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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-PENITAS-TX · Penitas, TX 6,355 pop · income 24th 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 Penitas
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Penitas on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Salida del So… · lowest
29,631
Salida del So… · lowest
29,631 median HH income
15.9% of the leader · rank #1
Penitas · this city
52,857
Penitas · this city
52,857 median HH income
28.3% of the leader · rank #2
Middletown · near
52,857
Middletown · near
52,857 median HH income
28.3% of the leader · rank #3
Center Line · near
52,857
Center Line · near
52,857 median HH income
28.3% of the leader · rank #4
Crystal Beach · near
52,857
Crystal Beach · near
52,857 median HH income
28.3% of the leader · rank #5
Stringtown · near
52,857
Stringtown · near
52,857 median HH income
28.3% of the leader · rank #6
Medfield · highest
186,625
Medfield · highest
186,625 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 Penitas 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: 6,355.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Penitas - the verdict
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Penitas places in the 24th percentile for household income and the 56th percentile for safety. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
24th
percentile, household income
35th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
56th
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: Penitas, TX
Texas's Penitas is a small town, with 6,355 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $52,857 per year, in the lower quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 25.1%. Typical homes in Penitas are valued around $175,100, and the median resident age is 30.2 years. About 8.7% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 51.7% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
In 2024, 13 residential building permits were authorized in Penitas (Low Activity), per Census BPS data. Penitas reports a comparatively low crime rate: the FBI's Uniform Crime Reporting program logs 1192.0 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: 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. 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 Penitas'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 schools and households to population change 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 Penitas, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares, annual population history, matched public-school count, 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.
Question 1
What does the journey to work look like in Penitas?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 76.7%. 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.
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. 8.7% 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.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +45 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +0.7% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 13 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 Penitas?
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 Salida del Sol Estates (6,356 residents, $29,631 income); Nolanville (6,372 residents, $85,657 income); Dripping Springs (6,322 residents, $106,103 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Medfield, MA (6,355 residents); Sullivan, MO (6,355 residents); Foxborough, MA (6,356 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.
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 Penitas?
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 3.3 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 25.1%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Value / income
3.3×
Home value
$175,100
Household income
$52,857
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 Penitas?
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1192.0 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 48% 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
1192.0
Violent rate
127.1
Property rate
1064.8
FBI Uniform Crime Reporting, incidents per 100,000. Voluntary agency reporting; not a danger score.
Low income · poverty 25.1% (Highest-decile poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
97.1 (US=100)
Near national cost · BEA RPP 2024, Texas average
F
City profile score · Penitas, TX
31/100
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.
Violent crime C+
127 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger 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.
Household income F
$52,857
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Poverty rate F
25.1%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Bachelor's+ share F
8.7%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Penitas profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 64/100 (C+) · 127 /100k
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
Household income: 24/100 (F) · $52,857
Poverty rate: 6/100 (F) · 25.1%
Bachelor's+ share: 3/100 (F) · 8.7%
Where Penitas sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Penitas'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 - Penitas highlighted among 8 peers.Read the chart values
Penitas, TX (this city): home $175,100, crime 1,192/100k
Medfield, MA : home $734,200, crime 380/100k
Sullivan, MO : home $153,100, crime 5,691/100k
Foxborough, MA : home $523,200, crime 899/100k
Nolanville, TX : home $179,800, crime 798/100k
Lindale, TX : home $235,000, crime 1,718/100k
Crockett, TX : home $119,500, crime 1,642/100k
Gun Barrel City, TX : home $229,300, crime 2,925/100k
How does Penitas compare to other US cities?
Penitas measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income24% higher than other cities
Home value35% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
Safety56% 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: Penitas ranks #277 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 Penitas 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 Penitas near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Penitas ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Penitas only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#1,060 of 1,520
30th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#670 of 1,505
55th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#192 of 1,663
88th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#1,331 of 1,663
20th 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
24th percentile nationally for median household income · 56th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Penitas's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Penitas'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 Penitas's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$175,100Among the most affordablemore affordable than 65% 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
Penitas's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.3×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#8,189 of 15,516
More affordable than 47% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#6,700 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 3.3×, Penitas sits in the moderate band:
national rank #8,189 of 15,516 and #6,700 of 11,323micro cities (under 10,000).
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
$52,857Penitas, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Penitas, 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 Penitas, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)8.7%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)25.1%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)51.7%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
6,355
Median Income
$52,857
Median Home Value
$175,100
Median Age
30.2
Poverty Rate
25.1%
Labor force participation
51.7%
Bachelor's Degree+
8.7%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1192.0
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
127.1
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1064.8
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
4
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Penitas's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
6,450 residents
2021
6,392 residents
2022
6,389 residents
2023
6,384 residents
2024
6,549 residents
2025
6,495 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
🏗️ Low Activity
Total Permits (2024)
13
housing units authorized
Single-Family
13
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
2
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
0
0
0
-
2020
0
0
0
-
2021
0
0
0
-
2022
0
0
0
-
2023
73
7
66
$11.4M
2024
13
13
0
$1.2M
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
76.7%
Carpool
13.2%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
0.4%
Work from Home
8.3%
Other
1.4%
Based on 2,244 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 Penitas. 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 Penitas 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 Penitas sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Penitas 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.