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Place dossier plate
SheetSC-LAKE-SECESSION-SC · Lake Secession, SC 1,209 pop · income 15th 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 Lake Secession
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Lake Secession on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Buffalo · lowest
21,831
Buffalo · lowest
21,831 median HH income
10.8% of the leader · rank #1
East Alton · near
46,926
East Alton · near
46,926 median HH income
23.3% of the leader · rank #2
Big Rock · near
46,929
Big Rock · near
46,929 median HH income
23.3% of the leader · rank #3
Dow City · near
46,932
Dow City · near
46,932 median HH income
23.3% of the leader · rank #4
Lake Secession · this city
46,933
Lake Secession · this city
46,933 median HH income
23.3% of the leader · rank #5
Oak Harbor · near
46,939
Oak Harbor · near
46,939 median HH income
23.3% of the leader · rank #6
Auburn · highest
201,648
Auburn · highest
201,648 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 Lake Secession 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: 1,209.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, Lake Secession lands in the 15th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
15th
percentile, household income
70th
percentile, home value
46th
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: Lake Secession, SC
1,209 people live in Lake Secession, South Carolina - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Lake Secession report a median income of $46,933 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 7.6%. Home values in Lake Secession run a median of $335,500, and the median resident age is 53.7 years. Educational attainment runs 23.0% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 44.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Living costs in South Carolina run below the national norm: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts South Carolina at 93.7 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Below Average). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,155 monthly. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts South Carolina's average monthly utility costs around $224 (state average). The average commute for Lake Secession workers runs 28.7 minutes, with 82.5% driving alone and 9.2% working from home. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 70.7 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Lake Secession'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 work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Lake Secession, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, matched public-school count, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Lake Secession?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 7.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 7.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Lake Secession?
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.
Within South Carolina, the closest population matches are Prosperity (1,198 residents, $58,276 income); Catawba (1,225 residents, $55,385 income); Murphys Estates (1,187 residents, $90,357 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Wauregan, CT (1,209 residents); Newport, DE (1,209 residents); Toledo, IL (1,209 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Lake Secession?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 82.5%. The reported mean trip to work is 28.7 minutes.
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.
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, South Carolina average
D
City profile score · Lake Secession, SC
43/100
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.
Cost of living B
93.7 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 D
7.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share D
23.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$46,933
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).
Lake Secession profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 70/100 (B) · 93.7 index
Poverty rate: 49/100 (D) · 7.6%
Bachelor's+ share: 43/100 (D) · 23.0%
Household income: 16/100 (F) · $46,933
How does Lake Secession compare to other US cities?
Here's how Lake Secession stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income15% higher than other cities
Home value70% pricier than other cities
Median rent46% 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 Lake Secession against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to South Carolina only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
South Carolina-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Lake Secession near the bottom of South Carolina's cities
Among the 441 South Carolina cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Lake Secession ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Lake Secession only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#242 of 403
40th percentile in South Carolina
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 441
0th percentile in South Carolina
Median Home Value
#45 of 404
89th percentile in South Carolina
Poverty Rate
#303 of 439
31st percentile in South Carolina
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#160 of 441
64th percentile in South Carolina
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 South Carolina only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
15th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Lake Secession's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$335,50030th percentilemore affordable than 30% 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
Lake Secession's home-value-to-income ratio: 7.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#14,735 of 15,516
More affordable than 5% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#10,835 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 7.1×, Lake Secession sits in the pressured band:
national rank #14,735 of 15,516 and #10,835 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
$46,933Lake Secession, SC median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Lake Secession, SC median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Lake Secession, SC.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)23.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)7.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)44.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
1,209
Median Income
$46,933
Median Home Value
$335,500
Median Age
53.7
Poverty Rate
7.6%
Labor force participation
44.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
23.0%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
28.7 minutes
Drive Alone
82.5%
Carpool
8.3%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
9.2%
Based on 469 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
South Carolina statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $224
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across South Carolina at $224 (electricity about $130 , water and sewer about $42 ).
These are South Carolina statewide averages, not a meter reading for Lake Secession. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
South Carolina's BEA cost-of-living index is 93.7 (Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Lake Secession is $1,155/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to South Carolina statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 70.7 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a South Carolina statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Lake Secession sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Lake Secession compares to similar-size South Carolina 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.