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Place dossier plate
SheetNY-COLD-BROOK-NY · Cold Brook, NY 191 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 Cold Brook
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cold Brook on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Vilas · lowest
30,938
Vilas · lowest
30,938 median HH income
30.5% of the leader · rank #1
North Arlingt… · near
101,493
North Arlingt… · near
101,493 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #2
Cold Brook · this city
101,500
Cold Brook · this city
101,500 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #3
Lake Hiawatha · near
101,500
Lake Hiawatha · near
101,500 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #4
Chittenden · near
101,500
Chittenden · near
101,500 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Bakersfield C… · near
101,510
Bakersfield C… · near
101,510 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
Fishhook · highest
101,518
Fishhook · highest
101,518 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 Cold Brook 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: 191.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Cold Brook lands in the 79th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
79th
percentile, household income
19th
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: Cold Brook, NY
Cold Brook is a small town in New York, home to 191 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Cold Brook report a median income of $101,500 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 4.2%. Cold Brook's housing stock carries a median value of $125,000, and the median resident age is 35.8 years. 16.3% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 70.9% 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. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts New York's average monthly utility costs around $285 (state average). Workers in Cold Brook report an average commute of 32.9 minutes, with 88.0% driving alone and 2.6% working from home. 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 Cold Brook'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 work and mobility to comparison shortlist to population change to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cold Brook, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, local building permits, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Work and mobility
What does the journey to work look like in Cold Brook?
Mode share answers how workers usually travel; it does not measure congestion, reliability, distance to a particular job, or the quality of transit service. The profile is strongly car-oriented, so a relocation comparison should put trip distance, vehicle access, and household fuel costs ahead of a citywide commute average. The same-state peer links offer a more relevant benchmark than a national label.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 88.0%. The reported mean trip to work is 32.9 minutes.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cold Brook?
Within New York, the closest population matches are Virgil (190 residents, $59,735 income); Witherbee (190 residents, $41,089 income); Blodgett Mills (193 residents, $61,094 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Katherine, AZ (191 residents); Aplin, AR (191 residents); Vilas, CO (191 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 Cold Brook 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 -8 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.0% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Cold Brook?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 4.2%, 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. 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.
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 B+
$101,500
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B
4.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
16.3%
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).
Cold Brook profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 78/100 (B+) · $101,500
Poverty rate: 71/100 (B) · 4.2%
Bachelor's+ share: 24/100 (F) · 16.3%
Cost of living: 12/100 (F) · 107.9 index
How does Cold Brook compare to other US cities?
Here's how Cold Brook 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 value19% 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 Cold Brook 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 Cold Brook near the bottom of New York's cities
Among the 1,256 New York cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cold Brook ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cold Brook only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#431 of 1,205
64th percentile in New York
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,256
0th percentile in New York
Median Home Value
#979 of 1,202
18th percentile in New York
Poverty Rate
#652 of 1,246
47th percentile in New York
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,109 of 1,254
11th 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
79th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Cold Brook's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$125,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 81% 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
Cold Brook's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#131 of 15,516
More affordable than 99% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#129 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.2×, Cold Brook sits in the affordable band:
national rank #131 of 15,516 and #129 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
$101,500Cold Brook, NY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cold Brook, 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 Cold Brook, NY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)16.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)4.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)70.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
191
Median Income
$101,500
Median Home Value
$125,000
Median Age
35.8
Poverty Rate
4.2%
Labor force participation
70.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
16.3%
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Cold Brook's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
263 residents
2021
262 residents
2022
260 residents
2023
259 residents
2024
258 residents
2025
255 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
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
32.9 minutes
Drive Alone
88.0%
Carpool
9.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
2.6%
Based on 117 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 Cold Brook. 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 Cold Brook 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 Cold Brook sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cold Brook 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.