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Place dossier plate
SheetTN-SALE-CREEK-TN · Sale Creek, TN 2,775 pop · income 35th pct · 4 tracts
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 Sale Creek
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Sale Creek on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Milton · lowest
54,135
Milton · lowest
54,135 median HH income
22.1% of the leader · rank #1
Sale Creek · this city
60,109
Sale Creek · this city
60,109 median HH income
24.5% of the leader · rank #2
Milmay · near
60,110
Milmay · near
60,110 median HH income
24.5% of the leader · rank #3
Elgin · near
60,114
Elgin · near
60,114 median HH income
24.5% of the leader · rank #4
Hebron · near
60,114
Hebron · near
60,114 median HH income
24.5% of the leader · rank #5
Minco · near
60,114
Minco · near
60,114 median HH income
24.5% of the leader · rank #6
Lexington Hil… · highest
245,000
Lexington Hil… · highest
245,000 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 Sale Creek 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: 2,775.
Sale Creek ranks in the 35th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
35th
percentile, household income
65th
percentile, home value
34th
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: Sale Creek, TN
2,775 people live in Sale Creek, Tennessee - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Sale Creek brings in $60,109 a year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 1.7%. Sale Creek's housing stock carries a median value of $300,900, and the median resident age is 48.6 years. Educational attainment runs 15.3% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 50.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The city is served by 2 public schools according to NCES Common Core of Data.
Living costs in Tennessee run below the national norm: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Tennessee scores 91.9 (Well Below Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,118 per month statewide. Monthly utility costs average around $218 across Tennessee, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 52.5 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Sale Creek'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to housing and income to within-city variation; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Sale Creek, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Sale Creek?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 90.0%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
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.
What does the education layer cover for Sale Creek?
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.
The NCES join finds 2 public schools within the city match. 15.3% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Sale Creek?
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 Tennessee, the closest population matches are New Tazewell (2,779 residents, $55,254 income); Jacksboro (2,780 residents, $65,587 income); Coalfield (2,782 residents, $88,026 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Lawai, HI (2,775 residents); Clarion, IA (2,775 residents); Angwin, CA (2,774 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 can 4 Census tracts reveal inside Sale Creek?
PlainCities matches 4 Census tracts to this city.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
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.
Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Sale Creek?
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 5.0 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
5.0×
Home value
$300,900
Household income
$60,109
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
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 A
1.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living B+
91.9 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
$60,109
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
15.3%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
Sale Creek profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 88/100 (A) · 1.7%
Cost of living: 78/100 (B+) · 91.9 index
Household income: 35/100 (F) · $60,109
Bachelor's+ share: 21/100 (F) · 15.3%
How does Sale Creek compare to other US cities?
Here's how Sale Creek stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income35% higher than other cities
Home value65% pricier than other cities
Median rent34% 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 Sale Creek against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Tennessee only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Tennessee-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Sale Creek near the bottom of Tennessee's cities
Among the 482 Tennessee cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Sale Creek ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Sale Creek only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#196 of 458
57th percentile in Tennessee
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 482
0th percentile in Tennessee
Median Home Value
#71 of 455
84th percentile in Tennessee
Poverty Rate
#406 of 482
15th percentile in Tennessee
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#264 of 482
45th percentile in Tennessee
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 Tennessee only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
35th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Sale Creek's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$300,90035th percentilemore affordable than 35% 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
Sale Creek's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.0×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#12,892 of 15,516
More affordable than 17% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#9,761 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 5.0×, Sale Creek sits in the pressured band:
national rank #12,892 of 15,516 and #9,761 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
$60,109Sale Creek, TN median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Sale Creek, TN median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Sale Creek, TN.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)15.3%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)50.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,775
Median Income
$60,109
Median Home Value
$300,900
Median Age
48.6
Poverty Rate
1.7%
Labor force participation
50.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
15.3%
Schools
Total Schools
2
Public schools in this city
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
90.0%
Carpool
3.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
6.3%
Based on 1,136 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Tennessee statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $218
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Tennessee at $218 (electricity about $120 , water and sewer about $40 ).
These are Tennessee statewide averages, not a meter reading for Sale Creek. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Tennessee's BEA cost-of-living index is 91.9 (Well Below Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Sale Creek is $1,118/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Tennessee statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 52.5 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Tennessee statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Sale Creek sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Sale Creek compares to similar-size Tennessee 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.