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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-CASCADES-VA · Cascades, VA 12,489 pop · income 96th 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 Cascades
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Cascades on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Grenada · lowest
42,470
Grenada · lowest
42,470 median HH income
20.0% of the leader · rank #1
Marble · near
166,000
Marble · near
166,000 median HH income
78.3% of the leader · rank #2
Cascades · this city
166,023
Cascades · this city
166,023 median HH income
78.3% of the leader · rank #3
Cedar Knolls · near
166,077
Cedar Knolls · near
166,077 median HH income
78.3% of the leader · rank #4
Pottersville · near
166,087
Pottersville · near
166,087 median HH income
78.3% of the leader · rank #5
Sugar Bush Kn… · near
166,087
Sugar Bush Kn… · near
166,087 median HH income
78.3% of the leader · rank #6
Fairfax Stati… · highest
212,128
Fairfax Stati… · highest
212,128 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
Out-of-state nearest neighbors for Cascades 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: 12,489.
Out of every US city with 1,000+ residents, Cascades places in the 96th percentile for household income. Source: Census ACS.
96th
percentile, household income
90th
percentile, home value
62nd
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: Cascades, VA
Virginia's Cascades is a small town, with 12,489 residents per the latest Census Bureau ACS figures. Median household income here is $166,023 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 2.3%. Home values in Cascades run a median of $617,100, and the median resident age is 38.7 years. 68.2% of adults here have a bachelor's degree or higher; 70.9% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Virginia tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: the state registers 101.1 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 $1,369 monthly. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Virginia run around $235, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. Commute times here average 20.6 minutes, with 63.2% driving alone and 26.6% working from home, per Census ACS commuting data. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 33.3 out of 100 (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Cascades'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 housing and income to comparison shortlist to work and mobility; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Cascades, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, matched public-school count, within-city Census tract profiles, local building permits, annual population history; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Housing and income
How far does income reach against housing in Cascades?
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 3.7 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 2.3%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
Which cities make useful reference points for Cascades?
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 Virginia, the closest population matches are Forest (12,476 residents, $78,825 income); Newington Forest (12,434 residents, $147,650 income); Poquoson (12,556 residents, $120,919 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Gold Canyon, AZ (12,488 residents); Fort Atkinson, WI (12,490 residents); Big Bear, CA (12,493 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.
What does the journey to work look like in Cascades?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 63.2%. The reported mean trip to work is 20.6 minutes.
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.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
B+
City profile score · Cascades, VA
79/100
4 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.
Household income A+
$166,023
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share A+
68.2%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate A-
2.3%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
101.1 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).
Cascades profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Household income: 100/100 (A+) · $166,023
Bachelor's+ share: 96/100 (A+) · 68.2%
Poverty rate: 84/100 (A-) · 2.3%
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
How does Cascades compare to other US cities?
Here's how Cascades stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income96% higher than other cities
Home value90% pricier than other cities
Median rent62% 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 Cascades against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Virginia only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Virginia-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Cascades near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Cascades ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Cascades only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#54 of 558
90th percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#76 of 567
87th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#416 of 616
31st percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#65 of 618
89th percentile in Virginia
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 Virginia only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
96th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Cascades's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$617,10010th percentilemore affordable than 10% 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
Cascades's home-value-to-income ratio: 3.7×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
moderate
3.0–5.0×
National rank
#9,777 of 15,516
More affordable than 37% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#1,709 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 3.7×, Cascades sits in the moderate band:
national rank #9,777 of 15,516 and #1,709 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
$166,023Cascades, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Cascades, VA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Cascades, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)68.2%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)2.3%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)70.9%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
12,489
Median Income
$166,023
Median Home Value
$617,100
Median Age
38.7
Poverty Rate
2.3%
Labor force participation
70.9%
Bachelor's Degree+
68.2%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
20.6 minutes
Drive Alone
63.2%
Carpool
5.1%
Public Transit
2.1%
Walk
1.6%
Work from Home
26.6%
Other
1.4%
Based on 6,813 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Virginia statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $235
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Virginia at $235 (electricity about $115 , water and sewer about $50 ).
These are Virginia statewide averages, not a meter reading for Cascades. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Virginia's BEA cost-of-living index is 101.1 (Near Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Cascades is $1,369/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Virginia statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 33.3 / 100 (Very Low).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Virginia statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Cascades sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Cascades compares to similar-size Virginia 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 ACS B08301/B08136, U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023, BEA Regional Price Parities 2024, HUD Fair Market Rents 2026, FEMA National Risk Index.