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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-PALACIOS-TX · Palacios, TX 4,394 pop · income 36th 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 Palacios
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Palacios on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Falfurrias · lowest
38,696
Falfurrias · lowest
38,696 median HH income
15.5% of the leader · rank #1
Worland · near
60,603
Worland · near
60,603 median HH income
24.2% of the leader · rank #2
Holley · near
60,607
Holley · near
60,607 median HH income
24.2% of the leader · rank #3
Palacios · this city
60,613
Palacios · this city
60,613 median HH income
24.2% of the leader · rank #4
Alexandria · near
60,616
Alexandria · near
60,616 median HH income
24.2% of the leader · rank #5
Doraville · near
60,618
Doraville · near
60,618 median HH income
24.2% of the leader · rank #6
Emerald Lake… · highest
250,001
Emerald Lake… · 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 Palacios 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: 4,394.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Palacios - the verdict
Nationally, Palacios sits in the 36th percentile for household income and the 46th percentile for safety among US cities with a population of 1,000 or more. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
36th
percentile, household income
28th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
46th
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: Palacios, TX
Palacios is a small town in Texas, home to 4,394 residents per U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $60,613 per year, below the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 15.6%. Palacios's housing stock carries a median value of $153,000, and the median resident age is 40.8 years. Educational attainment runs 22.2% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 60.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 15 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Building Boom), up 88% from five years earlier. Palacios reports a comparatively low crime rate: per-100,000 total crime stands at 1511.7 in FBI UCR data, below 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: 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 Palacios'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 work and mobility to population change to comparison shortlist to schools and households to housing and income to reported crime; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Palacios, city-specific coverage includes FBI reported-crime rates, local building permits, commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count.
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.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Palacios?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 84.5%. 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. 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.
Is Palacios growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -23 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -0.5% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 15 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Palacios?
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 Denver City (4,388 residents, $84,333 income); Pittsburg (4,401 residents, $48,081 income); Canton (4,411 residents, $48,858 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Brooktrails, CA (4,394 residents); Barboursville, WV (4,394 residents); Chinle, AZ (4,395 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 4 public schools within the city match. 22.2% 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.
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 Palacios?
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 2.5 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 15.6%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
2.5×
Home value
$153,000
Household income
$60,613
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 Palacios?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1511.7 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 34% 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.
Total reported rate
1511.7
Violent rate
343.6
Property rate
1168.1
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Below median income · poverty 15.6% (High poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
F
City profile score · Palacios, TX
35/100
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.
Bachelor's+ share D
22.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Household income F
$60,613
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Violent crime F
344 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Poverty rate F
15.6%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Palacios profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Bachelor's+ share: 41/100 (D) · 22.2%
Household income: 35/100 (F) · $60,613
Violent crime: 27/100 (F) · 344 /100k
Poverty rate: 21/100 (F) · 15.6%
Where Palacios sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Palacios'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 - Palacios highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Palacios, TX (this city): home $153,000, crime 1,512/100k
Barboursville, WV : home $212,000, crime 2,889/100k
Scottdale, PA : home $137,700, crime 1,741/100k
Denver City, TX : home $184,000, crime 776/100k
Pittsburg, TX : home $130,600, crime 1,222/100k
Canton, TX : home $189,200, crime 1,692/100k
Devine, TX : home $145,600, crime 1,608/100k
Falfurrias, TX : home $78,500, crime 893/100k
How does Palacios compare to other US cities?
Where Palacios sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income36% higher than other cities
Home value28% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety46% 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, Palacios ranks #343 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 Palacios 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 Palacios near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Palacios ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Palacios only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#834 of 1,520
45th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#796 of 1,505
47th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#477 of 1,663
71st percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#594 of 1,663
64th 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
36th percentile nationally for median household income · 46th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Palacios's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Palacios'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 Palacios's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$153,000Among the most affordablemore affordable than 72% 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
Palacios's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.5×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#4,132 of 15,516
More affordable than 73% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#3,716 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.5×, Palacios sits in the affordable band:
national rank #4,132 of 15,516 and #3,716 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$60,613Palacios, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Palacios, 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 Palacios, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)22.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)15.6%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)60.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
4,394
Median Income
$60,613
Median Home Value
$153,000
Median Age
40.8
Poverty Rate
15.6%
Labor force participation
60.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
22.2%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1511.7
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
343.6
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1168.1
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.
Schools
Total Schools
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Palacios's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
4,393 residents
2021
4,406 residents
2022
4,340 residents
2023
4,344 residents
2024
4,335 residents
2025
4,370 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📈 Building Boom
Total Permits (2024)
15
housing units authorized
Single-Family
15
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
3.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
8
8
0
$2.1M
2020
18
18
0
$3.7M
2021
30
30
0
$5.3M
2022
16
16
0
$3.9M
2023
14
10
4
$2.5M
2024
15
15
0
$3.5M
Permit volume increased 88% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
84.5%
Carpool
6.3%
Public Transit
2.6%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
0.0%
Other
6.6%
Based on 2,129 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 Palacios. 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 Palacios 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 Palacios sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Palacios 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.