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Place dossier plate
SheetWA-FERNDALE-WA · Ferndale, WA 15,447 pop · income 65th pct · 9 tracts
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 Ferndale
Lowest/highest poles plus peers nearest Ferndale on median household income. Full ladder: /browse and /rankings.
median HH income
Aldine · lowest
40,916
Aldine · lowest
40,916 median HH income
28.1% of the leader · rank #1
New Berlinvil… · near
83,827
New Berlinvil… · near
83,827 median HH income
57.5% of the leader · rank #2
Borrego Sprin… · near
83,836
Borrego Sprin… · near
83,836 median HH income
57.5% of the leader · rank #3
Ferndale · this city
83,839
Ferndale · this city
83,839 median HH income
57.5% of the leader · rank #4
Lake Seneca · near
83,839
Lake Seneca · near
83,839 median HH income
57.5% of the leader · rank #5
Barton · near
83,849
Barton · near
83,849 median HH income
57.5% of the leader · rank #6
Greenwood · highest
145,781
Greenwood · highest
145,781 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 Ferndale 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: 15,447.
Agency-reported UCR totals per 100,000 population, not a neighborhood safety grade or a prediction of personal risk.
Ferndale - the verdict
Ferndale ranks in the 65th percentile for household income and the 40th percentile for safety nationally, out of every US city with at least 1,000 residents. Source: Census ACS + FBI UCR.
65th
percentile, household income
84th
percentile, home value
70th
percentile, median rent
40th
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: Ferndale, WA
Census ACS 2023 estimates count 15,447 residents in Ferndale, a small town within Washington. Ferndale households earn a median of $83,839 annually, above the median for U.S. cities on this measure, with a poverty rate of 8.9%. Home values in Ferndale run a median of $492,400, and the median resident age is 33.6 years. Educational attainment runs 32.8% of adults with a bachelor's degree or higher. Separately, 63.3% of working-age residents are in the labor force.
The Census Building Permit Survey recorded 83 residential units authorized here in 2024 (Construction Slowdown), down 38% from five years earlier. Ferndale reports a comparatively low crime rate: FBI UCR figures show 1706.3 crimes per 100,000 residents, below the national average (reporting is voluntary across agencies, so treat this as reporting activity rather than a definitive danger score).
Washington carries a cost-of-living premium: on BEA's 100-equals-national-average cost index, Washington scores 107.0 (Above Average), per the 2024 Regional Price Parities release. Statewide, HUD pegs Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom unit at $1,472 monthly. Monthly utility costs average around $188 across Washington, per EIA 2023 residential energy estimates. The average commute for Ferndale workers runs 20.0 minutes, with 80.8% driving alone and 11.2% working from home. FEMA's National Risk Index rates natural-hazard exposure at 70.0 out of 100 (High).
A decision-led reading path
Useful questions to ask of Ferndale'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 schools and households to comparison shortlist to reported crime to population change to work and mobility to within-city variation to housing and income; another city can have a different sequence or fewer supported layers because the source joins are not uniform.
For Ferndale, city-specific coverage includes within-city Census tract profiles, matched public-school count, FBI reported-crime rates, commute-mode shares, annual population history, local building permits.
All six city-specific enrichment layers used by this profile are present.
Question 1
What does the education layer cover for Ferndale?
The NCES join finds 9 public schools within the city match. 32.8% 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.
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.
Which cities make useful reference points for Ferndale?
Within Washington, the closest population matches are Lake Stickney (15,514 residents, $85,762 income); White Center (15,017 residents, $82,500 income); Lynden (16,025 residents, $94,869 income). Outside the state, the closest population matches in this dataset are Walnut Park, CA (15,446 residents); Aldine, TX (15,434 residents); Homosassa Springs, FL (15,465 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.
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.
What can the FBI record say about safety in Ferndale?
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.
The joined FBI UCR record reports 1706.3 violent and property crimes per 100,000 residents, below the 2280.5 national reference used here. The difference is 25% lower in arithmetic terms, but agency participation is voluntary and reporting completeness varies.
That layer breaks the citywide income, rent, and home-value medians into smaller Census geographies, which can reveal differences that one municipal median necessarily hides. A tract is a statistical area, not a locally defined neighborhood or a promise about conditions on a particular block. Start with the city profile for the broad comparison, then use the tract layer to test whether the same housing and income pattern is consistent across the city. Large within-city spreads are a reason to avoid treating any citywide median as a universal resident experience.
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.
Population change
Is Ferndale growing, shrinking, or holding steady?
Recent estimates point upward. Growth can increase housing demand and service needs, but the permit record must move in the same direction before calling it a supply response; the two series measure different things.
Census PEP estimates show the population grew by +2,420 residents from 2020 to 2025, a +16.0% change. Separately, Census BPS recorded 83 housing units authorized in 2024. PEP and ACS are different Census series, so the trend is kept separate from the headline ACS population.
Period change
+16.0%
2025 estimate
17,559
2020 estimate
15,139
Census Population Estimates Program, 2020–2025; permit context uses Census BPS.
What does the journey to work look like in Ferndale?
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.
Driving alone is the largest reported mode at 80.8%. The reported mean trip to work is 20.0 minutes.
Public transit
1.5%
Work from home
11.2%
Drive alone
80.8%
City-level Census ACS commuting estimates covering 7,462 workers age 16+.
How far does income reach against housing in Ferndale?
The home-value-to-income reference is comparatively stretched: the ACS median home value is 5.9 times median household income. The ACS poverty estimate is 8.9%, which keeps the citywide median from describing every household.
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.
Household income
$83,839
Home value
$492,400
Value / income
5.9×
City-level Census ACS 2023 medians. The ratio divides two separate medians and is descriptive only.
Above median income · poverty 8.9% (Above-median poverty)
Cost of Living Index (state)
107.0 (US=100)
High cost · BEA RPP 2024, Washington average
C-
City profile score · Ferndale, WA
51/100
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 B
104 /100k
FBI UCR violent offenses per 100,000 residents; lower is stronger on this axis.
Household income C+
$83,839
Median household income vs U.S. cities (pop ≥1,000); ACS.
Bachelor's+ share C+
32.8%
Adults with a bachelor's degree or higher; ACS.
Poverty rate D
8.9%
Share of residents below the poverty line; lower scores better on this axis.
Cost of living F
107.0 index
BEA state Regional Price Parities index (100 ≈ national average); lower is stronger on this axis. Same value for every city in the state.
Ferndale profile (scored ACS/FBI dimensions)Read the chart values
Violent crime: 70/100 (B) · 104 /100k
Household income: 63/100 (C+) · $83,839
Bachelor's+ share: 63/100 (C+) · 32.8%
Poverty rate: 44/100 (D) · 8.9%
Cost of living: 15/100 (F) · 107.0 index
Where Ferndale sits on home value vs crime among peer cities
Ferndale'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 - Ferndale highlighted among 24 peers.Read the chart values
Ferndale, WA (this city): home $492,400, crime 1,706/100k
Lynden, WA : home $546,400, crime 1,309/100k
Sunnyside, WA : home $207,200, crime 2,867/100k
Port Orchard, WA : home $492,000, crime 3,286/100k
New York, NY : home $751,700, crime 3,039/100k
Los Angeles, CA : home $879,500, crime 2,212/100k
Chicago, IL : home $315,200, crime 4,012/100k
Houston, TX : home $253,400, crime 5,442/100k
Phoenix, AZ : home $381,900, crime 3,125/100k
Philadelphia, PA : home $232,400, crime 5,457/100k
San Antonio, TX : home $219,700, crime 5,218/100k
San Diego, CA : home $848,500, crime 2,082/100k
Dallas, TX : home $295,300, crime 4,010/100k
San Jose, CA : home $1,187,800, crime 3,195/100k
Austin, TX : home $512,700, crime 3,709/100k
Fort Worth, TX : home $277,300, crime 3,158/100k
Columbus, OH : home $234,500, crime 3,088/100k
Indianapolis, IN : home $207,000, crime 4,214/100k
San Francisco, CA : home $1,380,500, crime 4,526/100k
Seattle, WA : home $912,100, crime 5,783/100k
Denver, CO : home $586,700, crime 5,755/100k
Oklahoma City, OK : home $215,100, crime 3,570/100k
El Paso, TX : home $171,700, crime 1,772/100k
Washington, DC : home $724,600, crime 4,514/100k
How does Ferndale compare to other US cities?
Here's how Ferndale stacks up against the full field of US cities (population 1,000+), computed live from Census and FBI data.
Household income65% higher than other cities
Home value84% pricier than other cities
Median rent70% pricier than other cities
Safety40% safer than other cities
"Safer than" reflects total crime rate from FBI UCR; the others use Census ACS estimates.
A national percentile can hide a lot of local variation: narrowed to Washington alone, Ferndale ranks #63 of 156 Washington cities by lowest crime rate - a different, more locally useful comparison than stacking it against the entire country.
How we calculate these percentiles & ranks
Each percentile compares Ferndale against every qualifying US city; each in-state rank narrows that to Washington only. Full formula and direction notes: methodology.
Washington-relative analysis
Median Gross Rent places Ferndale near the bottom of Washington's cities
Among the 599 Washington cities PlainCities tracks with reported median gross rent data, Ferndale ranks #1 - the 0th percentile within the state. This is a different, narrower cut than the nationwide percentiles above: it compares Ferndale only against its own state's cities, not the full US field.
Median Household Income
#289 of 565
49th percentile in Washington
Median Gross Rent
#1 of 599
0th percentile in Washington
Median Home Value
#203 of 565
64th percentile in Washington
Poverty Rate
#188 of 598
68th percentile in Washington
Bachelor's Degree or Higher
#196 of 599
67th percentile in Washington
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 Washington only, not a livability score. See the methodology for the source and calculation.
Gauge source note
65th percentile nationally for median household income · 40th percentile for safety (lower crime rate). Source: Census ACS 2023 / FBI UCR 2023.
Ferndale's profile vs. every US city
Income, affordability, and safety percentile
Ferndale'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 Ferndale's home value compares nationally
Median home value vs. every US city (population 1,000+)
$492,40016th percentilemore affordable than 16% 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
Ferndale's home-value-to-income ratio: 5.9×
ACS median home value divided by median household income.
Band
pressured
> 5.0×
National rank
#13,997 of 15,516
More affordable than 10% of tracked cities (pop. 1,000+)
Size class
#2,939 of 3,317
Small cities (10,000–49,999)
At 5.9×, Ferndale sits in the pressured band:
national rank #13,997 of 15,516 and #2,939 of 3,317small cities (10,000–49,999).
Housing value is high relative to the citywide income median, a comparison flag, not a verdict on any household.
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
$83,839Ferndale, WA median household income (Census ACS)
Show U.S. national quintile / Lorenz context Ferndale, WA median household income (Census ACS 5-year) with U.S. national quintile shares for context. Diagonal = equality; the curve is national, not computed for Ferndale, WA.
Key socioeconomic indicators
Bachelor's degree or higher (adults 25+)32.8%
Census ACS S1501, educational attainment
Poverty rate (households below FPL)8.9%
Census ACS S1701, poverty status
Labor force participation (adults 16+)63.3%
Census ACS S2301, share of working-age residents in the labor force
Population
15,447
Median Income
$83,839
Median Home Value
$492,400
Median Age
33.6
Poverty Rate
8.9%
Labor force participation
63.3%
Bachelor's Degree+
32.8%
Safety & Crime
Total Crime Rate
1706.3
per 100,000 residents
Violent Crime
104.3
per 100,000 residents
Property Crime
1601.9
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
9
Public schools in this city
Population Change
PEP vintage
Annual U.S. Census Bureau Population Estimates Program (PEP) estimates, 2020–2025
Ferndale's Census PEP population estimates, 2020–2025.Read the chart as text
Period
Population
2020
15,139 residents
2021
15,543 residents
2022
16,100 residents
2023
16,490 residents
2024
16,682 residents
2025
17,559 residents
Housing Supply
BPS source
Census Bureau Building Permits Survey (BPS) - annual residential permits authorized
📉 Construction Slowdown
Total Permits (2024)
83
housing units authorized
Single-Family
81
detached homes
Multifamily
2
apartments & condos
Supply Intensity
5.4
permits per 1,000 residents
5-Year Permit Trend (2019–2024)
Year
Total
Single-Family
Multifamily
Est. Value
2019
134
110
24
$31.5M
2020
166
131
35
$37.9M
2021
209
207
2
$51.2M
2022
116
114
2
$28.2M
2023
49
49
0
$10.6M
2024
83
81
2
$31.8M
Permit volume decreased 38% from 2019 to 2024.
Commute Patterns
Commute source
How workers travel to work, Census ACS 2023
Average Commute Time
20.0 minutes
Drive Alone
80.8%
Carpool
4.7%
Public Transit
1.5%
Walk
0.9%
Work from Home
11.2%
Other
0.9%
Based on 7,462 workers 16 and over.
Monthly Utility Costs
Washington statewide monthly utility average (EIA 2023): $188
EIA 2023 residential energy data puts average monthly utilities across Washington at $188 (electricity about $85 , water and sewer about $55 ).
These are Washington statewide averages, not a meter reading for Ferndale. Actual bills vary by home size, usage, and local rates. Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) 2023.
Living Costs & Risk
Washington's BEA cost-of-living index is 107.0 (Above Average; US average = 100, RPP 2024). HUD Fair Market Rent for a typical two-bedroom in the county around Ferndale is $1,472/mo. FEMA's National Risk Index, averaged to Washington statewide on PlainCities, rates natural-hazard exposure at 70.0 / 100 (High).
Cost/risk geography note
Cost of living is a Washington statewide BEA average; rent is a county-level HUD Fair Market Rent for the county Ferndale sits in; the FEMA hazard score shown here is a statewide average of county NRI inputs, not a parcel-level reading.
How Ferndale compares to similar-size Washington 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.