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Place dossier plate
SheetNJ-SPRING-LAKE-HEIGHTS-NJ · Spring Lake Heights, NJ 4,866 pop · income 79th 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 Spring Lake Heights
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Spring Lake Heights on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Abbeville · lowest
38,983
Abbeville · lowest
38,983 median HH income
21.6% of the leader · rank #1
Beachwood · near
102,798
Beachwood · near
102,798 median HH income
56.9% of the leader · rank #2
Sandia Knolls · near
102,801
Sandia Knolls · near
102,801 median HH income
56.9% of the leader · rank #3
Spring Lake H… · this city
102,829
Spring Lake H… · this city
102,829 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #4
Wonder Lake · near
102,829
Wonder Lake · near
102,829 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #5
Summitview · near
102,830
Summitview · near
102,830 median HH income
57.0% of the leader · rank #6
Harrington Pa… · highest
180,515
Harrington Pa… · highest
180,515 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 Spring Lake Heights 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: 4,866.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Spring Lake Heights - the verdict
Spring Lake Heights ranks in the 79th percentile for household income and the 97th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
79th
percentile, household income
91st
percentile, home value
94th
percentile, median rent
97th
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: Spring Lake Heights, NJ
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 4,866 residents in Spring Lake Heights, a small town within New Jersey. Spring Lake Heights households earn a median of $102,829 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.2%. Spring Lake Heights's housing stock carries a median value of $648,500, and the median resident age is 41.0 years. Educational attainment runs 57.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 67.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 23 residential building permits were authorized in Spring Lake Heights (Building Boom), up 92% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Spring Lake Heights reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 145.3 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $2,132 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $275 across New Jersey, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Spring Lake Heights'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 reported crime to population change to comparison shortlist to schools and households to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Spring Lake Heights, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
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.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Spring Lake Heights?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 145.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 94% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Is Spring Lake Heights growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -12 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 23 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Spring Lake Heights?
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.
Within New Jersey, the closest population matches are Penns Grove (4,860 residents, $43,889 income); Harrington Park (4,883 residents, $180,515 income); Flemington (4,887 residents, $74,213 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lexington, OH (4,866 residents); St. Augustine South, FL (4,864 residents); Dellwood, MO (4,869 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 does the education layer cover for Spring Lake Heights?
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.
The NCES join finds 1 public school within the city match. 57.2% 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.
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 Spring Lake Heights?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 68.9%. 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. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Drive alone
68.9%
Work from home
18.6%
Public transit
5.2%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 2,798 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Spring Lake Heights?
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 6.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.2%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
6.3×
Home value
$648,500
Household income
$102,829
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share A+
57.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate A-
2.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income B+
$102,829
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.
Spring Lake Heights profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Bachelor's+ share: 90/100 (A+) · 57.2%
Poverty rate: 84/100 (A-) · 2.2%
Household income: 78/100 (B+) · $102,829
Cost of living: 10/100 (F) · 108.8 index
Where Spring Lake Heights sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Spring Lake Heights'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 - Spring Lake Heights highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Spring Lake Heights, NJ (this city): home $648,500, crime 145/100k
Abbeville, SC : home $108,500, crime 1,686/100k
Desloge, MO : home $112,800, crime 3,297/100k
Keyser, WV : home $141,400, crime 1,488/100k
Penns Grove, NJ : home $170,100, crime 2,114/100k
Harrington Park, NJ : home $709,200, crime 212/100k
Flemington, NJ : home $372,700, crime 2,646/100k
Point Pleasant Beach, NJ : home $813,500, crime 2,351/100k
How does Spring Lake Heights compare to other US cities?
Here's how Spring Lake Heights stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income79% higher than other cities
Home value91% pricier than other cities
Median rent94% pricier than other cities
Safety97% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just New Jersey and the picture shifts: Spring Lake Heights ranks #6 of 238 New Jersey cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Spring Lake Heights 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 Spring Lake Heights near the bottom of New Jersey's cities
Among the 686 New Jersey cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Spring Lake Heights ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Spring Lake Heights only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#348 of 659
47th percentile in New Jersey
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 686
0th percentile in New Jersey
Median Home Value
#120 of 672
82nd percentile in New Jersey
Poverty Rate
#407 of 680
39th percentile in New Jersey
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#194 of 686
72nd 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
79th percentile nationally for median household income · 97th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Spring Lake Heights's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Spring Lake Heights'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 Spring Lake Heights's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$648,5009th percentilemore affordable than 9% 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
Spring Lake Heights's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,334 of 15,516
More affordable than 8% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,599 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 6.3×, Spring Lake Heights sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,334 of 15,516 and #10,599 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
$102,829Spring Lake Heights, NJ median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Spring Lake Heights, 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 Spring Lake Heights, NJ.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)57.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,866
Median Income
$102,829
Median Home Value
$648,500
Median Age
41.0
Poverty Rate
2.2%
Labor force participation
67.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
57.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
145.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
145.3
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
Spring Lake Heights's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,880 residents
2021
4,893 residents
2022
4,871 residents
2023
4,856 residents
2024
4,868 residents
2025
4,868 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
23
housing units authorized
Single-Family
23
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
4.7
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
12
12
0
$2.7M
2020
10
10
0
$3.3M
2021
7
7
0
$2.0M
2022
8
8
0
$4.2M
2023
11
11
0
$18.5M
2024
23
23
0
$12.1M
Permit volume increased 92% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
68.9%
Carpool
2.8%
Public Transit
5.2%
Walk
1.5%
Work from Home
18.6%
Other
3.0%
Based on 2,798 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 Spring Lake Heights. 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 Spring Lake Heights 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 Spring Lake Heights sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Spring Lake Heights 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.