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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-SAND-LAKE-MI · Sand Lake, MI 1,214 pop · income 19th 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 Sand Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sand Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Lemmon · lowest
42,461
Lemmon · lowest
42,461 median HH income
32.7% of the leader · rank #1
Pleasureville · near
49,612
Pleasureville · near
49,612 median HH income
38.2% of the leader · rank #2
Guttenberg · near
49,613
Guttenberg · near
49,613 median HH income
38.2% of the leader · rank #3
Sand Lake · this city
49,615
Sand Lake · this city
49,615 median HH income
38.2% of the leader · rank #4
Murrayville · near
49,615
Murrayville · near
49,615 median HH income
38.2% of the leader · rank #5
Indianola · near
49,615
Indianola · near
49,615 median HH income
38.2% of the leader · rank #6
Nixon · highest
129,909
Nixon · highest
129,909 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Sand Lake on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 1,214.
Sand Lake ranks in the 19th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
19th
percentile, household income
24th
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
📝 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: Sand Lake, MI
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 1,214 residents in Sand Lake, a small town within Michigan. Sand Lake households earn a median of $49,615 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 14.1%. Home values in Sand Lake run a median of $139,300, and the median resident age is 61.9 years. Educational attainment runs 15.9% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 32.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 1 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
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. Workers in Sand Lake report an average commute of 32.7 minutes, with 77.9% driving alone and 11.2% working from home. Natural-hazard exposure scores 49.6 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Sand 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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sand Lake, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Sand Lake?
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.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 15.9% 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 Sand Lake?
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.
Within Michigan, the closest population matches are Brown City (1,211 residents, $60,357 income); Weidman (1,217 residents, $49,545 income); Kent City (1,218 residents, $74,375 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are West Crossett, AR (1,214 residents); Nixon, PA (1,214 residents); Lemmon, SD (1,214 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Sand Lake?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 77.9%. The reported mean trip to work is 32.7 minutes.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Sand Lake?
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 home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 14.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
F
City profile score · Sand Lake, MI
31/100
4 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
14.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$49,615
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Sand Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Poverty rate: 24/100 (F) · 14.1%
Bachelor's+ share: 23/100 (F) · 15.9%
Household income: 20/100 (F) · $49,615
How does Sand Lake compare to other US cities?
Sand Lake measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income19% higher than other cities
Home value24% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Sand 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 Sand Lake near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sand Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sand Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#530 of 718
26th percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#396 of 721
45th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#186 of 727
74th percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#451 of 727
38th 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
19th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Sand Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$139,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 76% 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
Sand Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,628 of 15,516
More affordable than 64% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,879 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.8×, Sand Lake sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,628 of 15,516 and #4,879 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
$49,615Sand Lake, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sand 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 Sand Lake, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)14.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)32.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,214
Median Income
$49,615
Median Home Value
$139,300
Median Age
61.9
Poverty Rate
14.1%
Labor force participation
32.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.9%
Schools
Total Schools
1
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
32.7 minutes
Drive Alone
77.9%
Carpool
5.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
3.1%
Work from Home
11.2%
Other
2.5%
Based on 358 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 Sand 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 Sand 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 Sand Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sand 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, 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.