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Place dossier plate
SheetNY-BRIGHTWATERS-NY · Brightwaters, NY 3,185 pop · income 98th 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 Brightwaters
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Brightwaters on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Vado · lowest
29,844
Vado · lowest
29,844 median HH income
14.6% of the leader · rank #1
Colleyville · near
203,566
Colleyville · near
203,566 median HH income
99.8% of the leader · rank #2
Union Grove · near
203,594
Union Grove · near
203,594 median HH income
99.8% of the leader · rank #3
Brightwaters · this city
203,750
Brightwaters · this city
203,750 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #4
Hunting Valley · near
203,750
Hunting Valley · near
203,750 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #5
Nichols Hills · near
203,750
Nichols Hills · near
203,750 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #6
North Gate · highest
204,024
North Gate · highest
204,024 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 Brightwaters 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: 3,185.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Brightwaters lands in the 98th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
98th
percentile, household income
93rd
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: Brightwaters, NY
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 3,185 residents in Brightwaters, a small town within New York. The typical household in Brightwaters brings in $203,750 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 0.0%. Brightwaters's housing stock carries a median value of $710,600, and the median resident age is 40.4 years. About 57.4% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 67.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 0 residential units authorized here in 2024 (No Permits).
New York carries a cost-of-living premium: the state registers 107.9 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Above Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,579 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $285 across New York, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Brightwaters'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 work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Brightwaters, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Brightwaters?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.0%, 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. 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 Brightwaters?
Within New York, the closest population matches are Delhi (3,185 residents, $60,521 income); Hoosick Falls (3,189 residents, $53,325 income); Washington Heights (3,189 residents, $78,663 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Six Mile Run, NJ (3,185 residents); Vado, NM (3,185 residents); Carmel-by-the-Sea, CA (3,186 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.
Is Brightwaters 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 grew by +17 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 0 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What does the journey to work look like in Brightwaters?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 67.4%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Top-decile income · poverty 0.0% (Very low poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.9 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New York average
B+
City profile score · Brightwaters, NY
76/100
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.
Household income A+
$203,750
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate A+
0.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share A+
57.4%
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.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Brightwaters profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $203,750
Poverty rate: 100/100 (A+) · 0.0%
Bachelor's+ share: 90/100 (A+) · 57.4%
Cost of living: 12/100 (F) · 107.9 index
How does Brightwaters compare to other US cities?
Brightwaters measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income98% higher than other cities
Home value93% 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 Brightwaters 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 Brightwaters near the bottom of New York's cities
Among the 1,256 New York cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Brightwaters ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Brightwaters only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#56 of 1,205
95th percentile in New York
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,256
0th percentile in New York
Median Home Value
#163 of 1,202
86th percentile in New York
Poverty Rate
#1,032 of 1,246
0th percentile in New York
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#216 of 1,254
83rd 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
98th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Brightwaters's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$710,6007th percentilemore affordable than 7% 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
Brightwaters's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,920 of 15,516
More affordable than 43% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#7,199 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.5×, Brightwaters sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,920 of 15,516 and #7,199 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$203,750Brightwaters, NY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Brightwaters, 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 Brightwaters, NY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)57.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)67.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,185
Median Income
$203,750
Median Home Value
$710,600
Median Age
40.4
Poverty Rate
0.0%
Labor force participation
67.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
57.4%
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Brightwaters's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,191 residents
2021
3,205 residents
2022
3,192 residents
2023
3,197 residents
2024
3,210 residents
2025
3,208 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
Total Permits (2024)
0
housing units authorized
Single-Family
0
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
2
2
0
$1.0M
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
4
0
4
$0.3M
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
67.4%
Carpool
2.5%
Public Transit
5.7%
Walk
2.0%
Work from Home
19.6%
Other
2.8%
Based on 1,605 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 Brightwaters. 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 Brightwaters 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 Brightwaters sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Brightwaters 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, 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.