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Place dossier plate
SheetIA-ALTOONA-IA · Altoona, IA 20,592 pop · income 68th 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 Altoona
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Altoona on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Pittsburg · lowest
40,220
Pittsburg · lowest
40,220 median HH income
30.7% of the leader · rank #1
East Dundee · near
87,102
East Dundee · near
87,102 median HH income
66.4% of the leader · rank #2
Mammoth Lakes · near
87,121
Mammoth Lakes · near
87,121 median HH income
66.5% of the leader · rank #3
Altoona · this city
87,123
Altoona · this city
87,123 median HH income
66.5% of the leader · rank #4
Brook Highland · near
87,143
Brook Highland · near
87,143 median HH income
66.5% of the leader · rank #5
Johnson · near
87,150
Johnson · near
87,150 median HH income
66.5% of the leader · rank #6
Clive · highest
131,082
Clive · highest
131,082 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 Altoona 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: 20,592.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Altoona - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Altoona places in the 68th percentile for household income and the 29th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
68th
percentile, household income
57th
percentile, home value
11th
percentile, median rent
29th
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: Altoona, IA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 20,592 residents in Altoona, a small city within Iowa. Median household income here is $87,123 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.8%. Typical homes in Altoona are valued around $257,300, and the median resident age is 35.5 years. Educational attainment runs 32.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 67.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 184 residential building permits were authorized in Altoona (Slowing), down 21% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 2154.1 incidents per 100,000 residents, near the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Iowa run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Iowa at 87.8 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Well Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $989 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $212 across Iowa, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in Altoona report an average commute of 20.5 minutes, with 79.6% driving alone and 12.7% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.7 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Altoona'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 schools and households to population change to reported crime to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Altoona, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares, 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 Altoona?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Altoona?
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 Iowa, the closest population matches are North Liberty (20,782 residents, $103,933 income); Clive (18,776 residents, $131,082 income); Coralville (22,846 residents, $66,508 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Arlington, WA (20,599 residents); Pleasantville, NJ (20,604 residents); Pittsburg, KS (20,606 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.
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 4 public schools within the city match. 32.6% 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +3,054 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +15.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 184 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.
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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Altoona?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2154.1 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 6% 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
2154.1
Violent rate
142.7
Property rate
2011.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Altoona?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 20.5 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.
Drive alone
79.6%
Work from home
12.7%
Public transit
0.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 10,383 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 3.8% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Iowa average
B
City profile score · Altoona, IA
71/100
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.
Cost of living A+
87.8 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 B
3.8%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income B-
$87,123
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C+
32.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime C+
143 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Altoona profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Poverty rate: 73/100 (B) · 3.8%
Household income: 66/100 (B-) · $87,123
Bachelor's+ share: 62/100 (C+) · 32.6%
Violent crime: 60/100 (C+) · 143 /100k
Where Altoona sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Altoona'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 - Altoona highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Altoona, IA (this city): home $257,300, crime 2,154/100k
Arlington, WA : home $492,600, crime 2,559/100k
Pleasantville, NJ : home $177,700, crime 1,877/100k
Pittsburg, KS : home $110,800, crime 3,860/100k
Bethany, OK : home $161,500, crime 1,741/100k
Parma Heights, OH : home $165,800, crime 361/100k
Shafter, CA : home $306,800, crime 1,644/100k
North Liberty, IA : home $300,000, crime 467/100k
Clive, IA : home $379,000, crime 1,375/100k
Coralville, IA : home $286,000, crime 2,197/100k
Muscatine, IA : home $146,900, crime 1,474/100k
Burlington, IA : home $115,800, crime 2,239/100k
Johnston, IA : home $346,200, crime 826/100k
How does Altoona compare to other US cities?
Here's how Altoona stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income68% higher than other cities
Home value57% pricier than other cities
Median rent11% pricier than other cities
Safety29% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Iowa, Altoona ranks #122 of 141 Iowa cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Altoona against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Iowa only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Iowa-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Altoona near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Altoona ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Altoona only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#111 of 845
87th percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Median Home Value
#64 of 849
92nd percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#565 of 858
33rd percentile in Iowa
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#97 of 858
88th percentile in Iowa
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 Iowa only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
68th percentile nationally for median household income · 29th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Altoona's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Altoona'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 Altoona's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$257,30043rd percentilemore affordable than 43% 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
Altoona's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,443 of 15,516
More affordable than 58% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#838 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.0×, Altoona sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,443 of 15,516 and #838 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$87,123Altoona, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Altoona, IA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Altoona, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)32.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
20,592
Median Income
$87,123
Median Home Value
$257,300
Median Age
35.5
Poverty Rate
3.8%
Labor force participation
67.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
32.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2154.1
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
142.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2011.4
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Altoona's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
19,742 residents
2021
21,012 residents
2022
21,828 residents
2023
22,102 residents
2024
22,505 residents
2025
22,796 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
184
housing units authorized
Single-Family
184
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
8.9
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
232
232
0
$54.1M
2020
546
234
312
$102.5M
2021
439
207
232
$83.2M
2022
150
150
0
$33.1M
2023
139
139
0
$31.7M
2024
184
184
0
$43.0M
Permit volume decreased 21% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
20.5 minutes
Drive Alone
79.6%
Carpool
4.9%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
12.7%
Other
2.3%
Based on 10,383 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Iowa statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $212
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Iowa at $212 (electricity about $95 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are Iowa statewide averages, not a meter reading for Altoona. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Iowa's BEA cost-of-living index is 87.8 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Altoona is $989/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Iowa statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 39.7 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Iowa statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Altoona sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Altoona compares to similar-size Iowa 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.