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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-LAUREL-LAKE-NJ · Laurel Lake, NJ 2,514 pop · income 22nd 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 Laurel Lake
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Laurel Lake on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Glenns Ferry · lowest
51,625
Glenns Ferry · lowest
51,625 median HH income
28.0% of the leader · rank #1
Dowell · near
51,625
Dowell · near
51,625 median HH income
28.0% of the leader · rank #2
Laurel Lake · this city
51,633
Laurel Lake · this city
51,633 median HH income
28.0% of the leader · rank #3
Factoryville · near
51,635
Factoryville · near
51,635 median HH income
28.0% of the leader · rank #4
Springfield · near
51,640
Springfield · near
51,640 median HH income
28.0% of the leader · rank #5
Peapack and G… · highest
184,231
Peapack and G… · highest
184,231 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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 Laurel 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: 2,514.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Laurel Lake lands in the 22nd percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
22nd
percentile, household income
23rd
percentile, home value
94th
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: Laurel Lake, NJ
Laurel Lake is a small town in New Jersey, home to 2,514 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Laurel Lake brings in $51,633 a year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 9.6%. Home values in Laurel Lake run a median of $138,100, and the median resident age is 44.1 years. 9.7% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 53.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
New Jersey carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, New Jersey scores 108.8 (Well Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,132 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in New Jersey run around $275, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 Laurel 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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Laurel Lake, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Laurel Lake?
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 9.6%, 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Laurel Lake?
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Whittingham (2,516 residents, $75,764 income); Belvidere (2,526 residents, $100,334 income); East Newark (2,529 residents, $65,272 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Le Center, MN (2,514 residents); Silver Lake, OH (2,514 residents); North Prairie, WI (2,514 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Laurel Lake?
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 84.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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 D
9.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$51,633
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
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.
Bachelor's+ share F
9.7%
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).
Laurel Lake profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 41/100 (D) · 9.6%
Household income: 22/100 (F) · $51,633
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Bachelor's+ share: 6/100 (F) · 9.7%
How does Laurel Lake compare to other US cities?
Laurel Lake 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 value23% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% 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 Laurel Lake 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 Laurel Lake near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Laurel Lake ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Laurel Lake only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#636 of 659
3rd percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#657 of 672
2nd percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#102 of 680
84th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#668 of 686
3rd 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
22nd percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Laurel Lake's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$138,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 77% 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
Laurel Lake's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,894 of 15,516
More affordable than 68% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,310 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, Laurel Lake sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,894 of 15,516 and #4,310 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
$51,633Laurel Lake, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Laurel Lake, 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 Laurel Lake, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)9.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,514
Median Income
$51,633
Median Home Value
$138,100
Median Age
44.1
Poverty Rate
9.6%
Labor force participation
53.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
9.7%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
84.0%
Carpool
10.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
3.6%
Other
1.8%
Based on 1,033 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 Laurel Lake. 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 Laurel Lake 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 Laurel Lake sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Laurel Lake 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, 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.