Side-by-side metrics and state or size-class ranks use the same Census and FBI fields shown on this profile. Results stay in the URL so you can bookmark or share them.
Place dossier plate
SheetCA-SKY-VALLEY-CA · Sky Valley, CA 2,437 pop · income 16th 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 Sky Valley
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sky Valley on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Claxton · lowest
35,313
Claxton · lowest
35,313 median HH income
14.1% of the leader · rank #1
Autaugaville · near
47,652
Autaugaville · near
47,652 median HH income
19.1% of the leader · rank #2
Pierson · near
47,652
Pierson · near
47,652 median HH income
19.1% of the leader · rank #3
Sky Valley · this city
47,656
Sky Valley · this city
47,656 median HH income
19.1% of the leader · rank #4
White Mountai… · near
47,661
White Mountai… · near
47,661 median HH income
19.1% of the leader · rank #5
Española · near
47,664
Española · near
47,664 median HH income
19.1% of the leader · rank #6
Belvedere · highest
250,001
Belvedere · 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Sky Valley 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: 2,437.
Sky Valley ranks in the 16th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
16th
percentile, household income
23rd
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: Sky Valley, CA
2,437 people live in Sky Valley, California - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Sky Valley brings in $47,656 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.2%. Home values in Sky Valley run a median of $136,500, and the median resident age is 52.7 years. Educational attainment runs 20.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 37.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,053 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across California, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Natural-hazard exposure scores 88.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Sky Valley'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 comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sky Valley, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Sky Valley?
Within California, the closest population matches are Lewiston (2,434 residents, $58,125 income); Romoland (2,430 residents, $101,000 income); Janesville (2,447 residents, $70,938 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Plattsburg, MO (2,437 residents); Beresford, SD (2,437 residents); Ashford, AL (2,438 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Sky Valley?
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 76.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
How far does income reach against housing in Sky Valley?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.2%, 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. Income and home value move within the same broad scale here. The useful next check is not a generic affordability label, but whether similar-size cities offer a materially different income, housing, or commute trade-off.
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Sky Valley, CA
19/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share F
20.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate F
14.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$47,656
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Sky Valley profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 35/100 (F) · 20.2%
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.2%
Household income: 17/100 (F) · $47,656
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
How does Sky Valley compare to other US cities?
Sky Valley measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income16% higher than other cities
Home value23% 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 Sky Valley 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 Sky Valley near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sky Valley ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sky Valley only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,219 of 1,338
9th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#1,309 of 1,343
3rd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#313 of 1,450
78th percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#894 of 1,458
39th 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
16th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Sky Valley's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$136,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 77% 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
Sky Valley's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,932 of 15,516
More affordable than 62% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,111 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.9×, Sky Valley sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,932 of 15,516 and #5,111 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
The multiple is comparatively compact among tracked cities, but a low ratio can still coexist with slow demand or household-level hardship.
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
$47,656Sky Valley, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sky Valley, 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 Sky Valley, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)20.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)37.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,437
Median Income
$47,656
Median Home Value
$136,500
Median Age
52.7
Poverty Rate
14.2%
Labor force participation
37.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
20.2%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.7%
Carpool
7.3%
Public Transit
0.4%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
15.0%
Based on 786 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 Sky Valley. 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 Sky Valley 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 Sky Valley sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sky Valley 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, 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.