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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-ORCHARD-LAKE-MI · Orchard Lake, MI 2,298 pop · income 98th 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 Orchard Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Orchard Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Hartford · lowest
39,868
Hartford · lowest
39,868 median HH income
18.7% of the leader · rank #1
Downsville · near
212,605
Downsville · near
212,605 median HH income
99.7% of the leader · rank #2
Westfield · near
212,700
Westfield · near
212,700 median HH income
99.7% of the leader · rank #3
Tiburon · near
212,794
Tiburon · near
212,794 median HH income
99.8% of the leader · rank #4
Orchard Lake · this city
212,813
Orchard Lake · this city
212,813 median HH income
99.8% of the leader · rank #5
Plum Valley · near
213,084
Plum Valley · near
213,084 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #6
Glen Ellen · highest
213,261
Glen Ellen · highest
213,261 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 Orchard Lake 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: 2,298.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Orchard Lake - the verdict
Nationally, Orchard Lake sits in the 98th percentile for household income and the 73rd percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
98th
percentile, household income
95th
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
73rd
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: Orchard Lake, MI
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 2,298 residents in Orchard Lake, a small town within Michigan. Median household income here is $212,813 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 7.3%. Home values in Orchard Lake run a median of $799,500, and the median resident age is 51.4 years. About 68.3% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 58.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 5 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 29% from five years earlier. Orchard Lake reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 773.4 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Living costs in Michigan run below the national norm: the state registers 96.2 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,113 per month statewide. 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 Orchard Lake'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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to housing and income to reported crime to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Orchard Lake, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, 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.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Orchard Lake?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 79.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Which cities make useful reference points for Orchard Lake?
Within Michigan, the closest population matches are Hartford (2,312 residents, $39,868 income); Harrison (2,275 residents, $40,888 income); Trowbridge Park (2,271 residents, $63,176 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Westover, AL (2,298 residents); Arlington, MN (2,298 residents); Castle Rock, WA (2,298 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 does the education layer cover for Orchard Lake?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 68.3% 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 matched institution count is small, so district boundaries and schools outside the city line may matter more than the municipal count suggests. Use the number as a coverage cue, then verify attendance zones with the district before making a household decision.
How far does income reach against housing in Orchard Lake?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.3%, 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.
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 Orchard Lake?
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 773.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 66% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
591.4
Violent rate
182.0
Total reported rate
773.4
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Orchard Lake 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 declined by -6 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.3% 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.
Period change
-0.3%
2025 estimate
2,214
2020 estimate
2,220
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Top-decile income · poverty 7.3% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
96.2 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
B
City profile score · Orchard Lake, MI
71/100
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.
Household income A+
$212,813
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
68.3%
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-
7.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime C-
182 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Orchard Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $212,813
Bachelor's+ share: 97/100 (A+) · 68.3%
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Poverty rate: 51/100 (C-) · 7.3%
Violent crime: 50/100 (C-) · 182 /100k
Where Orchard Lake sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Orchard Lake'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 - Orchard Lake highlighted among 26 peers.Read the chart values
Orchard Lake, MI (this city): home $799,500, crime 773/100k
Arlington, MN : home $181,600, crime 258/100k
Castle Rock, WA : home $301,000, crime 1,069/100k
Belchertown, MA : home $331,500, crime 730/100k
Hartford, MI : home $95,200, crime 1,500/100k
Jonesville, MI : home $145,500, crime 2,769/100k
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 Orchard Lake compare to other US cities?
Here's how Orchard Lake stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income98% higher than other cities
Home value95% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety73% 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 Michigan alone, Orchard Lake ranks #81 of 254 Michigan 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 Orchard Lake 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 Orchard Lake near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Orchard Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Orchard Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#4 of 718
99th percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#6 of 721
99th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#391 of 727
45th percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#26 of 727
96th 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
98th percentile nationally for median household income · 73rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Orchard Lake's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Orchard Lake'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 Orchard Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$799,5005th percentilemore affordable than 5% 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
Orchard Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,905 of 15,516
More affordable than 36% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,849 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.8×, Orchard Lake sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,905 of 15,516 and #7,849 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$212,813Orchard Lake, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Orchard Lake, 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 Orchard Lake, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)68.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.3%
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
2,298
Median Income
$212,813
Median Home Value
$799,500
Median Age
51.4
Poverty Rate
7.3%
Labor force participation
58.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
68.3%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
773.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
182.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
591.4
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
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Orchard Lake's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,220 residents
2021
2,218 residents
2022
2,208 residents
2023
2,203 residents
2024
2,208 residents
2025
2,214 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
5
housing units authorized
Single-Family
5
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
7
7
0
$8.8M
2020
2
2
0
$10.8M
2021
3
3
0
$5.0M
2022
6
6
0
$6.8M
2023
5
5
0
$10.7M
2024
5
5
0
$9.6M
Permit volume decreased 29% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
79.4%
Carpool
0.7%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.5%
Work from Home
19.4%
Based on 1,106 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 Orchard Lake. 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 Orchard Lake 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 Orchard Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Orchard Lake 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.