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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-REED-CITY-MI · Reed City, MI 2,505 pop · income 17th pct · 7 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 Reed City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Reed City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Clinton · lowest
41,447
Clinton · lowest
41,447 median HH income
22.8% of the leader · rank #1
Leisure · near
48,640
Leisure · near
48,640 median HH income
26.7% of the leader · rank #2
Taylorsville · near
48,640
Taylorsville · near
48,640 median HH income
26.7% of the leader · rank #3
Bristol · near
48,643
Bristol · near
48,643 median HH income
26.7% of the leader · rank #4
Reed City · this city
48,646
Reed City · this city
48,646 median HH income
26.7% of the leader · rank #5
Navasota · near
48,646
Navasota · near
48,646 median HH income
26.7% of the leader · rank #6
Village of Gr… · highest
182,000
Village of Gr… · highest
182,000 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 Reed City 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: 2,505.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Reed City - the verdict
Reed City ranks in the 17th percentile for household income and the 30th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
17th
percentile, household income
11th
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
30th
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: Reed City, MI
Reed City is a small town in Michigan, home to 2,505 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Reed City households earn a median of $48,646 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 11.3%. Home values in Reed City run a median of $105,400, and the median resident age is 40.8 years. About 14.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 45.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Crime here tracks close to the national norm: FBI UCR figures show 2093.2 crimes per 100,000 residents, near 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: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Michigan at 96.2 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,113 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $238 across Michigan, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.6 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Reed City'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 housing and income to population change to schools and households to comparison shortlist to reported crime to work and mobility to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Reed City, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Reed City?
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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 11.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Is Reed City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +44 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.8% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Reed City?
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 Woodland Beach (2,509 residents, $70,330 income); Newaygo (2,486 residents, $41,934 income); Spring Lake (2,530 residents, $75,000 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Pymatuning Central, PA (2,505 residents); Sumiton, AL (2,506 residents); Clinton, AR (2,506 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.
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.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Reed City?
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. 14.7% 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.
Poverty estimate
11.3%
Bachelor's degree+
14.7%
Matched public schools
3
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Reed City?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 2093.2 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, near the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 8% 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
2093.2
Violent rate
473.9
Property rate
1619.3
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
What does the journey to work look like in Reed City?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 73.4%. 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.
Drive alone
73.4%
Work from home
9.8%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 961 workers age 16+.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
F
City profile score · Reed City, MI
29/100
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.
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 F
11.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$48,646
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
474 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Reed City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Poverty rate: 35/100 (F) · 11.3%
Bachelor's+ share: 19/100 (F) · 14.7%
Household income: 18/100 (F) · $48,646
Violent crime: 18/100 (F) · 474 /100k
Where Reed City sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Reed City'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 - Reed City highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Reed City, MI (this city): home $105,400, crime 2,093/100k
Sumiton, AL : home $176,500, crime 955/100k
Newaygo, MI : home $102,900, crime 2,535/100k
Shelby, MI : home $124,000, crime 459/100k
Charlevoix, MI : home $294,400, crime 1,662/100k
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 Reed City compare to other US cities?
Here's how Reed City stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income17% higher than other cities
Home value11% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety30% 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: Reed City ranks #189 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 Reed City 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 Reed City near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Reed City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Reed City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#550 of 718
23rd percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#551 of 721
24th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#263 of 727
64th percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#490 of 727
32nd 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
17th percentile nationally for median household income · 30th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Reed City's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Reed City'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 Reed City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$105,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 89% 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
Reed City's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,307 of 15,516
More affordable than 85% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,175 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.2×, Reed City sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,307 of 15,516 and #2,175 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
$48,646Reed City, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Reed City, 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 Reed City, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)11.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)45.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,505
Median Income
$48,646
Median Home Value
$105,400
Median Age
40.8
Poverty Rate
11.3%
Labor force participation
45.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
2093.2
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
473.9
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1619.3
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
Reed City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,484 residents
2021
2,511 residents
2022
2,513 residents
2023
2,516 residents
2024
2,537 residents
2025
2,528 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
73.4%
Carpool
11.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
4.6%
Work from Home
9.8%
Based on 961 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 Reed City. 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 Reed City 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 Reed City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Reed City 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.