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Place dossier plate
SheetID-SANDPOINT-ID · Sandpoint, ID 9,244 pop · income 47th pct · 16 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 Sandpoint
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sandpoint on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Brooksville · lowest
47,796
Brooksville · lowest
47,796 median HH income
54.3% of the leader · rank #1
Summerdale · near
67,768
Summerdale · near
67,768 median HH income
77.0% of the leader · rank #2
Pleasant Hill · near
67,768
Pleasant Hill · near
67,768 median HH income
77.0% of the leader · rank #3
Coplay · near
67,768
Coplay · near
67,768 median HH income
77.0% of the leader · rank #4
Sandpoint · this city
67,769
Sandpoint · this city
67,769 median HH income
77.0% of the leader · rank #5
Elizabethtown · near
67,770
Elizabethtown · near
67,770 median HH income
77.0% of the leader · rank #6
Pine Lake Park · highest
87,998
Pine Lake Park · highest
87,998 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 Sandpoint 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: 9,244.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Sandpoint - the verdict
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Sandpoint lands in the 47th percentile for household income and the 60th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
47th
percentile, household income
81st
percentile, home value
51st
percentile, median rent
60th
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: Sandpoint, ID
Sandpoint is a small town in Idaho, home to 9,244 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Sandpoint brings in $67,769 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 11.4%. Sandpoint's housing stock carries a median value of $449,500, and the median resident age is 41.5 years. Educational attainment runs 38.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 58.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 91 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 36% from five years earlier. Sandpoint reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR reporting places total crime at 1085.9 incidents per 100,000 residents, below the national average (voluntary agency reporting, reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Idaho run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Idaho at 95.5 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,173 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Idaho run around $170, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 38.5 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Sandpoint'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 reported crime to housing and income to work and mobility to population change to comparison shortlist to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sandpoint, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Sandpoint?
The NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 38.3% 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 can the FBI record say about safety in Sandpoint?
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 1085.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 52% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Which cities make useful reference points for Sandpoint?
Within Idaho, the closest population matches are Hailey (9,439 residents, $83,084 income); Middleton (10,101 residents, $83,681 income); Payette (8,358 residents, $55,455 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bethalto, IL (9,244 residents); Rensselaer, NY (9,247 residents); Pine Lake Park, NJ (9,251 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.
What can 16 Census tracts reveal inside Sandpoint?
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.
PlainCities matches 16 Census tracts to this city.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Sandpoint?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.4%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Household income
$67,769
Home value
$449,500
Value / income
6.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Sandpoint?
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 69.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
1.0%
Work from home
10.7%
Drive alone
69.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 4,211 workers age 16+.
Is Sandpoint 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 +1,919 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +22.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 91 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
+22.0%
2025 estimate
10,645
2020 estimate
8,726
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Below median income · poverty 11.4% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
95.5 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Idaho average
C
City profile score · Sandpoint, ID
56/100
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 B
86 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B
38.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living C+
95.5 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 D
$67,769
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
11.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Sandpoint profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 74/100 (B) · 86 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 72/100 (B) · 38.3%
Cost of living: 61/100 (C+) · 95.5 index
Household income: 46/100 (D) · $67,769
Poverty rate: 34/100 (F) · 11.4%
Where Sandpoint sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Sandpoint'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 - Sandpoint highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Sandpoint, ID (this city): home $449,500, crime 1,086/100k
Bethalto, IL : home $158,600, crime 877/100k
Augusta, KS : home $162,200, crime 2,044/100k
Shawano, WI : home $127,200, crime 1,418/100k
Brooksville, FL : home $112,400, crime 2,439/100k
Hailey, ID : home $574,500, crime 657/100k
Middleton, ID : home $348,900, crime 727/100k
Payette, ID : home $247,700, crime 1,286/100k
Rathdrum, ID : home $381,800, crime 914/100k
Emmett, ID : home $299,000, crime 753/100k
How does Sandpoint compare to other US cities?
Where Sandpoint sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income47% higher than other cities
Home value81% pricier than other cities
Median rent51% pricier than other cities
Safety60% 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 Idaho alone, Sandpoint ranks #35 of 53 Idaho 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 Sandpoint against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Idaho only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Idaho-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Sandpoint near the bottom of Idaho's cities
Among the 215 Idaho cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sandpoint ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sandpoint only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#85 of 206
59th percentile in Idaho
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 215
0th percentile in Idaho
Median Home Value
#23 of 204
89th percentile in Idaho
Poverty Rate
#71 of 215
67th percentile in Idaho
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#29 of 215
87th percentile in Idaho
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 Idaho only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
47th percentile nationally for median household income · 60th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Sandpoint's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Sandpoint'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 Sandpoint's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$449,50019th percentilemore affordable than 19% 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
Sandpoint's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,493 of 15,516
More affordable than 7% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,697 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 6.6×, Sandpoint sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,493 of 15,516 and #10,697 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$67,769Sandpoint, ID median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sandpoint, ID median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Sandpoint, ID.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)38.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)58.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
9,244
Median Income
$67,769
Median Home Value
$449,500
Median Age
41.5
Poverty Rate
11.4%
Labor force participation
58.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
38.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1085.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
85.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1000.2
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
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Sandpoint's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
8,726 residents
2021
9,153 residents
2022
9,763 residents
2023
10,010 residents
2024
10,373 residents
2025
10,645 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
91
housing units authorized
Single-Family
61
detached homes
Multifamily
30
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
9.8
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
67
62
5
$15.6M
2020
56
54
2
$9.5M
2021
208
38
170
$36.8M
2022
86
69
17
$24.2M
2023
105
50
55
$17.1M
2024
91
61
30
$19.4M
Permit volume increased 36% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
69.7%
Carpool
7.7%
Public Transit
1.0%
Walk
5.7%
Work from Home
10.7%
Other
5.2%
Based on 4,211 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Idaho statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $170
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Idaho at $170 (electricity about $80 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Idaho statewide averages, not a meter reading for Sandpoint. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Idaho's BEA cost-of-living index is 95.5 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Sandpoint is $1,173/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Idaho statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 38.5 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Idaho statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Sandpoint sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sandpoint compares to similar-size Idaho 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.