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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-ALMA-TX · Alma, TX 469 pop · income 81st 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 Alma
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Alma on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Avinger · lowest
36,563
Avinger · lowest
36,563 median HH income
34.7% of the leader · rank #1
San Marcos · near
105,286
San Marcos · near
105,286 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #2
Alma · this city
105,300
Alma · this city
105,300 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #3
Norwalk · near
105,301
Norwalk · near
105,301 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #4
Siglerville · highest
105,313
Siglerville · highest
105,313 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Hamel · near
105,313
Hamel · near
105,313 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Alma on ACS population and median household income
, plus FBI UCR reporting rate when the extract covers this place. 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: 469.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Alma - the verdict
Alma ranks in the 81st percentile for household income and the 48th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
81st
percentile, household income
62nd
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
48th
percentile, safety
📝 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: Alma, TX
Texas's Alma is a small town, with 469 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Alma households earn a median of $105,300 annually, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 0.9%. Alma's housing stock carries a median value of $281,300, and the median resident age is 39.5 years. 14.8% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 68.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Alma reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1428.6 total incidents per 100,000 residents here, below the national average (agency reporting is voluntary, so this measures reporting activity, not a definitive danger score).
Texas tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: BEA Regional Price Parities 2024 puts Texas at 97.1 on a 100-equals-national-average scale (Near Average). A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,149 per month statewide. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Texas run around $223, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. The average commute for Alma workers runs 22.2 minutes, with 79.6% driving alone and 14.3% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.0 out of 100 (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Alma'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 reported crime 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 Alma, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
How far does income reach against housing in Alma?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.9%, 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 Alma?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Dean (469 residents, $75,000 income); Green Valley Farms (469 residents, $43,990 income); Miami (469 residents, $64,583 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Meadow Valley, CA (469 residents); Stanford, IL (469 residents); Grand Rivers, KY (469 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. The nationwide peer panel below adds a fourth FBI UCR reporting-rate lens, not personal risk.
Treat this as a reporting-rate comparison, not a prediction of personal risk or a neighborhood-level safety grade. Tourism, daytime population, reporting practices, and variation inside the city are not adjusted away. The state rank and same-state peer table are the narrower comparisons available on this page.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1428.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 37% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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 +69 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +18.6% change. No comparable local building-permit series is available here, so population change should not be read as a housing-supply measure. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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 Alma?
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 79.6%. The reported mean trip to work is 22.2 minutes.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
14.3%
Drive alone
79.6%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 280 workers age 16+.
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.
Violent crime A+
0 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate A+
0.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income B+
$105,300
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Cost of living C-
97.1 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Bachelor's+ share F
14.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Alma profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 97/100 (A+) · 0 /100k
Poverty rate: 94/100 (A+) · 0.9%
Household income: 79/100 (B+) · $105,300
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 20/100 (F) · 14.8%
Where Alma sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Alma's median home value and FBI crime rate plotted with similar-size and
same-state peers (padded with large cities when the peer set is thin). The second
read: pricey does not always mean safer, check which quadrant this city lands in.
Census ACS median home value vs FBI UCR crime rate - Alma highlighted among 21 peers.Read the chart values
Alma, TX (this city): home $281,300, crime 1,429/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Alma compare to other US cities?
Here's how Alma stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income81% higher than other cities
Home value62% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety48% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
Zoom in to just Texas and the picture shifts: Alma ranks #324 of 624 Texas cities by lowest crime rate, a different read than the national percentile above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Alma against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Texas only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Texas-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Alma near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Alma ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Alma only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#223 of 1,520
85th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#308 of 1,505
79th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#1,414 of 1,663
15th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#975 of 1,663
41st percentile in Texas
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 Texas only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
81st percentile nationally for median household income · 48th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Alma's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Alma's percentile rank on 3 favorable-direction measures (income, affordability, safety) vs. every tracked US city -- higher on every axis is more favorable. Not a composite quality score, just the arithmetic mean of the axes shown.
How Alma's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$281,30038th percentilemore affordable than 38% 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
Alma's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,881 of 15,516
More affordable than 69% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#4,298 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.7×, Alma sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,881 of 15,516 and #4,298 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
$105,300Alma, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Alma, TX median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Alma, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)14.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)68.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
469
Median Income
$105,300
Median Home Value
$281,300
Median Age
39.5
Poverty Rate
0.9%
Labor force participation
68.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
14.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1428.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
0.0
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1428.6
per 100,000 residents
Crime reporting caveat
Reflects incidents reported to the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program — agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies by jurisdiction and year, so this reflects reporting activity, not a definitive danger score. Not adjusted for tourism, commuter, or daytime population.
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Alma's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
370 residents
2021
385 residents
2022
395 residents
2023
414 residents
2024
426 residents
2025
439 residents
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
22.2 minutes
Drive Alone
79.6%
Carpool
1.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
14.3%
Other
4.3%
Based on 280 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Texas statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $223
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Texas at $223 (electricity about $130 , water and sewer about $48 ).
These are Texas statewide averages, not a meter reading for Alma. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Texas's BEA cost-of-living index is 97.1 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Alma is $1,149/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Texas statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 49.0 / 100 (Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Texas statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Alma sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Alma compares to similar-size Texas 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, FBI UCR, 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.