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Place dossier plate
SheetMI-ST-CLAIR-SHORES-MI · St. Clair Shores, MI 58,287 pop · income 53rd 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 St. Clair Shores
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest St. Clair Shores on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Pontiac · lowest
42,791
Pontiac · lowest
42,791 median HH income
24.2% of the leader · rank #1
Seagrove · near
72,689
Seagrove · near
72,689 median HH income
41.1% of the leader · rank #2
Deerfield · near
72,692
Deerfield · near
72,692 median HH income
41.1% of the leader · rank #3
St. Clair Sho… · this city
72,693
St. Clair Sho… · this city
72,693 median HH income
41.1% of the leader · rank #4
Pensacola · near
72,699
Pensacola · near
72,699 median HH income
41.1% of the leader · rank #5
Chapman · near
72,699
Chapman · near
72,699 median HH income
41.1% of the leader · rank #6
Hoboken · highest
176,943
Hoboken · highest
176,943 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 St. Clair Shores 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: 58,287.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
St. Clair Shores - the verdict
Nationally, St. Clair Shores sits in the 53rd percentile for household income and the 54th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
53rd
percentile, household income
42nd
percentile, home value
32nd
percentile, median rent
54th
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: St. Clair Shores, MI
St. Clair Shores is a small city in Michigan, home to 58,287 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. St. Clair Shores households earn a median of $72,693 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.5%. Home values in St. Clair Shores run a median of $196,400, and the median resident age is 43.7 years. About 29.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 61.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 18 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 40% from five years earlier. St. Clair Shores reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1250.9 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: 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. Monthly utility costs average around $238 across Michigan, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Workers in St. Clair Shores report an average commute of 24.0 minutes, with 78.8% driving alone and 12.3% working from home. 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 St. Clair Shores'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 reported crime to comparison shortlist to population change to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For St. Clair Shores, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in St. Clair Shores?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1250.9 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 45% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for St. Clair Shores?
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 Royal Oak (57,880 residents, $95,182 income); Pontiac (61,914 residents, $42,791 income); Dearborn Heights (62,099 residents, $61,035 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Madison, AL (58,335 residents); Hoboken, NJ (58,340 residents); Carson, NV (58,364 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.
Is St. Clair Shores growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -889 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -1.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 18 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.
How far does income reach against housing in St. Clair Shores?
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 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.5%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in St. Clair Shores?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 78.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 24.0 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.
Drive alone
78.8%
Work from home
12.3%
Public transit
0.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 29,829 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 5.5% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
96.2 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Michigan average
C
City profile score · St. Clair Shores, MI
55/100
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 C+
5.5%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C
29.4%
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.
Household income C-
$72,693
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime C-
186 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
St. Clair Shores profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 62/100 (C+) · 5.5%
Bachelor's+ share: 57/100 (C) · 29.4%
Cost of living: 57/100 (C) · 96.2 index
Household income: 52/100 (C-) · $72,693
Violent crime: 50/100 (C-) · 186 /100k
Where St. Clair Shores sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
St. Clair Shores'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 - St. Clair Shores highlighted among 12 peers.Read the chart values
St. Clair Shores, MI (this city): home $196,400, crime 1,251/100k
Madison, AL : home $367,900, crime 1,538/100k
Hoboken, NJ : home $872,100, crime 1,972/100k
St. Peters, MO : home $252,800, crime 1,265/100k
Midwest City, OK : home $158,400, crime 2,428/100k
Springfield, OH : home $107,600, crime 5,887/100k
Royal Oak, MI : home $305,900, crime 926/100k
Pontiac, MI : home $110,600, crime 2,626/100k
Dearborn Heights, MI : home $174,900, crime 1,698/100k
Taylor, MI : home $141,200, crime 2,855/100k
Kentwood, MI : home $249,000, crime 2,570/100k
Battle Creek, MI : home $127,600, crime 3,644/100k
How does St. Clair Shores compare to other US cities?
Here's how St. Clair Shores stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income53% higher than other cities
Home value42% pricier than other cities
Median rent32% pricier than other cities
Safety54% 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 Michigan, St. Clair Shores ranks #129 of 254 Michigan 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 St. Clair Shores 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 St. Clair Shores near the bottom of Michigan's cities
Among the 727 Michigan cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, St. Clair Shores ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares St. Clair Shores only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#206 of 718
71st percentile in Michigan
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 727
0th percentile in Michigan
Median Home Value
#229 of 721
68th percentile in Michigan
Poverty Rate
#457 of 727
37th percentile in Michigan
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#200 of 727
72nd 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
53rd percentile nationally for median household income · 54th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
St. Clair Shores's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
St. Clair Shores'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 St. Clair Shores's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$196,400Among the most affordablemore affordable than 58% 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
St. Clair Shores's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,043 of 15,516
More affordable than 67% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#68 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 2.7×, St. Clair Shores sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,043 of 15,516 and #68 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
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
$72,693St. Clair Shores, MI median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context St. Clair Shores, 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 St. Clair Shores, MI.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)29.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.5%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)61.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
58,287
Median Income
$72,693
Median Home Value
$196,400
Median Age
43.7
Poverty Rate
5.5%
Labor force participation
61.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
29.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1250.9
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
185.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1065.5
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.
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
St. Clair Shores's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
58,761 residents
2021
58,272 residents
2022
57,835 residents
2023
57,724 residents
2024
57,845 residents
2025
57,872 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
18
housing units authorized
Single-Family
10
detached homes
Multifamily
8
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
30
30
0
$5.1M
2020
6
6
0
$1.2M
2021
13
13
0
$2.6M
2022
9
9
0
$2.9M
2023
8
8
0
$1.6M
2024
18
10
8
$6.0M
Permit volume decreased 40% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
24.0 minutes
Drive Alone
78.8%
Carpool
6.1%
Public Transit
0.6%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
12.3%
Other
1.3%
Based on 29,829 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 St. Clair Shores. 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 St. Clair Shores 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 St. Clair Shores sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How St. Clair Shores 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, 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.