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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-ALPINE-NJ · Alpine, NJ 1,503 pop · income 99th 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 Alpine
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Alpine on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Cedar Glen La… · lowest
33,958
Cedar Glen La… · lowest
33,958 median HH income
13.6% of the leader · rank #1
Alpine · this city
250,001
Alpine · this city
250,001 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #2
Castle Hill · highest
250,001
Castle Hill · highest
250,001 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #3
Alamo · near
250,001
Alamo · near
250,001 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #4
Atherton · near
250,001
Atherton · near
250,001 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Bell Canyon · near
250,001
Bell Canyon · near
250,001 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Belvedere · near
250,001
Belvedere · near
250,001 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 Alpine 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: 1,503.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Alpine - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Alpine places in the 99th percentile for household income and the 53rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
99th
percentile, household income
99th
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
53rd
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: Alpine, NJ
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 1,503 residents in Alpine, a small town within New Jersey. Median household income in Alpine is reported as $250,000+ under the Census ACS top-code, meaning $250,000 or more rather than an exact figure, with a poverty rate of 2.3%. Home values in Alpine sit on the ACS top-code of $2,000,000+; the true median is at least that high and is not published exactly, and the median resident age is 50.4 years. Educational attainment runs 80.8% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 54.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 5 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Stable), up 0% from five years earlier. Alpine reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1290.0 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).
New Jersey carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 108.8 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Well Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $2,132 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New Jersey's average monthly utility costs around $275 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 90.8 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Alpine'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 population change to housing and income to comparison shortlist to work and mobility to schools and households to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Alpine, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Population change
Is Alpine growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +6 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.3% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 5 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
How far does income reach against housing in Alpine?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 8.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.3%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Which cities make useful reference points for Alpine?
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Cedar Glen Lakes (1,509 residents, $33,958 income); Absecon Highlands (1,512 residents, $80,511 income); Vernon Center (1,490 residents, $74,853 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Key Vista, FL (1,503 residents); Daleville, IN (1,503 residents); Watson, LA (1,503 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
What does the journey to work look like in Alpine?
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 65.6%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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 Alpine?
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 80.8% 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 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.
Matched public schools
1
Bachelor's degree+
80.8%
Poverty estimate
2.3%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Alpine?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1290.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 43% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
1177.8
Violent rate
112.2
Total reported rate
1290.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Note: Census ACS censors the tails of median household income ($250,000+ / under $2,500) and median home value ($2,000,000+ / under $10,000).
Alpine's income is shown as $250,000+ - a bound shared with other high-income places, not an exact annual figure. Home value is shown as $2,000,000+ for the same reason.
B
City profile score · Alpine, NJ
72/100
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.
Household income A+
$250,000+
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
80.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate A-
2.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime B-
112 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Cost of living F
108.8 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Alpine profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $250,000+
Bachelor's+ share: 100/100 (A+) · 80.8%
Poverty rate: 84/100 (A-) · 2.3%
Violent crime: 68/100 (B-) · 112 /100k
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Where Alpine sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Alpine'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 - Alpine highlighted among 21 peers.Read the chart values
Alpine, NJ (this city): home $2,000,000+, crime 1,290/100k
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 Alpine compare to other US cities?
Here's how Alpine stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income99% higher than other cities
Home value99% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety53% 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 New Jersey, Alpine ranks #144 of 238 New Jersey 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 Alpine against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to New Jersey only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
New Jersey-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Alpine near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Alpine ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Alpine only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1 of 659
98th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#1 of 672
99th percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#394 of 680
40th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#20 of 686
97th percentile in New Jersey
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 New Jersey only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
99th percentile nationally for median household income · 53rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Alpine's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Alpine'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 Alpine's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$2,000,000+1st percentilemore affordable than 1% 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
Alpine's home-value-to-income ratio: 8.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#15,011 of 15,516
More affordable than 3% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#11,013 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 8.0×, Alpine sits in the pressured band:
national rank #15,011 of 15,516 and #11,013 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$250,000+Alpine, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Alpine, NJ median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Alpine, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)80.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,503
Median Income
$250,000+
Median Home Value
$2,000,000+
Median Age
50.4
Poverty Rate
2.3%
Labor force participation
54.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
80.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1290.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
112.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1177.8
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
1
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Alpine's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
1,753 residents
2021
1,747 residents
2022
1,750 residents
2023
1,751 residents
2024
1,764 residents
2025
1,759 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Stable
Total Permits (2024)
5
housing units authorized
Single-Family
5
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
5
5
0
$5.8M
2020
16
16
0
$4.0M
2021
2
2
0
$2.6M
2022
4
4
0
$7.6M
2023
14
14
0
$23.2M
2024
5
5
0
$5.3M
Permit volume increased 0% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
65.6%
Carpool
12.9%
Public Transit
4.5%
Walk
1.9%
Work from Home
14.9%
Based on 643 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
New Jersey statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $275
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across New Jersey at $275 (electricity about $120 , water and sewer about $60 ).
These are New Jersey statewide averages, not a meter reading for Alpine. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
New Jersey's BEA cost-of-living index is 108.8 (Well Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Alpine is $2,132/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to New Jersey statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 90.8 / 100 (Very High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a New Jersey statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Alpine sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Alpine compares to similar-size New Jersey 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 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.