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Place dossier plate
SheetNY-NEW-PALTZ-NY · New Paltz, NY 8,028 pop · income 34th 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 New Paltz
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest New Paltz on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Juana Díaz zo… · lowest
19,075
Juana Díaz zo… · lowest
19,075 median HH income
11.1% of the leader · rank #1
New Paltz · this city
59,375
New Paltz · this city
59,375 median HH income
34.7% of the leader · rank #2
Pitts · near
59,375
Pitts · near
59,375 median HH income
34.7% of the leader · rank #3
Richfield · near
59,375
Richfield · near
59,375 median HH income
34.7% of the leader · rank #4
Grand Tower · near
59,375
Grand Tower · near
59,375 median HH income
34.7% of the leader · rank #5
Pontoon Beach · near
59,375
Pontoon Beach · near
59,375 median HH income
34.7% of the leader · rank #6
Oak Brook · highest
171,123
Oak Brook · highest
171,123 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 New Paltz 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: 8,028.
Nationally, New Paltz sits in the 34th percentile for household income among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS.
34th
percentile, household income
77th
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: New Paltz, NY
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 8,028 residents in New Paltz, a small town within New York. Households in New Paltz report a median income of $59,375 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 22.4%. New Paltz's housing stock carries a median value of $397,800, and the median resident age is 21.6 years. 69.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 44.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 4 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 91% from five years earlier.
New York carries a cost-of-living premium: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts New York at 107.9 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Above Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,579 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in New York run around $285, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 69.4 out of 100 (Moderate).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of New Paltz'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 housing and income to population change to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For New Paltz, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, local building permits, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles, 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 New Paltz?
The NCES join finds 5 public schools within the city match. 69.8% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in New Paltz?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 6.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 22.4%, 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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
Is New Paltz growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +1,330 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +18.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 4 housing units authorized in 2024. 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 New Paltz?
Within New York, the closest population matches are Port Jefferson (8,029 residents, $143,125 income); Lake Carmel (8,090 residents, $121,402 income); Congers (7,923 residents, $141,413 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Oak Brook, IL (8,028 residents); Wilmington Manor, DE (8,030 residents); Camden, SC (8,025 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.
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 New Paltz?
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 52.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
Public transit
2.0%
Work from home
12.7%
Drive alone
52.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 3,116 workers age 16+.
Below median income · poverty 22.4% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.9 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, New York average
F
City profile score · New Paltz, NY
34/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share A+
69.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$59,375
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); 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.
Poverty rate F
22.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
New Paltz profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 97/100 (A+) · 69.8%
Household income: 34/100 (F) · $59,375
Cost of living: 12/100 (F) · 107.9 index
Poverty rate: 9/100 (F) · 22.4%
How does New Paltz compare to other US cities?
Where New Paltz sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income34% higher than other cities
Home value77% 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 New Paltz 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 New Paltz near the bottom of New York's cities
Among the 1,256 New York cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, New Paltz ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares New Paltz only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#940 of 1,205
22nd percentile in New York
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,256
0th percentile in New York
Median Home Value
#394 of 1,202
67th percentile in New York
Poverty Rate
#60 of 1,246
95th percentile in New York
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#100 of 1,254
92nd 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
34th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How New Paltz's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$397,80023rd percentilemore affordable than 23% 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
New Paltz's home-value-to-income ratio: 6.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,530 of 15,516
More affordable than 6% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,719 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 6.7×, New Paltz sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,530 of 15,516 and #10,719 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$59,375New Paltz, NY median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context New Paltz, 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 New Paltz, NY.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)69.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)22.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)44.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
8,028
Median Income
$59,375
Median Home Value
$397,800
Median Age
21.6
Poverty Rate
22.4%
Labor force participation
44.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
69.8%
Schools
Total Schools
5
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
New Paltz's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
7,359 residents
2021
8,392 residents
2022
8,560 residents
2023
8,646 residents
2024
8,705 residents
2025
8,689 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
4
housing units authorized
Single-Family
4
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
46
0
46
$5.3M
2020
37
0
37
$4.2M
2021
5
3
2
$1.1M
2022
5
5
0
$2.9M
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
4
4
0
$1.1M
Permit volume decreased 91% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
52.7%
Carpool
8.2%
Public Transit
2.0%
Walk
23.5%
Work from Home
12.7%
Other
0.9%
Based on 3,116 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 New Paltz. 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 New Paltz 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 New Paltz sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How New Paltz 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 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.