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Place dossier plate
SheetNY-AFTON-NY · Afton, NY 1,086 pop · income 6th 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 Afton
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Afton on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Chamois · lowest
37,857
Chamois · lowest
37,857 median HH income
16.5% of the leader · rank #1
Piedmont · near
37,868
Piedmont · near
37,868 median HH income
16.5% of the leader · rank #2
Sarcoxie · near
37,868
Sarcoxie · near
37,868 median HH income
16.5% of the leader · rank #3
Midway · near
37,875
Midway · near
37,875 median HH income
16.5% of the leader · rank #4
Afton · this city
37,885
Afton · this city
37,885 median HH income
16.5% of the leader · rank #5
Cambridge · near
37,900
Cambridge · near
37,900 median HH income
16.5% of the leader · rank #6
Bellerose · highest
229,107
Bellerose · highest
229,107 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 Afton 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: 1,086.
Afton ranks in the 6th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
6th
percentile, household income
14th
percentile, home value
78th
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: Afton, NY
1,086 people live in Afton, New York - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $37,885 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 16.9%. Home values in Afton run a median of $112,500, and the median resident age is 43.3 years. 12.4% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 47.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 2 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
New York carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, New York scores 107.9 (Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,579 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New York's average monthly utility costs around $285 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 69.4 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Afton'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 population change to schools and households to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Afton, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, 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 Afton?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 16.9%, 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 Afton?
Within New York, the closest population matches are Bellerose (1,085 residents, $229,107 income); Schoharie (1,078 residents, $53,008 income); Tuckahoe (1,078 residents, $54,538 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Tidmore Bend, AL (1,086 residents); Franklin Springs, GA (1,086 residents); Franklin Grove, IL (1,086 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.
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 -18 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -2.3% 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.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 12.4% 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 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.
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 Afton?
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 72.6%. 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
8.8%
Drive alone
72.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 398 workers age 16+.
Lowest-decile income · poverty 16.9% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.9 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New York average
F
City profile score · Afton, NY
11/100
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.
Poverty rate F
16.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
12.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Cost of living F
107.9 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 F
$37,885
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Afton profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 19/100 (F) · 16.9%
Bachelor's+ share: 13/100 (F) · 12.4%
Cost of living: 12/100 (F) · 107.9 index
Household income: 4/100 (F) · $37,885
How does Afton compare to other US cities?
Afton measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income6% higher than other cities
Home value14% pricier than other cities
Median rent78% 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 Afton against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to New York only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
New York-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Afton near the bottom of New York's cities
Among the 1,256 New York cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Afton ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Afton only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,185 of 1,205
2nd percentile in New York
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,256
0th percentile in New York
Median Home Value
#1,051 of 1,202
12th percentile in New York
Poverty Rate
#138 of 1,246
89th percentile in New York
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,183 of 1,254
6th percentile in New York
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 York only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
6th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Afton's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$112,500Among the most affordablemore affordable than 86% 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
Afton's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#6,521 of 15,516
More affordable than 58% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#5,546 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.0×, Afton sits in the affordable band:
national rank #6,521 of 15,516 and #5,546 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
$37,885Afton, NY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Afton, NY median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Afton, NY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)12.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)16.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)47.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,086
Median Income
$37,885
Median Home Value
$112,500
Median Age
43.3
Poverty Rate
16.9%
Labor force participation
47.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
12.4%
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Afton's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
790 residents
2021
784 residents
2022
782 residents
2023
776 residents
2024
773 residents
2025
772 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
72.6%
Carpool
16.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
1.3%
Work from Home
8.8%
Other
0.7%
Based on 398 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
New York statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $285
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across New York at $285 (electricity about $130 , water and sewer about $65 ).
These are New York statewide averages, not a meter reading for Afton. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
New York's BEA cost-of-living index is 107.9 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Afton is $1,579/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to New York statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 69.4 / 100 (Moderate).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a New York statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Afton sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Afton compares to similar-size New York 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.