City profile · Delaware · Census ACS 2023

Houston, DE

Houston's Census ACS profile: residents, income, housing, and the joined public-record layers available for this place.

456
Residents
$100,208
Median income
$265,600
Median home
$1,560
Median rent (state)
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See how it ranks

State rank, size-class rank, and four peer cities for Houston.

Place dossier plate

Sheet DE-HOUSTON-DE · Houston, DE 456 pop · income 78th pct

POP-VILLAGE · INC-HIGH · COL-PAR · SAFE-UNK · RANK-UPPER · PHOTO-FINISH · HOME-MID · BOOK-UNK

  • POP-VILLAGE 456
  • INC-HIGH $100,208
  • COL-PAR 99.8
  • SAFE-UNK Safety pending
  • RANK-UPPER 78th
  • PHOTO-FINISH ≈ Old Washington
  • HOME-MID $265,600
  • BOOK-UNK Tracts pending

Nearest income peer: Old Washington, OH (+ $0 income $)

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 Houston

Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Houston on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.

median HH income

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.

Source U.S. Census Bureau · ACS 5-Year Estimates As of 2026-08-08

Compare beyond this state

Nationwide peers by population, income

Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Houston 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: 456.

4 peers

Similar household income

Nearest out-of-state cities by ACS median household income. This city: $100,208. Population peers are excluded.

4 peers

Houston - the verdict

Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Houston lands in the 78th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.

78th
percentile, household income
59th
percentile, home value
78th
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: Houston, DE

Census ACS 2023 estimates count 456 residents in Houston, a small town within Delaware. Median household income here is $100,208 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.0%. Houston's housing stock carries a median value of $265,600, and the median resident age is 46.0 years. About 5.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 61.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.

Delaware tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Delaware scores 99.8 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,560 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $243 across Delaware, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 91.3 out of 100 (Very High).

A decision-led reading path

Useful questions to ask of Houston'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 population change to housing and income to work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.

For Houston, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares. No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.

1. Population change

Is Houston growing, shrinking, or holding steady?

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.

Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +18 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +4.7% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.

See the national growth ranking →

Question 2

How far does income reach against housing in Houston?

The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.0%, 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. 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.

Compare the housing trade-off →

3. Work and mobility

What does the journey to work look like in Houston?

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 71.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.

Compare commute patterns →

Question 4

Which cities make useful reference points for Houston?

Within Delaware, the closest population matches are Port Penn (477 residents, $95,287 income); Bethel (431 residents, $91,111 income); Slaughter Beach (431 residents, $96,500 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Shiloh, AL (456 residents); Cushman, AR (456 residents); Eminence, MO (456 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.

Open a side-by-side comparison →

Population

456 residents

Micro place (under 10k)

Median Household Income

$100,208 /yr

High income · poverty 14.0% (High poverty)

Cost of Living Index (state)

99.8 (US=100)

Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Delaware average

City profile score · Houston, DE

40/100

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.

Household income B+
$100,208

Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.

Cost of living D
99.8 index

BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.

Poverty rate F
14.0%

Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.

Bachelor's+ share F
5.3%

Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.

Violent crime N/A
N/A

No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).

Houston profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions) 4-axis radar comparing 1 series across Household income, Cost of living, Poverty rate, Bachelor's+ share. Household incomeCost of livingPoverty rateBachelor's+ share 40 D
Houston profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)
Read the chart values
  • Household income: 77/100 (B+) · $100,208
  • Cost of living: 41/100 (D) · 99.8 index
  • Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.0%
  • Bachelor's+ share: 0/100 (F) · 5.3%

How does Houston compare to other US cities?

Where Houston sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.

Household income 78% higher than other cities
Home value 59% pricier than other cities
Median rent 78% 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 Houston against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Delaware only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.

Delaware-relative analysis

Median Gross Rent places Houston near the bottom of Delaware's cities

Among the 79 Delaware cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Houston ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Houston only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.

Median Household Income
#20 of 77
74th percentile in Delaware
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 79
0th percentile in Delaware
Median Home Value
#49 of 77
36th percentile in Delaware
Poverty Rate
#11 of 79
86th percentile in Delaware
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#76 of 79
4th percentile in Delaware
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 Delaware only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.

78thIncome percentile
Gauge source note

78th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.

How Houston's home value compares nationally

Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)

$265,600 41st percentile more affordable than 41% of 15,600 US cities

Show national distribution $0–$25,000: 5 US cities (0%). Below this entry. $25,000–$50,000: 54 US cities (0%). Below this entry. $50,000–$75,000: 352 US cities (2%). Below this entry. $75,000–$100,000: 1,086 US cities (7%). Below this entry. $100,000–$125,000: 1,516 US cities (10%). Below this entry. $125,000–$150,000: 1,170 US cities (8%). Below this entry. $150,000–$175,000: 1,278 US cities (8%). Below this entry. $175,000–$200,000: 1,229 US cities (8%). Below this entry. $200,000–$225,000: 1,035 US cities (7%). Below this entry. $225,000–$250,000: 976 US cities (6%). Below this entry. $250,000–$275,000: 754 US cities (5%). This entry sits in this band. $275,000–$300,000: 712 US cities (5%). Above this entry. $300,000–$325,000: 521 US cities (3%). Above this entry. $325,000–$350,000: 526 US cities (3%). Above this entry. $350,000–$375,000: 465 US cities (3%). Above this entry. $375,000–$400,000: 393 US cities (3%). Above this entry. $400,000–$425,000: 317 US cities (2%). Above this entry. $425,000–$450,000: 300 US cities (2%). Above this entry. $450,000–$475,000: 307 US cities (2%). Above this entry. $475,000–$500,000: 250 US cities (2%). Above this entry. $500,000–$525,000: 160 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $525,000–$550,000: 156 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $550,000–$575,000: 172 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $575,000–$600,000: 172 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $600,000–$625,000: 163 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $625,000–$650,000: 167 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $650,000–$675,000: 135 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $675,000–$700,000: 101 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $700,000–$725,000: 95 US cities (1%). Above this entry. $725,000–$750,000: 71 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $750,000–$775,000: 65 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $775,000–$800,000: 70 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $800,000–$825,000: 57 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $825,000–$850,000: 67 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $850,000–$875,000: 60 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $875,000–$900,000: 58 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $900,000–$925,000: 47 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $925,000–$950,000: 37 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $950,000–$975,000: 31 US cities (0%). Above this entry. $975,000–$1,000,000: 470 US cities (3%). Above this entry. $1,000,000–$1,025,000: 0 US cities (0%). Above this entry. Houston $0 $1,025,000 every US city, bucketed by value

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

Houston's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×

ACS median home value divided by median household income.

Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,765 of 15,516
More affordable than 69% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,208 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)

At 2.7×, Houston sits in the affordable band: national rank #4,765 of 15,516 and #4,208 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

$100,208 Houston, DE median household income (Census ACS)

Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Household income distribution - Houston, DE Houston, DE's median household income ($100,208) against the U.S. national quintile-share pattern. The Lorenz curve and quintile bars are national context, not Houston, DE-specific shares. $ Household Income Distribution Houston, DE median $100,208/yr, vs. U.S. national quintile pattern QUINTILE SHARE OF AGGREGATE INCOME Lowest 20% 3.4% Second 20% 9.2% Middle 20% 15.1% Fourth 20% 23.2% Top 20% 49.1% LORENZ CURVE cumulative income vs. population 100% 0% 100% pop. 0%
Houston, DE median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Houston, DE.

Key socioeconomic indicators

Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+) 5.3%

Census ACS S1501, educational attainment

Poverty rate (households below FPL) 14.0%

Census ACS S1701, poverty status

Labor force participation (adults 16+) 61.2%

Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force

Population
456
Median Income
$100,208
Median Home Value
$265,600
Median Age
46.0
Poverty Rate
14.0%
Labor force participation
61.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
5.3%

Population Change

PEP vintage

Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025

See the fastest-growing cities →
380 residents390 residents400 residents410 residents 202020212022202320242025 387 residents 405 residents ▲ +4.7%
Houston's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.
Read the chart as text
Period Population
2020 387 residents
2021 388 residents
2022 393 residents
2023 397 residents
2024 402 residents
2025 405 residents

Commute Patterns

Commute source

How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023

Drive Alone
71.7%
Carpool
0.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
27.9%

Based on 251 workers 16 and over.

Monthly Utility Costs

Delaware statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $243

EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Delaware at $243 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $48 ).

These are Delaware statewide averages, not a meter reading for Houston. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.

Living Costs & Risk

Delaware's BEA cost-of-living index is 99.8 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Houston is $1,560/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Delaware statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 91.3 / 100 (Very High).

Cost/risk geography note

Cost of living is a Delaware statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Houston sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.

How Houston compares to similar-size Delaware 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.

City Population Median Household Income
Houston (this city) 456 $100,208
Port Penn 477 $95,287
Bethel 431 $91,111
Slaughter Beach 431 $96,500
Primary sources on this page

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.

Read our methodology - how this data is sourced, computed, and verified.

Citation & verification links Data sourced from the U.S. Census Bureau. See our methodology for details. Retrieved and formatted by PlainCities

Primary sources: Census ACS, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, NCES. Joins use OMB Bulletin 23-01 / FIPS keys.

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Estimate caveats

ACS and UCR figures are citywide estimates with vintage lags; they do not replace a local visit, school visit, or insurance quote.

Editorial standards, provenance, and how to cite this page

Every figure on PlainCities is rendered directly from Census ACS source data, no number is typed in by an editor. This page draws directly on Census ACS source data, no figure is typed in by an editor. See our editorial standards & corrections policy, the methodology behind these numbers, or report a data error.

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