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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-BALLINGER-TX · Ballinger, TX 3,599 pop · income 37th 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 Ballinger
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ballinger on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Eastland · lowest
51,334
Eastland · lowest
51,334 median HH income
28.1% of the leader · rank #1
Ballinger · this city
61,250
Ballinger · this city
61,250 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #2
Graysville · near
61,250
Graysville · near
61,250 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #3
Copper Center · near
61,250
Copper Center · near
61,250 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #4
Allensworth · near
61,250
Allensworth · near
61,250 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #5
Tranquillity · near
61,250
Tranquillity · near
61,250 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #6
Clifton Knoll… · highest
182,976
Clifton Knoll… · highest
182,976 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, and FBI crime rate
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Ballinger 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: 3,599.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Ballinger - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Ballinger places in the 37th percentile for household income and the 73rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
37th
percentile, household income
13th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
73rd
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: Ballinger, TX
Ballinger is a small town in Texas, home to 3,599 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Households in Ballinger report a median income of $61,250 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 9.9%. Typical homes in Ballinger are valued around $109,000, and the median resident age is 43.4 years. 18.5% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 54.0% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 0 residential units were authorized in 2024 (No Permits), down 100% from five years earlier. Ballinger reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 785.4 in FBI UCR data, below the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as reporting activity, not a definitive danger score). NOAA climate normals record an annual average temperature of 65.0°F with 23.4 inches of precipitation per year and 0.6 inches of snowfall.
Texas tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 97.1 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. A typical two-bedroom carries a HUD Fair Market Rent of $1,149 per month statewide. EIA 2023 residential energy data puts Texas's average monthly utility costs around $223 (state average). Natural-hazard exposure scores 49.0 out of 100 on FEMA's National Risk Index (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Ballinger'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 reported crime to comparison shortlist to housing and income to population change to schools and households to within-city variation to work and mobility to climate and hazard context; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ballinger, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, annual population history, local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What can the FBI record say about safety in Ballinger?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 785.4 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 66% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ballinger?
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.
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Shenandoah (3,597 residents, $67,422 income); Shavano Park (3,602 residents, $158,969 income); Laguna Vista (3,605 residents, $63,191 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Two Harbors, MN (3,598 residents); Marin, CA (3,597 residents); East Sandwich, MA (3,597 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.
How far does income reach against housing in Ballinger?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 1.8 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 9.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Population change
Is Ballinger growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -135 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -3.7% 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.
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.
2020 estimate
3,634
2025 estimate
3,499
Period change
-3.7%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the education layer cover for Ballinger?
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.
The NCES join finds 3 public schools within the city match. 18.5% 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.
Poverty estimate
9.9%
Bachelor's degree+
18.5%
Matched public schools
3
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
What does the journey to work look like in Ballinger?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 89.7%. 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.
Drive alone
89.7%
Work from home
3.9%
Public transit
0.0%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 1,536 workers age 16+.
The two sources should not be blended into one comfort or safety score. Use the climate values for baseline conditions and the risk index as a prompt to inspect specific hazards, insurance, and local emergency guidance for a particular address.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 65.0°F, with 23.4 inches of precipitation and 0.6 inches of annual snowfall. FEMA's state-averaged National Risk Index score for Texas is 49.0 out of 100. Climate normals describe long-run weather; the FEMA score on PlainCities is a state average of county NRI inputs and combines hazards, exposure, vulnerability, and resilience.
FEMA risk index (state avg)
49.0
Annual precipitation
23.4 in
Mean temperature
65.0°F
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
Below median income · poverty 9.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
D
City profile score · Ballinger, TX
43/100
5 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.
Violent crime C-
168 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
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.
Poverty rate D
9.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$61,250
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
18.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Ballinger profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 54/100 (C-) · 168 /100k
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Poverty rate: 40/100 (D) · 9.9%
Household income: 36/100 (F) · $61,250
Bachelor's+ share: 30/100 (F) · 18.5%
Where Ballinger sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Ballinger'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 - Ballinger highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Ballinger, TX (this city): home $109,000, crime 785/100k
Two Harbors, MN : home $187,100, crime 600/100k
Barnesville, OH : home $102,200, crime 284/100k
Shenandoah, TX : home $396,000, crime 5,529/100k
Shavano Park, TX : home $838,800, crime 1,215/100k
Laguna Vista, TX : home $267,500, crime 683/100k
Sweeny, TX : home $180,700, crime 788/100k
Eastland, TX : home $175,800, crime 1,696/100k
How does Ballinger compare to other US cities?
Where Ballinger sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income37% higher than other cities
Home value13% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety73% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Texas alone, Ballinger ranks #172 of 624 Texas cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Ballinger 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 Ballinger near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ballinger ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ballinger only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#815 of 1,520
46th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#1,066 of 1,505
29th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#756 of 1,663
54th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#744 of 1,663
55th 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
37th percentile nationally for median household income · 73rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Ballinger's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Ballinger'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 Ballinger's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$109,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 87% 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
Ballinger's home-value-to-income ratio: 1.8×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#950 of 15,516
More affordable than 94% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#921 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 1.8×, Ballinger sits in the affordable band:
national rank #950 of 15,516 and #921 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
$61,250Ballinger, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ballinger, 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 Ballinger, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)18.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)9.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)54.0%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
3,599
Median Income
$61,250
Median Home Value
$109,000
Median Age
43.4
Poverty Rate
9.9%
Labor force participation
54.0%
Bachelor's Degree+
18.5%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
785.4
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
168.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
617.1
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
65.0°F
Annual Precipitation
23.4"
Annual Snowfall
0.6"
Schools
Total Schools
3
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Ballinger's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
3,634 residents
2021
3,600 residents
2022
3,600 residents
2023
3,595 residents
2024
3,529 residents
2025
3,499 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
2
2
0
$0.4M
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
0
0
0
-
2024
0
0
0
-
Permit volume decreased 100% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
89.7%
Carpool
5.8%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
3.9%
Based on 1,536 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 Ballinger. 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 Ballinger 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 Ballinger sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ballinger 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, NOAA Climate Normals, 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.