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Place dossier plate
SheetCA-WATERFORD-CA · Waterford, CA 9,177 pop · income 54th 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 Waterford
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Waterford on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Toccoa · lowest
48,706
Toccoa · lowest
48,706 median HH income
22.9% of the leader · rank #1
Yale · near
73,080
Yale · near
73,080 median HH income
34.3% of the leader · rank #2
Oxford · near
73,088
Oxford · near
73,088 median HH income
34.3% of the leader · rank #3
Waterford · this city
73,092
Waterford · this city
73,092 median HH income
34.3% of the leader · rank #4
North Sarasota · near
73,099
North Sarasota · near
73,099 median HH income
34.4% of the leader · rank #5
Kingsley · near
73,103
Kingsley · near
73,103 median HH income
34.4% of the leader · rank #6
Tiburon · highest
212,794
Tiburon · highest
212,794 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 Waterford 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: 9,177.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Waterford - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Waterford places in the 54th percentile for household income and the 61st percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
54th
percentile, household income
75th
percentile, home value
88th
percentile, median rent
61st
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: Waterford, CA
9,177 people live in Waterford, California - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Waterford report a median income of $73,092 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.8%. Typical homes in Waterford are valued around $372,900, and the median resident age is 28.9 years. About 8.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 58.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 3 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 83% from five years earlier. Waterford reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1065.3 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below 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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,053 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts California's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). The average commute for Waterford workers runs 27.2 minutes, with 73.1% driving alone and 4.7% 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 Waterford'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to population change to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Waterford, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
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 Waterford?
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 5.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Waterford?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.1%. The reported mean trip to work is 27.2 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.
What does the education layer cover for Waterford?
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 8 public schools within the city match. 8.1% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Waterford?
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 West Athens (9,064 residents, $77,750 income); Tiburon (9,035 residents, $212,794 income); Charter Oak (9,414 residents, $84,101 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Mound, MN (9,176 residents); Perkasie, PA (9,176 residents); Richmond Heights, MO (9,179 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.
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 Waterford growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +124 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 3 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
9,134
2025 estimate
9,258
Period change
+1.4%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Waterford?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1065.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 53% lower 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.
Total reported rate
1065.3
Violent rate
181.1
Property rate
884.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Above median income · poverty 11.8% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
110.7 (US=100)
Highest-decile cost · BEA RPP 2024, California average
F
City profile score · Waterford, CA
31/100
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-
$73,092
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime C-
181 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
11.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Bachelor's+ share F
8.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Waterford profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 53/100 (C-) · $73,092
Violent crime: 51/100 (C-) · 181 /100k
Poverty rate: 33/100 (F) · 11.8%
Cost of living: 6/100 (F) · 110.7 index
Bachelor's+ share: 1/100 (F) · 8.1%
Where Waterford sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Waterford'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 - Waterford highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Waterford, CA (this city): home $372,900, crime 1,065/100k
Perkasie, PA : home $338,700, crime 708/100k
Richmond Heights, MO : home $345,400, crime 7,778/100k
Toccoa, GA : home $155,200, crime 2,985/100k
Tiburon, CA : home $2,000,000+, crime 1,166/100k
Cloverdale, CA : home $613,400, crime 1,107/100k
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 Waterford compare to other US cities?
Here's how Waterford stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income54% higher than other cities
Home value75% pricier than other cities
Median rent88% pricier than other cities
Safety61% 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: Waterford ranks #70 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 Waterford 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 Waterford near the bottom of California's cities
Among the 1,458 California cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Waterford ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Waterford only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#876 of 1,338
35th percentile in California
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,458
0th percentile in California
Median Home Value
#909 of 1,343
32nd percentile in California
Poverty Rate
#410 of 1,450
72nd percentile in California
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,263 of 1,458
13th 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
54th percentile nationally for median household income · 61st percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Waterford's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Waterford'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 Waterford's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$372,90025th percentilemore affordable than 25% 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
Waterford's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,070 of 15,516
More affordable than 16% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,863 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.1×, Waterford sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,070 of 15,516 and #9,863 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
$73,092Waterford, CA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Waterford, 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 Waterford, CA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)8.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
9,177
Median Income
$73,092
Median Home Value
$372,900
Median Age
28.9
Poverty Rate
11.8%
Labor force participation
58.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
8.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1065.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
181.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
884.2
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
8
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Waterford's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
9,134 residents
2021
9,127 residents
2022
9,179 residents
2023
9,270 residents
2024
9,283 residents
2025
9,258 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
3
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
18
16
2
$2.7M
2020
8
8
0
$1.2M
2021
75
75
0
$12.1M
2022
9
9
0
$1.5M
2023
3
3
0
$0.5M
2024
3
3
0
$0.5M
Permit volume decreased 83% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
27.2 minutes
Drive Alone
73.1%
Carpool
20.9%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.3%
Work from Home
4.7%
Based on 3,659 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 Waterford. 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 Waterford 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 Waterford sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Waterford 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.