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Place dossier plate
SheetIA-GREENFIELD-IA · Greenfield, IA 1,826 pop · income 25th pct · 3 tracts
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 Greenfield
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Greenfield on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Sparta · lowest
24,854
Sparta · lowest
24,854 median HH income
16.6% of the leader · rank #1
Davis · near
53,147
Davis · near
53,147 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #2
Gibbon · near
53,148
Gibbon · near
53,148 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #3
Hummelstown · near
53,148
Hummelstown · near
53,148 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #4
Athens · near
53,151
Athens · near
53,151 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #5
Greenfield · this city
53,152
Greenfield · this city
53,152 median HH income
35.5% of the leader · rank #6
Lookout Mount… · highest
149,688
Lookout Mount… · highest
149,688 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 Greenfield 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: 1,826.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Greenfield - the verdict
Nationally, Greenfield sits in the 25th percentile for household income and the 79th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
25th
percentile, household income
15th
percentile, home value
11th
percentile, median rent
79th
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: Greenfield, IA
Iowa's Greenfield is a small town, with 1,826 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Households in Greenfield report a median income of $53,152 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 6.9%. Greenfield's housing stock carries a median value of $115,700, and the median resident age is 47.9 years. Educational attainment runs 23.5% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 53.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 67 residential building permits were authorized in Greenfield (Building Boom), up 3250% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Greenfield reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 642.3 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Greenfield's yearly average temperature at 49.1°F with 36.5 inches of precipitation per year and 25.5 inches of snowfall.
Living costs in Iowa run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Iowa scores 87.8 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $989 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Iowa's average monthly utility costs around $212 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 39.7 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Greenfield'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 within-city variation to reported crime to climate and hazard context to work and mobility to population change to schools and households to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Greenfield, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Greenfield?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 6.9%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
What can 3 Census tracts reveal inside Greenfield?
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Greenfield?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 642.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 72% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Greenfield?
Within Iowa, the closest population matches are Moville (1,840 residents, $96,250 income); Farley (1,809 residents, $96,563 income); Reinbeck (1,805 residents, $85,962 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lamar, AR (1,826 residents); Raven, VA (1,826 residents); Zolfo Springs, FL (1,825 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
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.
Climate and hazard context
What physical conditions frame life in Greenfield?
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 49.1°F, with 36.5 inches of precipitation and 25.5 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Iowa is 39.7 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
49.1°F
Annual precipitation
36.5 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
39.7
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What does the journey to work look like in Greenfield?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 86.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
1.7%
Work from home
3.8%
Drive alone
86.4%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 786 workers age 16+.
Is Greenfield growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +5 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 67 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+0.2%
2025 estimate
2,070
2020 estimate
2,065
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the education layer cover for Greenfield?
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 23.5% 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.
The matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
Matched public schools
2
Bachelor's degree+
23.5%
Poverty estimate
6.9%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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 C-
6.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
23.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
346 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$53,152
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Greenfield profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Poverty rate: 53/100 (C-) · 6.9%
Bachelor's+ share: 44/100 (D) · 23.5%
Violent crime: 26/100 (F) · 346 /100k
Household income: 25/100 (F) · $53,152
Where Greenfield sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Greenfield'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 - Greenfield highlighted among 23 peers.Read the chart values
Greenfield, IA (this city): home $115,700, crime 642/100k
Lamar, AR : home $139,500, crime 1,301/100k
Lookout Mountain, GA : home $469,500, crime 298/100k
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 Greenfield compare to other US cities?
Greenfield measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income25% higher than other cities
Home value15% pricier than other cities
Median rent11% pricier than other cities
Safety79% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Iowa alone, Greenfield ranks #53 of 141 Iowa cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Greenfield 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 Greenfield near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Greenfield ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Greenfield only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#689 of 845
18th percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Median Home Value
#437 of 849
49th percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#376 of 858
56th percentile in Iowa
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#236 of 858
72nd 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
25th percentile nationally for median household income · 79th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Greenfield's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Greenfield'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 Greenfield's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$115,700Among the most affordablemore affordable than 85% 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
Greenfield's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,354 of 15,516
More affordable than 85% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,217 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.2×, Greenfield sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,354 of 15,516 and #2,217 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
$53,152Greenfield, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Greenfield, 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 Greenfield, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)23.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,826
Median Income
$53,152
Median Home Value
$115,700
Median Age
47.9
Poverty Rate
6.9%
Labor force participation
53.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
23.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
642.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
345.8
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
296.4
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
49.1°F
Annual Precipitation
36.5"
Annual Snowfall
25.5"
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Greenfield's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,065 residents
2021
2,073 residents
2022
2,057 residents
2023
2,048 residents
2024
1,993 residents
2025
2,070 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
67
housing units authorized
Single-Family
53
detached homes
Multifamily
14
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
36.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.6M
2020
2
2
0
$0.6M
2021
2
2
0
$0.6M
2022
1
1
0
$0.4M
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
67
53
14
$18.9M
Permit volume increased 3250% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
86.4%
Carpool
4.3%
Public Transit
1.7%
Walk
2.3%
Work from Home
3.8%
Other
1.5%
Based on 786 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 Greenfield. 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 Greenfield 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 Greenfield sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Greenfield 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.