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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-HEREFORD-TX · Hereford, TX 14,874 pop · income 22nd 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 Hereford
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Hereford on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Rio Grande Ci… · lowest
41,369
Rio Grande Ci… · lowest
41,369 median HH income
16.5% of the leader · rank #1
Rose Bud · near
51,797
Rose Bud · near
51,797 median HH income
20.7% of the leader · rank #2
Paris · near
51,798
Paris · near
51,798 median HH income
20.7% of the leader · rank #3
Castalia · near
51,798
Castalia · near
51,798 median HH income
20.7% of the leader · rank #4
Hereford · this city
51,799
Hereford · this city
51,799 median HH income
20.7% of the leader · rank #5
Oak Hill · near
51,799
Oak Hill · near
51,799 median HH income
20.7% of the leader · rank #6
West Universi… · highest
250,001
West Universi… · highest
250,001 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 Hereford 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: 14,874.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Hereford - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Hereford places in the 22nd percentile for household income and the 59th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
22nd
percentile, household income
13th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
59th
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: Hereford, TX
14,874 people live in Hereford, Texas - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Hereford households earn a median of $51,799 annually, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 12.4%. Home values in Hereford run a median of $109,100, and the median resident age is 30.0 years. 10.1% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 63.2% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 47 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Building Boom), up 2250% from five years earlier. Hereford reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1122.8 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). The annual average temperature per NOAA climate normals runs 57.4°F with 19.3 inches of precipitation per year and 14.3 inches of snowfall.
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. Workers in Hereford report an average commute of 15.9 minutes, with 76.7% driving alone and 2.9% working from home. 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 Hereford'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 population change to schools and households to housing and income to work and mobility to reported crime to within-city variation to climate and hazard context to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Hereford, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, annual population history, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
1. Population change
Is Hereford 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 +64 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.4% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 47 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
The NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 10.1% 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.
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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Hereford?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are West University Place (14,907 residents, $250,000+ income); Lockhart (14,708 residents, $67,252 income); Mineral Wells (15,130 residents, $54,210 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Oldsmar, FL (14,872 residents); Forest, FL (14,871 residents); Loganville, GA (14,878 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.
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 Hereford?
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.1 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 12.4%, 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. 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.
Household income
$51,799
Home value
$109,100
Value / income
2.1×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What does the journey to work look like in Hereford?
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 76.7%. The reported mean trip to work is 15.9 minutes.
Public transit
0.0%
Work from home
2.9%
Drive alone
76.7%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 6,562 workers age 16+.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Hereford?
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 1122.8 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 51% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
884.6
Violent rate
238.2
Total reported rate
1122.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
NOAA normals put the annual mean temperature at 57.4°F, with 19.3 inches of precipitation and 14.3 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.
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.
Mean temperature
57.4°F
Annual precipitation
19.3 in
FEMA risk index (state avg)
49.0
NOAA Climate Normals and FEMA National Risk Index (state-averaged on PlainCities). Hazard context is not address-level.
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 D
238 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
12.4%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income F
$51,799
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share F
10.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Hereford profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Violent crime: 42/100 (D) · 238 /100k
Poverty rate: 30/100 (F) · 12.4%
Household income: 23/100 (F) · $51,799
Bachelor's+ share: 7/100 (F) · 10.1%
Where Hereford sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Hereford'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 - Hereford highlighted among 11 peers.Read the chart values
Hereford, TX (this city): home $109,100, crime 1,123/100k
Oldsmar, FL : home $346,900, crime 1,959/100k
Loganville, GA : home $321,800, crime 944/100k
Whitehall, PA : home $229,200, crime 615/100k
Fort Payne, AL : home $158,100, crime 1,775/100k
West University Place, TX : home $1,406,600, crime 1,046/100k
Lockhart, TX : home $218,400, crime 1,706/100k
Mineral Wells, TX : home $146,100, crime 3,019/100k
Rio Grande City, TX : home $113,400, crime 1,926/100k
Uvalde, TX : home $131,600, crime 2,231/100k
Dumas, TX : home $151,400, crime 1,755/100k
How does Hereford compare to other US cities?
Hereford measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income22% higher than other cities
Home value13% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety59% 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, Hereford ranks #262 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 Hereford 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 Hereford near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Hereford ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Hereford only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,082 of 1,520
29th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#1,064 of 1,505
29th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#623 of 1,663
62nd percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,250 of 1,663
24th 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
22nd percentile nationally for median household income · 59th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Hereford's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Hereford'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 Hereford's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$109,100Among 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
Hereford's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.1×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,034 of 15,516
More affordable than 87% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#103 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 2.1×, Hereford sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,034 of 15,516 and #103 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
$51,799Hereford, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Hereford, 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 Hereford, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)10.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)12.4%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.2%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
14,874
Median Income
$51,799
Median Home Value
$109,100
Median Age
30.0
Poverty Rate
12.4%
Labor force participation
63.2%
Bachelor's Degree+
10.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1122.8
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
238.2
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
884.6
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.
Climate
Avg Temperature
57.4°F
Annual Precipitation
19.3"
Annual Snowfall
14.3"
Schools
Total Schools
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Hereford's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
14,912 residents
2021
14,781 residents
2022
14,791 residents
2023
14,807 residents
2024
14,872 residents
2025
14,976 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
47
housing units authorized
Single-Family
17
detached homes
Multifamily
30
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
2
2
0
$0.4M
2020
2
2
0
$0.4M
2021
2
2
0
$0.4M
2022
54
34
20
$12.0M
2023
10
10
0
$2.9M
2024
47
17
30
$8.9M
Permit volume increased 2250% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
15.9 minutes
Drive Alone
76.7%
Carpool
15.1%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.7%
Work from Home
2.9%
Other
4.6%
Based on 6,562 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 Hereford. 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 Hereford 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 Hereford sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Hereford 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.