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Place dossier plate
SheetIA-UNDERWOOD-IA · Underwood, IA 977 pop · income 71st 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 Underwood
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Underwood on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Ola · lowest
40,250
Ola · lowest
40,250 median HH income
44.4% of the leader · rank #1
Underwood · this city
90,556
Underwood · this city
90,556 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #2
Heyworth · near
90,556
Heyworth · near
90,556 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #3
St. George · near
90,556
St. George · near
90,556 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #4
Melody Hill · near
90,561
Melody Hill · near
90,561 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Oak Valley · near
90,563
Oak Valley · near
90,563 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Melrose · highest
90,565
Melrose · highest
90,565 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Underwood 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: 977.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Underwood places in the 71st percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
71st
percentile, household income
50th
percentile, home value
11th
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: Underwood, IA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 977 residents in Underwood, a small town within Iowa. Households in Underwood report a median income of $90,556 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 3.3%. Underwood's housing stock carries a median value of $227,400, and the median resident age is 29.5 years. Educational attainment runs 32.6% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 77.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 3 residential building permits were authorized in Underwood (Slowing), down 25% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data.
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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $989 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Iowa run around $212, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Underwood'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 schools and households to work and mobility to housing and income to population change to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Underwood, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Underwood?
The NCES join finds 3 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.
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.
What does the journey to work look like in Underwood?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.5%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
How far does income reach against housing in Underwood?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.3%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Underwood?
Within Iowa, the closest population matches are Calmar (980 residents, $81,583 income); Elk Run Heights (968 residents, $68,828 income); Danville (966 residents, $82,917 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Ola, AR (977 residents); Hot Sulphur Springs, CO (977 residents); Welcome, MN (977 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.
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 Underwood 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 +0.5% 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
+0.5%
2025 estimate
955
2020 estimate
950
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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+
3.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income B
$90,556
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 N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Underwood profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 94/100 (A+) · 87.8 index
Poverty rate: 76/100 (B+) · 3.3%
Household income: 70/100 (B) · $90,556
Bachelor's+ share: 62/100 (C+) · 32.6%
How does Underwood compare to other US cities?
Underwood measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income71% higher than other cities
Home value50% pricier than other cities
Median rent11% 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 Underwood 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 Underwood near the bottom of Iowa's cities
Among the 858 Iowa cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Underwood ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Underwood only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#93 of 845
89th percentile in Iowa
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 858
0th percentile in Iowa
Median Home Value
#92 of 849
89th percentile in Iowa
Poverty Rate
#597 of 858
30th 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
71st percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Underwood's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$227,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 50% 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
Underwood's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,056 of 15,516
More affordable than 74% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,650 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.5×, Underwood sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,056 of 15,516 and #3,650 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
$90,556Underwood, IA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Underwood, 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 Underwood, IA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)32.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)77.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
977
Median Income
$90,556
Median Home Value
$227,400
Median Age
29.5
Poverty Rate
3.3%
Labor force participation
77.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
32.6%
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
Underwood's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
950 residents
2021
952 residents
2022
954 residents
2023
956 residents
2024
965 residents
2025
955 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
3
housing units authorized
Single-Family
3
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
4
4
0
$0.6M
2020
4
4
0
$0.7M
2021
3
3
0
$0.6M
2022
2
2
0
$0.3M
2023
5
5
0
$0.7M
2024
3
3
0
$0.6M
Permit volume decreased 25% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.5%
Carpool
5.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
4.9%
Work from Home
9.6%
Other
0.7%
Based on 531 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 Underwood. 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 Underwood 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 Underwood sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Underwood 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, 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.