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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-FOREST-HILL-TX · Forest Hill, TX 13,923 pop · income 35th 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 Forest Hill
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Forest Hill on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Jacksonville · lowest
50,469
Jacksonville · lowest
50,469 median HH income
28.3% of the leader · rank #1
North Rose · near
59,648
North Rose · near
59,648 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #2
Forest Hill · this city
59,653
Forest Hill · this city
59,653 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #3
Rainbow City · near
59,659
Rainbow City · near
59,659 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #4
Harlansburg · near
59,659
Harlansburg · near
59,659 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #5
Mill Village · near
59,659
Mill Village · near
59,659 median HH income
33.5% of the leader · rank #6
Urbana · highest
178,231
Urbana · highest
178,231 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 Forest Hill 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: 13,923.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Forest Hill - the verdict
Forest Hill ranks in the 35th percentile for household income and the 39th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
35th
percentile, household income
34th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
39th
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: Forest Hill, TX
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 13,923 residents in Forest Hill, a small town within Texas. Median household income here is $59,653 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 15.2%. Home values in Forest Hill run a median of $171,300, and the median resident age is 33.3 years. Educational attainment runs 12.4% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 57.1% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 5 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 89% from five years earlier. Forest Hill reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1742.8 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: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Texas scores 97.1 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. 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). Workers in Forest Hill report an average commute of 26.3 minutes, with 74.4% driving alone and 8.3% 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 Forest Hill'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 population change to reported crime to work and mobility to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Forest Hill, city-specific coverage includes local building permits, annual population history, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Forest Hill?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Lumberton (13,803 residents, $104,551 income); Azle (13,734 residents, $81,200 income); Wells Branch (14,156 residents, $64,345 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Wood Dale, IL (13,926 residents); Willow Grove, PA (13,919 residents); Rocky Point, NY (13,931 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.
Is Forest Hill growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
The recent population line is broadly flat. That makes the composition of change more important than the headline count: housing turnover, household size, and age structure can shift even when the total barely moves.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +106 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.8% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 5 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Forest Hill?
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 1742.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 24% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
What does the journey to work look like in Forest Hill?
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 74.4%. The reported mean trip to work is 26.3 minutes.
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 Forest Hill?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 2.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.2%, 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.
Household income
$59,653
Home value
$171,300
Value / income
2.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Below median income · poverty 15.2% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
F
City profile score · Forest Hill, TX
36/100
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.
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 C-
176 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income F
$59,653
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
15.2%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
12.4%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Forest Hill profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Violent crime: 52/100 (C-) · 176 /100k
Household income: 34/100 (F) · $59,653
Poverty rate: 22/100 (F) · 15.2%
Bachelor's+ share: 13/100 (F) · 12.4%
Where Forest Hill sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Forest Hill'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 - Forest Hill highlighted among 27 peers.Read the chart values
Forest Hill, TX (this city): home $171,300, crime 1,743/100k
Wood Dale, IL : home $303,400, crime 1,191/100k
Lumberton, TX : home $271,500, crime 538/100k
Azle, TX : home $263,800, crime 1,878/100k
Jacksonville, TX : home $120,800, crime 2,295/100k
Port Neches, TX : home $231,000, crime 892/100k
Seabrook, TX : home $332,000, crime 1,527/100k
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 Forest Hill compare to other US cities?
Where Forest Hill sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income35% higher than other cities
Home value34% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety39% 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: Forest Hill ranks #404 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 Forest Hill 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 Forest Hill near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Forest Hill ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Forest Hill only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#860 of 1,520
43rd percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#686 of 1,505
54th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#492 of 1,663
70th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,121 of 1,663
32nd 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
35th percentile nationally for median household income · 39th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Forest Hill's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Forest Hill'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 Forest Hill's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$171,300Among the most affordablemore affordable than 66% 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
Forest Hill's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#5,964 of 15,516
More affordable than 62% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#725 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.9×, Forest Hill sits in the affordable band:
national rank #5,964 of 15,516 and #725 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$59,653Forest Hill, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Forest Hill, 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 Forest Hill, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)12.4%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.2%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)57.1%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
13,923
Median Income
$59,653
Median Home Value
$171,300
Median Age
33.3
Poverty Rate
15.2%
Labor force participation
57.1%
Bachelor's Degree+
12.4%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1742.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
175.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1567.1
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.
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Forest Hill's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
13,950 residents
2021
13,843 residents
2022
13,950 residents
2023
14,322 residents
2024
14,240 residents
2025
14,056 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
5
housing units authorized
Single-Family
5
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
45
41
4
$10.1M
2020
18
18
0
$3.9M
2021
15
15
0
$3.4M
2022
132
106
26
$15.7M
2023
10
10
0
$1.9M
2024
5
5
0
$1.8M
Permit volume decreased 89% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
26.3 minutes
Drive Alone
74.4%
Carpool
12.4%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
8.3%
Other
4.9%
Based on 5,976 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 Forest Hill. 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 Forest Hill 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 Forest Hill sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Forest Hill 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 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.