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
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Palm Desert's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
51,193 residents
2021
51,536 residents
2022
51,780 residents
2023
52,284 residents
2024
52,957 residents
2025
53,259 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
109
housing units authorized
Single-Family
109
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
398
88
310
$99.7M
2020
49
49
0
$30.7M
2021
157
142
15
$81.6M
2022
412
403
9
$140.2M
2023
865
185
680
$195.9M
2024
109
109
0
$51.4M
Permit volume decreased 73% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.3 minutes
Drive Alone
69.6%
Carpool
12.8%
Public Transit
0.7%
Walk
1.1%
Work from Home
14.1%
Other
1.7%
Based on 20,453 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 Palm Desert. 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 Palm Desert 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 Palm Desert sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Palm Desert 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.