Union City, NJ

The affordability dashboard for Union City, NJ aggregates Census ACS 5-Year Estimates across 1 ZIP code covering 66,515 residents, then layers in county-level federal data to produce an overall grade of F (26/100). The headline inputs are median household income of $64,310, median home value of $471,600, median rent of $1,537 per month, and 28.3% 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 $2,763 per month (studio $2,407, 1BR $2,458, 3BR $3,367, 4BR $3,955). Department of Labor data lists infant center-based childcare at $16,758 per year, consuming 26% 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, rent, childcare. Unemployment currently reads 9.4% and poverty 23.1% — numbers worth keeping alongside the headline grade.