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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-KATY-TX · Katy, TX 23,900 pop · income 82nd pct · 11 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 Katy
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Katy on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Marshall · lowest
49,817
Marshall · lowest
49,817 median HH income
36.2% of the leader · rank #1
Gordon Heights · near
107,317
Gordon Heights · near
107,317 median HH income
77.9% of the leader · rank #2
Bogota · near
107,321
Bogota · near
107,321 median HH income
77.9% of the leader · rank #3
Katy · this city
107,332
Katy · this city
107,332 median HH income
77.9% of the leader · rank #4
Bowleys Quart… · near
107,339
Bowleys Quart… · near
107,339 median HH income
77.9% of the leader · rank #5
King Arthur P… · near
107,341
King Arthur P… · near
107,341 median HH income
77.9% of the leader · rank #6
Arnold · highest
137,799
Arnold · highest
137,799 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 Katy 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: 23,900.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Katy - the verdict
Katy ranks in the 82nd percentile for household income and the 11th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
82nd
percentile, household income
75th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
11th
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: Katy, TX
Katy is a small city in Texas, home to 23,900 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. The typical household in Katy brings in $107,332 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 3.0%. Typical homes in Katy are valued around $376,800, and the median resident age is 36.0 years. Educational attainment runs 47.1% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 62.4% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 170 residential building permits were authorized in Katy (Construction Slowdown), down 80% from five years earlier, per Census BPS data. Katy's reported crime rate runs above the national norm: per-100,000 total crime stands at 3480.3 in FBI UCR data, above 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). Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,149 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $223 across Texas, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. Commute times here average 25.9 minutes, with 72.8% driving alone and 13.8% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. 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 Katy'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 within-city variation to housing and income to reported crime to schools and households 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 Katy, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares, matched public-school count, annual population history, within-city Census tract profiles.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
Which cities make useful reference points for Katy?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Belton (23,769 residents, $63,544 income); Fresno (24,087 residents, $89,442 income); Marshall (23,646 residents, $49,817 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Arnold, MD (23,866 residents); Willoughby, OH (23,934 residents); Kingston, NY (23,942 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.
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.
PlainCities matches 11 Census tracts to this city.
How far does income reach against housing in Katy?
The home-value-to-income reference sits in a middle range: the ACS median home value is 3.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 3.0%, 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.
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 3480.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, above the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 53% higher in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
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.
Schools and households
What does the education layer cover for Katy?
The NCES join finds 86 public schools within the city match. 47.1% 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.
Matched public schools
86
Bachelor's degree+
47.1%
Poverty estimate
3.0%
NCES Common Core of Data school locations plus Census ACS resident characteristics.
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 +5,936 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +26.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 170 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+26.5%
2025 estimate
28,373
2020 estimate
22,437
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
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 72.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 25.9 minutes.
Public transit
0.8%
Work from home
13.8%
Drive alone
72.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 10,661 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.
Bachelor's+ share A-
47.1%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income A-
$107,332
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate B+
3.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better 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.
Violent crime D
227 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Katy profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Bachelor's+ share: 81/100 (A-) · 47.1%
Household income: 80/100 (A-) · $107,332
Poverty rate: 79/100 (B+) · 3.0%
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Violent crime: 44/100 (D) · 227 /100k
Where Katy sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Katy'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 - Katy highlighted among 10 peers.Read the chart values
Katy, TX (this city): home $376,800, crime 3,480/100k
Willoughby, OH : home $206,200, crime 1,039/100k
Kingston, NY : home $277,900, crime 1,995/100k
Easley, SC : home $243,100, crime 2,035/100k
Raymore, MO : home $318,000, crime 1,259/100k
Belton, TX : home $252,000, crime 2,036/100k
Marshall, TX : home $133,000, crime 1,919/100k
Benbrook, TX : home $278,200, crime 2,091/100k
Watauga, TX : home $233,400, crime 968/100k
Saginaw, TX : home $270,300, crime 1,637/100k
How does Katy compare to other US cities?
Here's how Katy stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income82% higher than other cities
Home value75% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety11% 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, Katy ranks #583 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 Katy 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 Katy near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Katy ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Katy only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#208 of 1,520
86th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#159 of 1,505
89th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#1,277 of 1,663
23rd percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#159 of 1,663
90th 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
82nd percentile nationally for median household income · 11th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Katy's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Katy'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 Katy's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$376,80025th percentilemore affordable than 25% 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
Katy's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,002 of 15,516
More affordable than 42% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,495 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.5×, Katy sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,002 of 15,516 and #1,495 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
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
$107,332Katy, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Katy, 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 Katy, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)47.1%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)3.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)62.4%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
23,900
Median Income
$107,332
Median Home Value
$376,800
Median Age
36.0
Poverty Rate
3.0%
Labor force participation
62.4%
Bachelor's Degree+
47.1%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
3480.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
226.5
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
3253.8
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
86
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Katy's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
22,437 residents
2021
23,793 residents
2022
25,403 residents
2023
26,637 residents
2024
27,797 residents
2025
28,373 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
170
housing units authorized
Single-Family
170
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
7.1
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
858
539
319
$210.9M
2020
576
576
0
$203.9M
2021
527
527
0
$206.3M
2022
430
430
0
$256.6M
2023
390
390
0
$219.7M
2024
170
170
0
$98.3M
Permit volume decreased 80% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
25.9 minutes
Drive Alone
72.8%
Carpool
10.0%
Public Transit
0.8%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
13.8%
Other
1.7%
Based on 10,661 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 Katy. 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 Katy 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 Katy sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Katy 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.