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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-LITTLE-ELM-TX · Little Elm, TX 51,426 pop · income 86th 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 Little Elm
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Little Elm on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Galveston · lowest
57,216
Galveston · lowest
57,216 median HH income
41.5% of the leader · rank #1
East Marion · near
116,023
East Marion · near
116,023 median HH income
84.1% of the leader · rank #2
South William… · near
116,027
South William… · near
116,027 median HH income
84.1% of the leader · rank #3
Little Elm · this city
116,036
Little Elm · this city
116,036 median HH income
84.1% of the leader · rank #4
Ogden Dunes · near
116,042
Ogden Dunes · near
116,042 median HH income
84.1% of the leader · rank #5
Seven Fields · near
116,042
Seven Fields · near
116,042 median HH income
84.1% of the leader · rank #6
Aliso Viejo · highest
137,970
Aliso Viejo · highest
137,970 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 Little Elm 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: 51,426.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Little Elm - the verdict
Little Elm ranks in the 86th percentile for household income and the 83rd percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
86th
percentile, household income
76th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
83rd
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: Little Elm, TX
51,426 people live in Little Elm, Texas - a small city by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $116,036 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 6.6%. Typical homes in Little Elm are valued around $390,300, and the median resident age is 36.0 years. 40.6% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 69.8% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 850 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Slowing), down 12% from five years earlier. Little Elm reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 557.0 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than 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. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,149 per month. Monthly utility costs average around $223 across Texas, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. 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 Little Elm'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 work and mobility to schools and households to housing and income to reported crime to comparison shortlist; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Little Elm, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, matched public-school count, commute-mode shares, FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits.
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. Population change
Is Little Elm growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
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 +15,944 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +34.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 850 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
What does the journey to work look like in Little Elm?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 66.7%. A reliable mean commute time is not available for this row, so the mode shares carry the comparison.
What does the education layer cover for Little Elm?
The NCES join finds 11 public schools within the city match. 40.6% 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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Little Elm?
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Burleson (50,981 residents, $94,162 income); Grapevine (50,875 residents, $111,438 income); Kyle (52,439 residents, $89,645 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Mooresville, NC (51,447 residents); Harrisonburg, VA (51,492 residents); Glendora, CA (51,350 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 Little Elm?
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 6.6%, 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
$116,036
Home value
$390,300
Value / income
3.4×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Little Elm?
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 557.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 76% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
Property rate
423.3
Violent rate
133.7
Total reported rate
557.0
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
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 A-
$116,036
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B+
40.6%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Violent crime C+
134 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate C
6.6%
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.
Little Elm profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 84/100 (A-) · $116,036
Bachelor's+ share: 76/100 (B+) · 40.6%
Violent crime: 62/100 (C+) · 134 /100k
Poverty rate: 55/100 (C) · 6.6%
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Where Little Elm sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Little Elm'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 - Little Elm highlighted among 13 peers.Read the chart values
Little Elm, TX (this city): home $390,300, crime 557/100k
Mooresville, NC : home $348,500, crime 2,369/100k
Harrisonburg, VA : home $278,200, crime 1,960/100k
Glendora, CA : home $820,800, crime 2,168/100k
Burien, WA : home $609,300, crime 3,820/100k
Aliso Viejo, CA : home $863,800, crime 1,003/100k
Palm Desert, CA : home $491,600, crime 3,151/100k
Burleson, TX : home $282,900, crime 1,260/100k
Grapevine, TX : home $470,400, crime 2,244/100k
Kyle, TX : home $302,200, crime 1,022/100k
Rockwall, TX : home $382,400, crime 1,519/100k
Galveston, TX : home $294,300, crime 2,917/100k
Bedford, TX : home $322,300, crime 1,691/100k
How does Little Elm compare to other US cities?
Where Little Elm sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income86% higher than other cities
Home value76% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety83% 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, Little Elm ranks #113 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 Little Elm 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 Little Elm near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Little Elm ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Little Elm only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#153 of 1,520
90th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#145 of 1,505
90th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#979 of 1,663
41st percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#220 of 1,663
87th 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
86th percentile nationally for median household income · 83rd percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Little Elm's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Little Elm'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 Little Elm's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$390,30024th percentilemore affordable than 24% 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
Little Elm'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
#8,407 of 15,516
More affordable than 46% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#181 of 750
Mid-size cities (50,000–199,999)
At 3.4×, Little Elm sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,407 of 15,516 and #181 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
$116,036Little Elm, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Little Elm, 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 Little Elm, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)40.6%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)6.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)69.8%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
51,426
Median Income
$116,036
Median Home Value
$390,300
Median Age
36.0
Poverty Rate
6.6%
Labor force participation
69.8%
Bachelor's Degree+
40.6%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
557.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
133.7
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
423.3
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
11
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Little Elm's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
46,783 residents
2021
50,830 residents
2022
55,086 residents
2023
58,421 residents
2024
60,825 residents
2025
62,727 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Slowing
Total Permits (2024)
850
housing units authorized
Single-Family
850
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
16.5
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
962
960
2
$198.5M
2020
1,498
1,170
328
$340.3M
2021
1,555
1,267
288
$400.7M
2022
1,291
1,291
0
$400.7M
2023
928
928
0
$300.0M
2024
850
850
0
$213.1M
Permit volume decreased 12% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
66.7%
Carpool
7.4%
Public Transit
0.1%
Walk
0.2%
Work from Home
24.7%
Other
0.9%
Based on 26,054 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 Little Elm. 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 Little Elm 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 Little Elm sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Little Elm 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.