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Place dossier plate
SheetMN-PINE-CITY-MN · Pine City, MN 3,339 pop · income 22nd pct · 9 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 Pine City
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Pine City on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Liberty · lowest
42,077
Liberty · lowest
42,077 median HH income
36.5% of the leader · rank #1
La Croft · near
51,650
La Croft · near
51,650 median HH income
44.8% of the leader · rank #2
Drayton · near
51,650
Drayton · near
51,650 median HH income
44.8% of the leader · rank #3
Pine City · this city
51,654
Pine City · this city
51,654 median HH income
44.8% of the leader · rank #4
Fowler · near
51,654
Fowler · near
51,654 median HH income
44.8% of the leader · rank #5
Athens-Clarke… · near
51,655
Athens-Clarke… · near
51,655 median HH income
44.8% of the leader · rank #6
Lake Cassidy · highest
115,417
Lake Cassidy · highest
115,417 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 Pine City 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: 3,339.
Nationally, Pine City sits in the 22nd percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
22nd
percentile, household income
37th
percentile, home value
36th
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: Pine City, MN
3,339 people live in Pine City, Minnesota - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Pine City report a median income of $51,654 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 9.9%. Pine City's housing stock carries a median value of $181,800, and the median resident age is 40.9 years. 16.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 53.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 0 residential units were authorized in 2024 (No Permits), down 100% from five years earlier.
Minnesota tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Minnesota scores 98.6 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,125 per month. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Minnesota's average monthly utility costs around $225 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 42.4 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Pine 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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility to within-city variation to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Pine City, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Pine City?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 16.1% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Pine City?
Within Minnesota, the closest population matches are Annandale (3,365 residents, $50,536 income); Montgomery (3,366 residents, $74,018 income); Breckenridge (3,369 residents, $57,344 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Morada, CA (3,337 residents); Clare, MI (3,341 residents); Liberty, SC (3,337 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Pine City?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.9%, 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.
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.
Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Pine City?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.9%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.1%
Work from home
4.8%
Drive alone
76.9%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,417 workers age 16+.
Is Pine City growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +673 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +21.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 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
+21.4%
2025 estimate
3,820
2020 estimate
3,147
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Minnesota average
F
City profile score · Pine City, MN
33/100
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 D
98.6 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 D
9.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$51,654
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Pine City profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 46/100 (D) · 98.6 index
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 9.9%
Household income: 23/100 (F) · $51,654
Bachelor's+ share: 23/100 (F) · 16.1%
How does Pine City compare to other US cities?
Pine City measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income22% higher than other cities
Home value37% pricier than other cities
Median rent36% 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 Pine City against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Minnesota only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Minnesota-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Pine City near the bottom of Minnesota's cities
Among the 785 Minnesota cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Pine City ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Pine City only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#649 of 775
16th percentile in Minnesota
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 785
0th percentile in Minnesota
Median Home Value
#361 of 774
53rd percentile in Minnesota
Poverty Rate
#203 of 785
74th percentile in Minnesota
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#531 of 784
32nd percentile in Minnesota
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 Minnesota only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
22nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Pine City's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$181,800Among the most affordablemore affordable than 63% 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
Pine City's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,042 of 15,516
More affordable than 42% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,287 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.5×, Pine City sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,042 of 15,516 and #7,287 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
$51,654Pine City, MN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Pine City, MN median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Pine City, MN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,339
Median Income
$51,654
Median Home Value
$181,800
Median Age
40.9
Poverty Rate
9.9%
Labor force participation
53.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.1%
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Pine City's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,147 residents
2021
3,217 residents
2022
3,441 residents
2023
3,700 residents
2024
3,864 residents
2025
3,820 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
17
17
0
$2.7M
2020
19
19
0
$3.0M
2021
121
14
107
$17.9M
2022
136
0
136
$2.0M
2023
94
1
93
$3.3M
2024
0
0
0
-
Permit volume decreased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.9%
Carpool
11.7%
Public Transit
0.1%
Walk
6.5%
Work from Home
4.8%
Based on 1,417 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Minnesota statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $225
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Minnesota at $225 (electricity about $95 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are Minnesota statewide averages, not a meter reading for Pine City. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Minnesota's BEA cost-of-living index is 98.6 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Pine City is $1,125/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Minnesota statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 42.4 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Minnesota statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Pine City sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Pine City compares to similar-size Minnesota 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 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.