Mill City, OR

The affordability dashboard for Mill City, OR aggregates Census ACS 5-Year Estimates across 1 ZIP code covering 2,249 residents, then layers in county-level federal data to produce an overall grade of D (42/100). The headline inputs are median household income of $67,250, median home value of $310,100, median rent of $1,371 per month, and 13.2% 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 $1,500 per month (studio $1,034, 1BR $1,236, 3BR $2,030, 4BR $2,356). Department of Labor data lists infant center-based childcare at $12,252 per year, consuming 18% 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 education, housing, childcare. Unemployment currently reads 11.3% and poverty 18.4% — numbers worth keeping alongside the headline grade.