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Place dossier plate
SheetNM-PORTALES-NM · Portales, NM 12,023 pop · income 21st pct · 5 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 Portales
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Portales on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Las Vegas · lowest
42,732
Las Vegas · lowest
42,732 median HH income
19.3% of the leader · rank #1
Portales · this city
51,290
Portales · this city
51,290 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #2
Fredericksbur… · near
51,292
Fredericksbur… · near
51,292 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #3
Wewahitchka · near
51,296
Wewahitchka · near
51,296 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #4
McRae-Helena · near
51,296
McRae-Helena · near
51,296 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #5
Camden · near
51,300
Camden · near
51,300 median HH income
23.1% of the leader · rank #6
Wakefield · highest
221,793
Wakefield · highest
221,793 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 Portales 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: 12,023.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Portales - the verdict
Nationally, Portales sits in the 21st percentile for household income and the 10th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
21st
percentile, household income
22nd
percentile, home value
39th
percentile, median rent
10th
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: Portales, NM
12,023 people live in Portales, New Mexico - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $51,290 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 20.2%. Typical homes in Portales are valued around $132,900, and the median resident age is 27.7 years. 26.4% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 57.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 31 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Rapid Growth), up 41% from five years earlier. Portales's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 3652.7 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, above the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA puts Portales's yearly average temperature at 60.1°F with 16.1 inches of precipitation per year and 7.6 inches of snowfall.
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. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,129 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in New Mexico run around $167, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Portales workers runs 14.6 minutes, with 76.8% driving alone and 2.2% working from home. 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 Portales'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 within-city variation to work and mobility to comparison shortlist to schools and households to housing and income to climate and hazard context to reported crime to population change; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Portales, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles, FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Within-city variation
What can 5 Census tracts reveal inside Portales?
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.
What does the journey to work look like in Portales?
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 76.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 14.6 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Portales?
Within New Mexico, the closest population matches are Artesia (12,555 residents, $77,647 income); North Valley (11,474 residents, $67,115 income); Lovington (11,444 residents, $67,284 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Bound Brook, NJ (12,023 residents); Honeygo, MD (12,022 residents); River Edge, NJ (12,024 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.
The NCES join finds 6 public schools within the city match. 26.4% 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.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Portales?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.6 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 20.2%, 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.
Household income
$51,290
Home value
$132,900
Value / income
2.6×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 60.1°F, with 16.1 inches of precipitation and 7.6 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for New Mexico is 58.9 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
Mean temperature
60.1°F
Annual precipitation
16.1 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
58.9
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Portales?
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 3652.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 60% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
2871.2
Violent rate
781.5
Total reported rate
3652.7
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Is Portales growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -385 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 31 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
-3.2%
2025 estimate
11,734
2020 estimate
12,119
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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.
Bachelor's+ share C-
26.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$51,290
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
20.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime F
782 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Portales profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 77/100 (B+) · 92.2 index
Bachelor's+ share: 52/100 (C-) · 26.4%
Household income: 22/100 (F) · $51,290
Poverty rate: 13/100 (F) · 20.2%
Violent crime: 2/100 (F) · 782 /100k
Where Portales sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Portales'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 - Portales highlighted among 25 peers.Read the chart values
Portales, NM (this city): home $132,900, crime 3,653/100k
River Edge, NJ : home $637,500, crime 785/100k
Artesia, NM : home $213,800, crime 2,650/100k
Las Vegas, NM : home $143,900, crime 2,122/100k
Los Alamos, NM : home $458,200, crime 454/100k
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 Portales compare to other US cities?
Here's how Portales stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income21% higher than other cities
Home value22% pricier than other cities
Median rent39% pricier than other cities
Safety10% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to New Mexico alone, Portales ranks #35 of 42 New Mexico cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Portales 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 Portales near the bottom of New Mexico's cities
Among the 409 New Mexico cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Portales ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Portales only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#184 of 324
43rd percentile in New Mexico
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 409
0th percentile in New Mexico
Median Home Value
#218 of 324
33rd percentile in New Mexico
Poverty Rate
#140 of 408
65th percentile in New Mexico
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#128 of 409
69th 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
21st percentile nationally for median household income · 10th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Portales's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Portales'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 Portales's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$132,900Among the most affordablemore affordable than 78% 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
Portales's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.6×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,463 of 15,516
More affordable than 71% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#434 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.6×, Portales sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,463 of 15,516 and #434 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
$51,290Portales, NM median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Portales, 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 Portales, NM.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)26.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)20.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,023
Median Income
$51,290
Median Home Value
$132,900
Median Age
27.7
Poverty Rate
20.2%
Labor force participation
57.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
26.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3652.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
781.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
2871.2
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
60.1°F
Annual Precipitation
16.1"
Annual Snowfall
7.6"
Schools
Total Schools
6
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Portales's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
12,119 residents
2021
12,020 residents
2022
11,962 residents
2023
11,913 residents
2024
11,829 residents
2025
11,734 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Rapid Growth
Total Permits (2024)
31
housing units authorized
Single-Family
31
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2.6
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
22
22
0
$3.4M
2020
21
21
0
$3.2M
2021
31
31
0
$4.7M
2022
28
28
0
$4.3M
2023
23
23
0
$3.5M
2024
31
31
0
$4.7M
Permit volume increased 41% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
14.6 minutes
Drive Alone
76.8%
Carpool
14.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
6.2%
Work from Home
2.2%
Based on 5,327 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 Portales. 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 Portales 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 Portales sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Portales 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, FBI UCR, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.