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Place dossier plate
SheetNM-LOVINGTON-NM · Lovington, NM 11,444 pop · income 46th 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 Lovington
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lovington on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Silver City · lowest
39,025
Silver City · lowest
39,025 median HH income
25.5% of the leader · rank #1
Lakewood Club · near
67,277
Lakewood Club · near
67,277 median HH income
43.9% of the leader · rank #2
Lake Buckhorn · near
67,279
Lake Buckhorn · near
67,279 median HH income
43.9% of the leader · rank #3
Lovington · this city
67,284
Lovington · this city
67,284 median HH income
43.9% of the leader · rank #4
Grand Blanc · near
67,284
Grand Blanc · near
67,284 median HH income
43.9% of the leader · rank #5
North Springf… · near
67,290
North Springf… · near
67,290 median HH income
43.9% of the leader · rank #6
Half Moon Bay · highest
153,199
Half Moon Bay · highest
153,199 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 Lovington 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: 11,444.
Nationally, Lovington sits in the 46th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
46th
percentile, household income
31st
percentile, home value
39th
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: Lovington, NM
11,444 people live in Lovington, New Mexico - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Lovington report a median income of $67,284 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 19.0%. Home values in Lovington run a median of $162,900, and the median resident age is 33.0 years. About 9.6% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 53.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 10 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Living costs in New Mexico run below the national norm: the state registers 92.2 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Below Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,129 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New Mexico's average monthly utility costs around $167 (state average). On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 58.9 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Lovington'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 schools and households to population change to comparison shortlist 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 Lovington, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, annual population history, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Lovington?
The NCES join finds 10 public schools within the city match. 9.6% 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 city has a broader matched school footprint, but count alone does not describe performance, capacity, program availability, or attendance boundaries. This profile deliberately avoids converting it into an unsupported family-friendliness score.
Is Lovington 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 declined by -53 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.5% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lovington?
Within New Mexico, the closest population matches are North Valley (11,474 residents, $67,115 income); Portales (12,023 residents, $51,290 income); Española (10,472 residents, $47,664 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Mack, OH (11,444 residents); Ridgefield, NJ (11,439 residents); Moss Bluff, LA (11,451 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Lovington?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 19.0%, 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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
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 Lovington?
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 68.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
9.4%
Drive alone
68.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 4,226 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 19.0% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
92.2 (US=100)
Affordable · BEA RPP 2024, New Mexico average
F
City profile score · Lovington, NM
38/100
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.
Cost of living B+
92.2 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Household income D
$67,284
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
19.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
9.6%
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).
Lovington profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 77/100 (B+) · 92.2 index
Household income: 45/100 (D) · $67,284
Poverty rate: 15/100 (F) · 19.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 5/100 (F) · 9.6%
How does Lovington compare to other US cities?
Where Lovington sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income46% higher than other cities
Home value31% pricier than other cities
Median rent39% 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 Lovington against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to New Mexico only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
New Mexico-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Lovington near the bottom of New Mexico's cities
Among the 409 New Mexico cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lovington ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lovington only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#113 of 324
65th percentile in New Mexico
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 409
0th percentile in New Mexico
Median Home Value
#189 of 324
42nd percentile in New Mexico
Poverty Rate
#150 of 408
63rd percentile in New Mexico
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#285 of 409
30th percentile in New Mexico
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 Mexico only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
46th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Lovington's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$162,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 69% 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
Lovington's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#3,605 of 15,516
More affordable than 77% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#302 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.4×, Lovington sits in the affordable band:
national rank #3,605 of 15,516 and #302 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$67,284Lovington, NM median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lovington, NM median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Lovington, NM.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)9.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)19.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)53.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
11,444
Median Income
$67,284
Median Home Value
$162,900
Median Age
33.0
Poverty Rate
19.0%
Labor force participation
53.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
9.6%
Schools
Total Schools
10
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Lovington's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
11,673 residents
2021
11,425 residents
2022
11,231 residents
2023
11,400 residents
2024
11,584 residents
2025
11,620 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
68.0%
Carpool
21.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
9.4%
Other
1.0%
Based on 4,226 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
New Mexico statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $167
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across New Mexico at $167 (electricity about $85 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are New Mexico statewide averages, not a meter reading for Lovington. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
New Mexico's BEA cost-of-living index is 92.2 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Lovington is $1,129/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to New Mexico statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 58.9 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a New Mexico statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Lovington sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lovington compares to similar-size New Mexico 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, NCES CCD, 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.