Photo: Beeblebrox at en.wikipedia) · CC BY-SA 3.0More people are out of work in Homer (8.7%) than in 91% of U.S. towns
Working residents average 12 minutes each way, where Alaska has 19 and the U.S. 26. Homer grades C− for jobs and income and A for walkability. 11% of workers work from home; Alaska has 10%.
Census ACS 2020–24, EPA Smart Location Database. How the two grades are made
How Homer earns its Jobs & income grade
On income, poverty, unemployment and job access, Homer is better than 17% of U.S. towns, #37 of 41 in Alaska. Household income holds Homer’s grade up ($74,449, U.S. $80,734); job access by car pulls it down (ahead of 8% of U.S. towns).
A fairly firm grade. Within the Census margins of error for income, poverty and unemployment, Homer could be anywhere from D to C.
How long Homer spends getting to work: about 12 minutes
Round trip, about 230 workdays a year: roughly 3.9 full days in the car, bus or train.
Average commute minutes, one way
of Homer workers work from home, vs 10% across Alaska. Their commute is the hallway.
Share of the 2,341 commuters (the 11% who work from home are left out). Across Alaska: 72% drive alone, 1% take transit; U.S.: 81% and 4%. Census ACS 2020–24.
From the Census survey of workers who don’t work from home.
Good to walk, short on transit: Homer
On EPA’s walkability index and the share of commuters who walk, bike or take transit, Homer is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns, #10 of 41 in Alaska. How people get to work scores higher than the street layout: 15.8% of commuters walk, bike or take transit, against 9.9% across Alaska, on an EPA index of 7.8.
A firm grade. EPA’s index has no published margin of error; the commuting share comes from a Census survey of 2,637 workers.
How TownRatings grades walkability →
Transit service: no data. EPA’s transit file has no stops for most of this county (its agencies had not published schedules in the format EPA used in 2020). That is missing data, not a finding that there is no bus or train.
Households without a car (shown, not graded). 5.9% of Homer households have no vehicle (Alaska 9.0%, U.S. 8.4%). <1% of Homer’s commuters take a bus or train.
Homer next to U.S. towns of 4,400 to 8,500: 2,876th of 3,349 on jobs and income
| # | Town | People | Household income | Poverty | Unemployment | Work in town | Grade |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Huntington Woods MI | 6,274 | $190K | 2.2% | 0.9% | 2% | A+ |
| 2 | Glendale MO | 6,060 | $171K | 2.0% | 0.3% | 2% | A+ |
| 3 | Norwood NJ | 5,817 | $178K | 2.8% | 0.9% | 6% | A+ |
| … | |||||||
| 567 | Steele Creek AK | 5,928 | $121K | 3.3% | 0.5% | — | A |
| … | |||||||
| 821 | Farmers Loop AK | 4,954 | $110K | 1.8% | 2.8% | — | A− |
| … | |||||||
| 1,110 | Gateway AK | 6,845 | $138K | 4.5% | 3.8% | — | B+ |
| … | |||||||
| 2,874 | Hillsdale MI | 8,002 | $51K | 22.9% | 4.4% | 29% | C− |
| 2,875 | Valley City ND | 6,430 | $60K | 16.7% | 4.9% | 55% | C− |
| 2,876 | Homer AK | 6,331 | $74K | 11.8% | 8.7% | — | C− |
| 2,877 | Flora IL | 4,634 | $47K | 18.9% | 4.0% | 38% | C− |
| 2,878 | Madisonville TX | 4,605 | $67K | 13.5% | 8.7% | 24% | C− |
| … | |||||||
| 3,349 | Shiprock NM | 7,610 | $36K | 34.6% | 14.9% | 14% | D− |
Census ACS 2020–24 (income, poverty, unemployment), Census LEHD (work in town), TownRatings Jobs & income grades. Each town links to its Work & commute page.
Ranked on the Jobs & income grade: the towns either side of Homer, the top three, the last and three more from Alaska.
What this data can and can’t tell you
- Two sources, two years. Income, poverty, unemployment, commute time and how people travel: Census ACS 2020–24 averages.
- Straight lines, older transit. Miles are as the crow flies. EPA’s walkability and transit files use 2017–20 inputs.
Jobs and commuting in Homer: questions
What is the median household income in Homer?
$74,449 (±$1,854) (Census ACS 2020–24), against $92,788 across Alaska and $80,734 nationally.
What is the poverty rate in Homer?
11.8%, against 10.1% across Alaska and 12.5% nationally (Census ACS 2020–24).
How long is the commute from Homer?
12 minutes each way on average, against 19 across Alaska and 26 nationally. 11% of workers work from home.
Is Homer walkable?
Homer is more walkable than 87% of U.S. towns (Walkability A): an EPA walkability index of 7.8 out of 20, and 16% of commuters walk, bike or take transit.
Can you get around Homer without a car?
<1% of commuters take transit and 6% of households have no car. EPA has no transit data for this county.
Commuter talk
Getting to work from Homer, from the people who make the trip.
More of Homer
Commute time, working from home and working out of state: U.S. Census Bureau, American Community Survey 5-year estimates. Walkability index, job access and transit service: U.S. EPA Smart Location Database. The two grades are our own summaries of these figures, not official ratings.