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Place dossier plate
SheetNC-FOREST-OAKS-NC · Forest Oaks, NC 4,095 pop · income 82nd 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 Forest Oaks
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Forest Oaks on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jonesboro · lowest
36,458
Jonesboro · lowest
36,458 median HH income
33.4% of the leader · rank #1
Manchester · near
108,242
Manchester · near
108,242 median HH income
99.2% of the leader · rank #2
Forest Oaks · this city
108,250
Forest Oaks · this city
108,250 median HH income
99.2% of the leader · rank #3
Hockingport · near
108,250
Hockingport · near
108,250 median HH income
99.2% of the leader · rank #4
Marana · near
108,256
Marana · near
108,256 median HH income
99.2% of the leader · rank #5
Deer Park · near
108,261
Deer Park · near
108,261 median HH income
99.2% of the leader · rank #6
Trent Woods · highest
109,097
Trent Woods · highest
109,097 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 Forest Oaks 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: 4,095.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Forest Oaks lands in the 82nd percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
82nd
percentile, household income
64th
percentile, home value
48th
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: Forest Oaks, NC
4,095 people live in Forest Oaks, North Carolina - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Forest Oaks report a median income of $108,250 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.7%. Home values in Forest Oaks run a median of $294,400, and the median resident age is 48.9 years. About 46.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 57.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Living costs in North Carolina run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, North Carolina scores 94.3 (Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,161 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts North Carolina's average monthly utility costs around $215 (state average). The average commute for Forest Oaks workers runs 19.4 minutes, with 77.8% driving alone and 11.3% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 66.7 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Forest Oaks'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Forest Oaks, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Forest Oaks?
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 4.7%, 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Forest Oaks?
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 77.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 19.4 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Forest Oaks?
Within North Carolina, the closest population matches are Trent Woods (4,086 residents, $109,097 income); Southport (4,143 residents, $82,792 income); Benson (4,144 residents, $65,614 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are North East, MD (4,095 residents); Gordon Heights, NY (4,095 residents); Metamora, IL (4,094 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.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, North Carolina average
B
City profile score · Forest Oaks, NC
74/100
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.
Household income A-
$108,250
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A-
46.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate B-
4.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living B-
94.3 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Forest Oaks profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 81/100 (A-) · $108,250
Bachelor's+ share: 81/100 (A-) · 46.7%
Poverty rate: 67/100 (B-) · 4.7%
Cost of living: 67/100 (B-) · 94.3 index
How does Forest Oaks compare to other US cities?
Where Forest Oaks sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income82% higher than other cities
Home value64% pricier than other cities
Median rent48% 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 Forest Oaks against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to North Carolina only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
North Carolina-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Forest Oaks near the bottom of North Carolina's cities
Among the 746 North Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Forest Oaks ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Forest Oaks only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#56 of 700
92nd percentile in North Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 746
0th percentile in North Carolina
Median Home Value
#167 of 708
76th percentile in North Carolina
Poverty Rate
#519 of 746
29th percentile in North Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#100 of 746
87th percentile in North Carolina
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 North Carolina only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
82nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Forest Oaks's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$294,40036th percentilemore affordable than 36% 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
Forest Oaks's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,126 of 15,516
More affordable than 67% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,488 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, Forest Oaks sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,126 of 15,516 and #4,488 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
$108,250Forest Oaks, NC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Forest Oaks, NC median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Forest Oaks, NC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)46.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,095
Median Income
$108,250
Median Home Value
$294,400
Median Age
48.9
Poverty Rate
4.7%
Labor force participation
57.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
46.7%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
19.4 minutes
Drive Alone
77.8%
Carpool
10.9%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
11.3%
Based on 1,885 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
North Carolina statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $215
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across North Carolina at $215 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $45 ).
These are North Carolina statewide averages, not a meter reading for Forest Oaks. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
North Carolina's BEA cost-of-living index is 94.3 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Forest Oaks is $1,161/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to North Carolina statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 66.7 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a North Carolina statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Forest Oaks sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Forest Oaks compares to similar-size North Carolina 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, 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.