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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-PREAKNESS-NJ · Preakness, NJ 18,538 pop · income 91st pct · 120 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 Preakness
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Preakness on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Arcata · lowest
48,731
Arcata · lowest
48,731 median HH income
23.2% of the leader · rank #1
Fish Hawk · near
133,142
Fish Hawk · near
133,142 median HH income
63.3% of the leader · rank #2
Preakness · this city
133,168
Preakness · this city
133,168 median HH income
63.4% of the leader · rank #3
Laurys Station · near
133,173
Laurys Station · near
133,173 median HH income
63.4% of the leader · rank #4
Lake Point · near
133,175
Lake Point · near
133,175 median HH income
63.4% of the leader · rank #5
Old Miakka · near
133,193
Old Miakka · near
133,193 median HH income
63.4% of the leader · rank #6
Franklin Farm · highest
210,169
Franklin Farm · highest
210,169 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 Preakness 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: 18,538.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Preakness lands in the 91st percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
91st
percentile, household income
89th
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: Preakness, NJ
New Jersey's Preakness is a small town, with 18,538 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $133,168 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.6%. Preakness's housing stock carries a median value of $603,200, and the median resident age is 41.1 years. Educational attainment runs 58.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 64.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
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. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $2,132 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across New Jersey, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 90.8 out of 100 (Very High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Preakness'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 comparison shortlist to within-city variation 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 Preakness, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, within-city Census tract profiles.
No matched row is reported here for local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Preakness?
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.
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Dover (18,420 residents, $70,519 income); Ocean Acres (18,689 residents, $117,739 income); Rutherford (18,748 residents, $136,069 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Westerly, RI (18,528 residents); Coronado, CA (18,558 residents); Ocean Springs, MS (18,561 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.
What can 120 Census tracts reveal inside Preakness?
PlainCities matches 120 Census tracts to this city.
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.
How far does income reach against housing in Preakness?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Preakness?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 72.1%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
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+
$133,168
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
58.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate A
1.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Preakness profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 91/100 (A+) · $133,168
Bachelor's+ share: 91/100 (A+) · 58.4%
Poverty rate: 89/100 (A) · 1.6%
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
How does Preakness compare to other US cities?
Preakness measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income91% higher than other cities
Home value89% 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 Preakness 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 Preakness near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Preakness ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Preakness only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#180 of 659
73rd percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#152 of 672
77th percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#457 of 680
32nd percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#177 of 686
74th 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
91st percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Preakness's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$603,20011th percentilemore affordable than 11% 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
Preakness's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#12,041 of 15,516
More affordable than 22% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,365 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 4.5×, Preakness sits in the moderate band:
national rank #12,041 of 15,516 and #2,365 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$133,168Preakness, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Preakness, 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 Preakness, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)58.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)64.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
18,538
Median Income
$133,168
Median Home Value
$603,200
Median Age
41.1
Poverty Rate
1.6%
Labor force participation
64.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
58.4%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.1%
Carpool
7.7%
Public Transit
6.8%
Walk
0.8%
Work from Home
12.4%
Based on 9,414 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 Preakness. 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 Preakness 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 Preakness sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Preakness 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.