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Place dossier plate
SheetVA-PINEY-MOUNTAIN-VA · Piney Mountain, VA 2,478 pop · income 90th 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 Piney Mountain
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Piney Mountain on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Clearbrook · lowest
34,958
Clearbrook · lowest
34,958 median HH income
16.7% of the leader · rank #1
Piney Mountain · this city
129,120
Piney Mountain · this city
129,120 median HH income
61.8% of the leader · rank #2
Huntington St… · near
129,121
Huntington St… · near
129,121 median HH income
61.8% of the leader · rank #3
Altadena · near
129,123
Altadena · near
129,123 median HH income
61.8% of the leader · rank #4
Allen · near
129,130
Allen · near
129,130 median HH income
61.8% of the leader · rank #5
Norene · near
129,138
Norene · near
129,138 median HH income
61.8% of the leader · rank #6
Goose Creek · highest
209,042
Goose Creek · highest
209,042 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 Piney Mountain 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: 2,478.
Piney Mountain ranks in the 90th percentile for household income nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS.
90th
percentile, household income
62nd
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: Piney Mountain, VA
2,478 people live in Piney Mountain, Virginia - a small town by U.S. Census Bureau ACS 2023 estimates. Median household income here is $129,120 per year, placing it in the top quartile of U.S. cities for household income, with a poverty rate of 0.0%. Home values in Piney Mountain run a median of $284,000, and the median resident age is 38.1 years. About 45.0% of adults hold a bachelor's degree or higher, while 72.6% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
Virginia tracks close to the national cost-of-living baseline: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Virginia scores 101.1 (Near Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in this state is $1,369 per month. Statewide, average monthly utility bills in Virginia run around $235, per EIA 2023 residential energy data. On FEMA's National Risk Index, this area rates 33.3 out of 100 for natural-hazard exposure (Very Low).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Piney Mountain'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 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 Piney Mountain, city-specific coverage includes commute-mode shares.
No matched row is reported here for FBI reported-crime rates, annual population history, local building permits, within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count; the page leaves those layers out instead of substituting a statewide or national value.
1. Comparison shortlist
Which cities make useful reference points for Piney Mountain?
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 Chilhowie (2,462 residents, $53,250 income); Woodlawn CDP (Carroll County) (2,461 residents, $89,375 income); Oak Grove (2,452 residents, $193,526 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Cudjoe Key, FL (2,478 residents); Henry, IL (2,478 residents); North Brookfield, MA (2,477 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 Piney Mountain?
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. The ratio makes housing the clearest place to start this profile, but a low multiple can coexist with slow demand, older stock, or household-level hardship. Compare the home-value distribution and same-state peer table before treating it as an advantage.
The home-value-to-income reference is relatively compact: the ACS median home value is 2.2 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 0.0%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
What does the journey to work look like in Piney Mountain?
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 80.8%. 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.
Above-average cost · BEA RPP 2024, Virginia average
B+
City profile score · Piney Mountain, VA
77/100
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.
Poverty rate A+
0.0%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Household income A+
$129,120
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share B+
45.0%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
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).
Piney Mountain profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Poverty rate: 100/100 (A+) · 0.0%
Household income: 90/100 (A+) · $129,120
Bachelor's+ share: 79/100 (B+) · 45.0%
Cost of living: 35/100 (F) · 101.1 index
How does Piney Mountain compare to other US cities?
Where Piney Mountain sits among all US cities (population 1,000+) on each measure, computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income90% higher than other cities
Home value62% 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 Piney Mountain 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 Piney Mountain near the bottom of Virginia's cities
Among the 619 Virginia cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Piney Mountain ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Piney Mountain only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#104 of 558
81st percentile in Virginia
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 619
0th percentile in Virginia
Median Home Value
#241 of 567
57th percentile in Virginia
Poverty Rate
#487 of 616
0th percentile in Virginia
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#163 of 618
73rd 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
90th percentile nationally for median household income. Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
How Piney Mountain's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$284,00038th percentilemore affordable than 38% 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
Piney Mountain's home-value-to-income ratio: 2.2×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
affordable
< 3.0×
National rank
#2,461 of 15,516
More affordable than 84% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,311 of 11,323
Micro cities (under 10,000)
At 2.2×, Piney Mountain sits in the affordable band:
national rank #2,461 of 15,516 and #2,311 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
$129,120Piney Mountain, VA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Piney Mountain, 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 Piney Mountain, VA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)45.0%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)0.0%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)72.6%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
2,478
Median Income
$129,120
Median Home Value
$284,000
Median Age
38.1
Poverty Rate
0.0%
Labor force participation
72.6%
Bachelor's Degree+
45.0%
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Drive Alone
80.8%
Carpool
2.0%
Public Transit
1.2%
Walk
0.0%
Work from Home
16.1%
Based on 1,276 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 Piney Mountain. 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 Piney Mountain 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 Piney Mountain sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Piney Mountain 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.