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Place dossier plate
SheetTX-THE-HILLS-TX · The Hills, TX 2,579 pop · income 97th 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 The Hills
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest The Hills on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Escobares · lowest
29,420
Escobares · lowest
29,420 median HH income
16.5% of the leader · rank #1
Middlebush · near
178,125
Middlebush · near
178,125 median HH income
99.9% of the leader · rank #2
Belmont · near
178,188
Belmont · near
178,188 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #3
The Hills · this city
178,194
The Hills · this city
178,194 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #4
Ashton-Sandy… · near
178,214
Ashton-Sandy… · near
178,214 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #5
Urbana · highest
178,231
Urbana · highest
178,231 median HH income
100.0% of the leader · rank #6
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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for The Hills on ACS population and median household income
. 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: 2,579.
Measured against every US city with at least 1,000 residents, The Hills lands in the 97th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
97th
percentile, household income
94th
percentile, home value
40th
percentile, median rent
📝 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: The Hills, TX
Texas's The Hills is a small town, with 2,579 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. The typical household in The Hills brings in $178,194 a year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 1.8%. The Hills's housing stock carries a median value of $778,100, and the median resident age is 56.1 years. About 72.5% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 46.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Housing supply pressure shows in Census Building Permit Survey data: 1 residential units were authorized in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 67% from five years earlier.
Texas tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 97.1 on a 100-equals-national-average index (Near Average) per BEA Regional Price Parities 2024. 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. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 49.0 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of The Hills'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 comparison shortlist to housing and income to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For The Hills, city-specific coverage includes annual population history, commute-mode shares, local building permits.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
Question 1
Is The Hills growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Census PEP estimates show the population declined by -291 residents from 2020 to 2025, a -11.1% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 1 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Recent estimates point downward. A falling count can reflect migration, household size, annexation boundaries, or estimation noise, so it is a prompt to inspect the full series rather than a claim about local economic health.
Which cities make useful reference points for The Hills?
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.
Within Texas, the closest population matches are Wild Peach (2,580 residents, $71,349 income); West (2,571 residents, $52,292 income); Caddo Mills (2,589 residents, $75,385 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Georgetown, CA (2,580 residents); Palisade, CO (2,580 residents); Cape Neddick, ME (2,578 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.
How far does income reach against housing in The Hills?
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. Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median. That flags a question for comparison, not a verdict: tenure, household composition, financing costs, and the age of the ACS estimate can all change what a resident actually pays.
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 4.4 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 1.8%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in The Hills?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 56.7%. 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. 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.
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+
$178,194
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
72.5%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate A
1.8%
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 N/A
N/A
No FBI UCR violent-crime rate for this place (coverage is incomplete).
The Hills profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $178,194
Bachelor's+ share: 99/100 (A+) · 72.5%
Poverty rate: 87/100 (A) · 1.8%
Cost of living: 53/100 (C-) · 97.1 index
How does The Hills compare to other US cities?
The Hills measured against every US city with 1,000+ residents, computed live from the same Census and FBI data shown throughout this page.
Household income97% higher than other cities
Home value94% pricier than other cities
Median rent40% pricier than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares The Hills 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 The Hills near the bottom of Texas's cities
Among the 1,663 Texas cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, The Hills ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares The Hills only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#39 of 1,520
97th percentile in Texas
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 1,663
0th percentile in Texas
Median Home Value
#29 of 1,505
98th percentile in Texas
Poverty Rate
#1,359 of 1,663
18th percentile in Texas
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#33 of 1,663
98th 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
97th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How The Hills's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$778,1006th percentilemore affordable than 6% 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
The Hills's home-value-to-income ratio: 4.4×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#11,690 of 15,516
More affordable than 25% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#8,992 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 4.4×, The Hills sits in the moderate band:
national rank #11,690 of 15,516 and #8,992 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
$178,194The Hills, TX median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context The Hills, 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 The Hills, TX.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)72.5%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)1.8%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)46.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,579
Median Income
$178,194
Median Home Value
$778,100
Median Age
56.1
Poverty Rate
1.8%
Labor force participation
46.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
72.5%
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
The Hills's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
2,613 residents
2021
2,527 residents
2022
2,464 residents
2023
2,400 residents
2024
2,356 residents
2025
2,322 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
1
housing units authorized
Single-Family
1
detached homes
Multifamily
0
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
0.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
3
3
0
$0.6M
2020
4
4
0
$0.8M
2021
2
2
0
$0.4M
2022
2
2
0
$0.4M
2023
1
1
0
$0.3M
2024
1
1
0
$0.3M
Permit volume decreased 67% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
56.7%
Carpool
0.6%
Public Transit
0.0%
Walk
4.8%
Work from Home
36.3%
Other
1.6%
Based on 1,010 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 The Hills. 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 The Hills 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 The Hills sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How The Hills 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, 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.