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Place dossier plate
SheetMA-PALMER-MA · Palmer, MA 12,372 pop · income 60th 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 Palmer
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Palmer on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Escanaba · lowest
40,169
Escanaba · lowest
40,169 median HH income
23.3% of the leader · rank #1
Mesa · near
78,779
Mesa · near
78,779 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #2
South Euclid · near
78,782
South Euclid · near
78,782 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #3
Palmer · this city
78,789
Palmer · this city
78,789 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #4
Bellevue · near
78,792
Bellevue · near
78,792 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #5
Green Valley · near
78,801
Green Valley · near
78,801 median HH income
45.7% of the leader · rank #6
Lynnfield · highest
172,484
Lynnfield · highest
172,484 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 Palmer 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: 12,372.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Palmer - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Palmer places in the 60th percentile for household income and the 66th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
60th
percentile, household income
57th
percentile, home value
98th
percentile, median rent
66th
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: Palmer, MA
Palmer is a small town in Massachusetts, home to 12,372 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $78,789 per year, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 4.9%. Typical homes in Palmer are valued around $255,000, and the median resident age is 50.5 years. 24.0% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 57.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 5 residential building permits were authorized in Palmer (Stable), up 0% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Palmer reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 949.4 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Massachusetts carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 105.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,261 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Massachusetts run around $330, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Natural-hazard exposure scores 78.8 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Palmer'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 work and mobility to housing and income to population change to comparison shortlist to reported crime to schools and households; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Palmer, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, 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. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Palmer?
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 83.0%. 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 Palmer?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.9%, 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. 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 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 declined by -51 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 5 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Palmer?
Within Massachusetts, the closest population matches are Webster (12,300 residents, $60,384 income); North Adams (12,660 residents, $48,521 income); Lynnfield (12,964 residents, $172,484 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Justice, IL (12,372 residents); Eureka, MO (12,371 residents); Escanaba, MI (12,374 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.
Reported crime
What can the FBI record say about safety in Palmer?
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 949.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 58% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
574.4
Violent rate
375.0
Total reported rate
949.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 24.0% 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+
24.0%
Poverty estimate
4.9%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
Above median income · poverty 4.9% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
105.8 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Massachusetts average
D
City profile score · Palmer, MA
43/100
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.
Poverty rate B-
4.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income C
$78,789
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share D
24.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime F
375 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cost of living F
105.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Palmer profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 66/100 (B-) · 4.9%
Household income: 58/100 (C) · $78,789
Bachelor's+ share: 46/100 (D) · 24.0%
Violent crime: 24/100 (F) · 375 /100k
Cost of living: 18/100 (F) · 105.8 index
Where Palmer sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Palmer'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 - Palmer highlighted among 9 peers.Read the chart values
Palmer, MA (this city): home $255,000, crime 949/100k
Eureka, MO : home $352,200, crime 995/100k
Escanaba, MI : home $116,600, crime 2,354/100k
Tehachapi, CA : home $344,700, crime 3,124/100k
Webster, MA : home $303,900, crime 1,438/100k
North Adams, MA : home $185,300, crime 3,752/100k
Lynnfield, MA : home $904,200, crime 955/100k
Holbrook, MA : home $436,500, crime 1,693/100k
Nantucket, MA : home $1,359,200, crime 1,116/100k
How does Palmer compare to other US cities?
Where Palmer sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income60% higher than other cities
Home value57% pricier than other cities
Median rent98% pricier than other cities
Safety66% 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 Massachusetts, Palmer ranks #72 of 149 Massachusetts 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 Palmer against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Massachusetts only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Massachusetts-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Palmer near the bottom of Massachusetts's cities
Among the 247 Massachusetts cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Palmer ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Palmer only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#169 of 233
27th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 247
0th percentile in Massachusetts
Median Home Value
#225 of 240
6th percentile in Massachusetts
Poverty Rate
#97 of 247
61st percentile in Massachusetts
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#219 of 247
11th percentile in Massachusetts
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 Massachusetts only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
60th percentile nationally for median household income · 66th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Palmer's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Palmer'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 Palmer's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$255,00043rd 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
Palmer's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#7,861 of 15,516
More affordable than 49% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,219 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.2×, Palmer sits in the moderate band:
national rank #7,861 of 15,516 and #1,219 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$78,789Palmer, MA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Palmer, MA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Palmer, MA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)24.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,372
Median Income
$78,789
Median Home Value
$255,000
Median Age
50.5
Poverty Rate
4.9%
Labor force participation
57.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
24.0%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
949.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
375.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
574.4
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Palmer's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
12,418 residents
2021
12,373 residents
2022
12,331 residents
2023
12,330 residents
2024
12,361 residents
2025
12,367 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
5
housing units authorized
Single-Family
5
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
5
5
0
$1.2M
2020
8
8
0
$1.6M
2021
13
9
4
$2.7M
2022
6
6
0
$25.6M
2023
5
5
0
$1.5M
2024
5
5
0
$1.5M
Permit volume increased 0% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
83.0%
Carpool
6.4%
Public Transit
0.3%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
8.1%
Other
1.3%
Based on 6,326 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Massachusetts statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $330
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Massachusetts at $330 (electricity about $160 , water and sewer about $60 ).
These are Massachusetts statewide averages, not a meter reading for Palmer. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Massachusetts's BEA cost-of-living index is 105.8 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Palmer is $2,261/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Massachusetts statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 78.8 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Massachusetts statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Palmer sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Palmer compares to similar-size Massachusetts 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.