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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-NEW-BUFFALO-MI · New Buffalo, MI 1,306 pop · income 42nd 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 New Buffalo
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest New Buffalo on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Boston · lowest
40,156
Boston · lowest
40,156 median HH income
45.5% of the leader · rank #1
Millbrook · near
64,522
Millbrook · near
64,522 median HH income
73.1% of the leader · rank #2
New Buffalo · this city
64,524
New Buffalo · this city
64,524 median HH income
73.1% of the leader · rank #3
Belcourt · near
64,526
Belcourt · near
64,526 median HH income
73.1% of the leader · rank #4
Orland · near
64,531
Orland · near
64,531 median HH income
73.1% of the leader · rank #5
Quasqueton · near
64,531
Quasqueton · near
64,531 median HH income
73.1% of the leader · rank #6
Milford · highest
88,295
Milford · highest
88,295 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 New Buffalo 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: 1,306.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
New Buffalo - the verdict
New Buffalo ranks in the 42nd percentile for household income and the 97th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
42nd
percentile, household income
71st
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
97th
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: New Buffalo, MI
1,306 people live in New Buffalo, Michigan - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $64,524 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 7.5%. New Buffalo's housing stock carries a median value of $342,700, and the median resident age is 53.8 years. About 40.1% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 57.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 2 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 71% from five years earlier. New Buffalo reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 118.5 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).
Living costs in Michigan run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Michigan scores 96.2 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,113 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Michigan run around $238, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 49.6 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of New Buffalo'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 population change to work and mobility to schools and households to reported crime to housing and income to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For New Buffalo, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates.
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.
Question 1
Is New Buffalo growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -21 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 2 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
What does the journey to work look like in New Buffalo?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
What does the education layer cover for New Buffalo?
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.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 40.1% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for New Buffalo?
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.
Within Michigan, the closest population matches are Reese (1,303 residents, $83,125 income); Lakewood Club (1,315 residents, $67,277 income); Rapid (1,315 residents, $65,438 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Milford, NJ (1,306 residents); Plattsburgh West, NY (1,306 residents); Duncannon, PA (1,306 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.
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 New Buffalo?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 118.5 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 95% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Total reported rate
118.5
Violent rate
59.2
Property rate
59.2
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
How far does income reach against housing in New Buffalo?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
5.3×
Home value
$342,700
Household income
$64,524
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 7.5% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
96.2 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
C
City profile score · New Buffalo, MI
59/100
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-
59 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share B+
40.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living C
96.2 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-
7.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income D
$64,524
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
New Buffalo profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 81/100 (A-) · 59 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 75/100 (B+) · 40.1%
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Poverty rate: 50/100 (C-) · 7.5%
Household income: 41/100 (D) · $64,524
Where New Buffalo sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
New Buffalo'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 - New Buffalo highlighted among 22 peers.Read the chart values
New Buffalo, MI (this city): home $342,700, crime 119/100k
Flippin, AR : home $111,800, crime 6,637/100k
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 New Buffalo compare to other US cities?
Where New Buffalo sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income42% higher than other cities
Home value71% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety97% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Michigan and the picture shifts: New Buffalo ranks #3 of 254 Michigan cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares New Buffalo against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Michigan only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Michigan-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places New Buffalo near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, New Buffalo ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares New Buffalo only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#292 of 718
59th percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#56 of 721
92nd percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#382 of 727
47th percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#122 of 727
83rd percentile in Michigan
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 Michigan only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
42nd percentile nationally for median household income · 97th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
New Buffalo's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
New Buffalo'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 New Buffalo's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$342,70029th percentilemore affordable than 29% 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
New Buffalo's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,336 of 15,516
More affordable than 14% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,014 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.3×, New Buffalo sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,336 of 15,516 and #10,014 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
$64,524New Buffalo, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context New Buffalo, MI median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for New Buffalo, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)40.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,306
Median Income
$64,524
Median Home Value
$342,700
Median Age
53.8
Poverty Rate
7.5%
Labor force participation
57.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
40.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
118.5
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
59.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
59.2
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
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
New Buffalo's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,706 residents
2021
1,699 residents
2022
1,694 residents
2023
1,688 residents
2024
1,689 residents
2025
1,685 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
2
housing units authorized
Single-Family
2
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
1.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
7
7
0
$1.6M
2020
8
8
0
$1.8M
2021
9
9
0
$2.0M
2022
9
9
0
$3.0M
2023
9
9
0
$2.9M
2024
2
2
0
$0.9M
Permit volume decreased 71% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.0%
Carpool
6.6%
Public Transit
1.0%
Walk
4.0%
Work from Home
12.4%
Based on 671 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Michigan statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $238
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Michigan at $238 (electricity about $105 , water and sewer about $48 ).
These are Michigan statewide averages, not a meter reading for New Buffalo. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Michigan's BEA cost-of-living index is 96.2 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around New Buffalo is $1,113/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Michigan statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.6 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Michigan statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county New Buffalo sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How New Buffalo compares to similar-size Michigan 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.