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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-DESOTO-TX · DeSoto, TX 55,896 pop · income 65th 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 DeSoto
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest DeSoto on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Port Arthur · lowest
45,752
Port Arthur · lowest
45,752 median HH income
39.4% of the leader · rank #1
Anaktuvuk Pass · near
83,250
Anaktuvuk Pass · near
83,250 median HH income
71.7% of the leader · rank #2
Wheeling · near
83,251
Wheeling · near
83,251 median HH income
71.7% of the leader · rank #3
The Hammocks · near
83,253
The Hammocks · near
83,253 median HH income
71.7% of the leader · rank #4
DeSoto · this city
83,256
DeSoto · this city
83,256 median HH income
71.8% of the leader · rank #5
Pierrepont Ma… · near
83,260
Pierrepont Ma… · near
83,260 median HH income
71.8% of the leader · rank #6
Little Elm · highest
116,036
Little Elm · highest
116,036 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 DeSoto 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: 55,896.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
DeSoto - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, DeSoto places in the 65th percentile for household income and the 33rd percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
65th
percentile, household income
62nd
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
33rd
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: DeSoto, TX
55,896 people live in DeSoto, Texas - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. DeSoto households earn a median of $83,256 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 5.7%. DeSoto's housing stock carries a median value of $282,600, and the median resident age is 41.9 years. About 29.9% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 63.5% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 186 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 26% from five years earlier. Crime here tracks close to the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1968.6 in FBI UCR data, near the national average (a voluntary reporting program, read this as 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). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,149 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Texas run around $223, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. 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 DeSoto'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 comparison shortlist to schools and households to reported crime to housing and income 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 DeSoto, city-specific coverage includes matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, local building permits, FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history.
No matched row is reported here for within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for DeSoto?
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 Port Arthur (55,779 residents, $45,752 income); Texas City (54,159 residents, $65,447 income); Galveston (53,348 residents, $57,216 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Berwyn, IL (55,888 residents); National City, CA (55,960 residents); Kingsport, TN (55,807 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.
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 13 public schools within the city match. 29.9% 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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in DeSoto?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1968.6 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 14% 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.
How far does income reach against housing in DeSoto?
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.
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 5.7%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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 DeSoto growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +651 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +1.2% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 186 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 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.
2020 estimate
56,030
2025 estimate
56,681
Period change
+1.2%
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in DeSoto?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 74.3%. 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. Remote work has a visible role in the local pattern. That can reduce commute exposure for some workers, but it says nothing about job availability or broadband quality; read it alongside income and housing rather than as a stand-alone lifestyle score.
Drive alone
74.3%
Work from home
15.6%
Public transit
0.5%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 28,267 workers age 16+.
Above median income · poverty 5.7% (Below-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
C-
City profile score · DeSoto, TX
53/100
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.
Household income C+
$83,256
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate C+
5.7%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share C
29.9%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; 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.
Violent crime F
326 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
DeSoto profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 63/100 (C+) · $83,256
Poverty rate: 61/100 (C+) · 5.7%
Bachelor's+ share: 58/100 (C) · 29.9%
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Violent crime: 29/100 (F) · 326 /100k
Where DeSoto sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
DeSoto'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 - DeSoto highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
DeSoto, TX (this city): home $282,600, crime 1,969/100k
Berwyn, IL : home $286,000, crime 1,252/100k
National City, CA : home $580,900, crime 2,635/100k
Kingsport, TN : home $203,000, crime 3,401/100k
New Brunswick, NJ : home $316,800, crime 3,325/100k
Apple Valley, MN : home $354,200, crime 1,883/100k
Mount Prospect, IL : home $377,000, crime 977/100k
Port Arthur, TX : home $96,900, crime 2,258/100k
Texas City, TX : home $190,600, crime 2,555/100k
Galveston, TX : home $294,300, crime 2,917/100k
Wylie, TX : home $350,100, crime 926/100k
Kyle, TX : home $302,200, crime 1,022/100k
Little Elm, TX : home $390,300, crime 557/100k
How does DeSoto compare to other US cities?
DeSoto measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income65% higher than other cities
Home value62% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety33% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
National percentiles can mask local variation. Looking only at Texas, DeSoto ranks #449 of 624 Texas cities by lowest crime rate - a narrower, more locally useful cut than the national comparison above.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares DeSoto 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 DeSoto near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, DeSoto ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares DeSoto only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#404 of 1,520
73rd percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#305 of 1,505
80th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#1,056 of 1,663
36th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#381 of 1,663
77th 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
65th percentile nationally for median household income · 33rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
DeSoto's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
DeSoto'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 DeSoto's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$282,60038th 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
DeSoto's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,551 of 15,516
More affordable than 45% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#191 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.4×, DeSoto sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,551 of 15,516 and #191 of 750mid-size cities (50,000–199,999).
Income and home value move in the same broad scale; check same-state peers before treating the multiple as an advantage or a warning.
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
$83,256DeSoto, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context DeSoto, 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 DeSoto, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)29.9%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)5.7%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.5%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
55,896
Median Income
$83,256
Median Home Value
$282,600
Median Age
41.9
Poverty Rate
5.7%
Labor force participation
63.5%
Bachelor's Degree+
29.9%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1968.6
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
325.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1642.8
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.
Schools
Total Schools
13
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
DeSoto's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
56,030 residents
2021
55,685 residents
2022
56,191 residents
2023
56,347 residents
2024
56,817 residents
2025
56,681 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
186
housing units authorized
Single-Family
186
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.3
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
251
131
120
$64.0M
2020
245
245
0
$59.1M
2021
283
281
2
$67.5M
2022
143
143
0
$28.9M
2023
180
170
10
$44.7M
2024
186
186
0
$53.4M
Permit volume decreased 26% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
74.3%
Carpool
8.0%
Public Transit
0.5%
Walk
0.6%
Work from Home
15.6%
Other
1.0%
Based on 28,267 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 DeSoto. 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 DeSoto 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 DeSoto sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How DeSoto 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, 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.