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Place dossier plate
SheetIA-GRUNDY-CENTER-IA · Grundy Center, IA 2,794 pop · income 59th pct · 4 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 Grundy Center
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Grundy Center on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Postville · lowest
47,281
Postville · lowest
47,281 median HH income
18.9% of the leader · rank #1
Hayden · near
77,534
Hayden · near
77,534 median HH income
31.0% of the leader · rank #2
Grundy Center · this city
77,540
Grundy Center · this city
77,540 median HH income
31.0% of the leader · rank #3
New Baden · near
77,542
New Baden · near
77,542 median HH income
31.0% of the leader · rank #4
Mohave Valley · near
77,547
Mohave Valley · near
77,547 median HH income
31.0% of the leader · rank #5
Charlestown · near
77,548
Charlestown · near
77,548 median HH income
31.0% of the leader · rank #6
Munsey Park · highest
250,001
Munsey Park · 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Grundy Center 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: 2,794.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Grundy Center - the verdict
Grundy Center ranks in the 59th percentile for household income and the 92nd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
59th
percentile, household income
34th
percentile, home value
11th
percentile, median rent
92nd
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: Grundy Center, IA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 2,794 residents in Grundy Center, a small town within Iowa. Grundy Center households earn a median of $77,540 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.0%. Home values in Grundy Center run a median of $173,200, and the median resident age is 40.8 years. Educational attainment runs 24.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 59.9% 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 57% from five years earlier. Grundy Center reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 320.7 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Iowa run below the national norm: the state registers 87.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $989 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Iowa's average monthly utility costs around $212 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 39.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Grundy Center'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 reported crime to within-city variation to work and mobility to schools and households to comparison shortlist to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Grundy Center, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, 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 Grundy Center?
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 9.0%, 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. 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 the FBI record say about safety in Grundy Center?
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 320.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 86% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What can 4 Census tracts reveal inside Grundy Center?
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Grundy Center?
Within Iowa, the closest population matches are Postville (2,787 residents, $47,281 income); Madrid (2,803 residents, $86,915 income); Clarion (2,775 residents, $58,702 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Fairbanks Ranch, CA (2,794 residents); Munsey Park, NY (2,794 residents); St. Marys, KS (2,795 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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Grundy Center?
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 85.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
6.6%
Drive alone
85.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,340 workers age 16+.
What does the education layer cover for Grundy Center?
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 24.2% 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 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.
Matched public schools
3
Bachelor's degree+
24.2%
Poverty estimate
9.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Is Grundy Center 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 +8 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.3% 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.
Period change
+0.3%
2025 estimate
2,814
2020 estimate
2,806
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above median income · poverty 9.0% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
87.8 (US=100)
Very affordable · BEA RPP 2024, Iowa average
B-
City profile score · Grundy Center, IA
68/100
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.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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.
Household income C
$77,540
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share D
24.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
9.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Grundy Center profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Household income: 57/100 (C) · $77,540
Bachelor's+ share: 47/100 (D) · 24.2%
Poverty rate: 44/100 (D) · 9.0%
Where Grundy Center sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Grundy Center'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 - Grundy Center highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Grundy Center, IA (this city): home $173,200, crime 321/100k
Clinton, MI : home $180,400, crime 1,212/100k
Crewe, VA : home $135,800, crime 2,555/100k
Postville, IA : home $100,300, crime 880/100k
Clarion, IA : home $107,600, crime 661/100k
Marengo, IA : home $114,100, crime 1,463/100k
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 Grundy Center compare to other US cities?
Here's how Grundy Center stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income59% higher than other cities
Home value34% pricier than other cities
Median rent11% pricier than other cities
Safety92% 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, Grundy Center ranks #27 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 Grundy Center 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 Grundy Center near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Grundy Center ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Grundy Center only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#211 of 845
75th percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Median Home Value
#181 of 849
79th percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#269 of 858
68th percentile in Iowa
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#211 of 858
75th 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
59th percentile nationally for median household income · 92nd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Grundy Center's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Grundy Center'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 Grundy Center's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$173,200Among the most affordablemore affordable than 66% 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
Grundy Center's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,631 of 15,516
More affordable than 83% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,453 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.2×, Grundy Center sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,631 of 15,516 and #2,453 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
$77,540Grundy Center, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Grundy Center, 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 Grundy Center, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)24.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)59.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,794
Median Income
$77,540
Median Home Value
$173,200
Median Age
40.8
Poverty Rate
9.0%
Labor force participation
59.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
24.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
320.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
320.7
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Grundy Center's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,806 residents
2021
2,812 residents
2022
2,805 residents
2023
2,807 residents
2024
2,814 residents
2025
2,814 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
1.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
7
7
0
$1.2M
2020
5
5
0
$0.7M
2021
1
1
0
$0.4M
2022
5
5
0
$2.5M
2023
10
8
2
$3.1M
2024
3
3
0
$1.9M
Permit volume decreased 57% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
85.9%
Carpool
6.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
6.6%
Other
0.6%
Based on 1,340 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 Grundy Center. 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 Grundy Center 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 Grundy Center sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Grundy Center 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.