Dover Plains, NY

The affordability dashboard for Dover Plains, NY aggregates Census ACS 5-Year Estimates across 1 ZIP code covering 5,172 residents, then layers in county-level federal data to produce an overall grade of D (44/100). The headline inputs are median household income of $76,157, median home value of $301,300, median rent of $1,351 per month, and 25.3% of adults holding a bachelor's degree or higher. These four metrics alone explain most of the variance between city dashboards.

Cross-agency feeds widen the picture beyond Census demographics. HUD publishes a Fair Market Rent for a 2-bedroom in this county at $1,979 per month (studio $1,364, 1BR $1,549, 3BR $2,511, 4BR $2,694). Department of Labor data lists infant center-based childcare at $14,820 per year, consuming 19% of the local median household income.

Reading the overall grade requires reading all seven dimensions together. The score weights Income 20%, Safety 20%, Housing 15%, Rent 15%, Education 10%, Commute 10%, and Childcare 10%, with each sub-score benchmarked against national percentiles rather than state averages — so the grade is genuinely comparable across any city in the country. Pressure points are housing, commute, childcare. Unemployment currently reads 7.5% and poverty 13.8% — numbers worth keeping alongside the headline grade.