Chaparral, New Mexico

Area Profile

18,186 residents. Public schools, jobs, income, housing cost, climate and natural-hazard risk for Chaparral, in Otero County.

42out of 100
Area Score
Bottom 5% of 4,196 profiles measured

How we calculate this

How this area ranks

Data updated · 11 sources
Opportunity4,179th of 4,199 cities measured15
SchoolsTop 19% of 4,162 cities measured75
Growth3,642nd of 4,224 cities measured29
Housing affordabilityTop 20% of 4,218 cities measured77
Climate2,886th of 4,225 cities measured64
Physical resilience4,147th of 4,226 cities measured6
Access2,516th of 4,226 cities measured90
Economic stability4,107th of 4,226 cities measured21
The quick read

Employment conditions sit below most comparable cities measured: unemployment is 5.9% and the Opportunity signal places Chaparral in the bottom 1%. The unemployment rate is published for Otero County, NM, which contains Chaparral, rather than for Chaparral alone.

Public schools test above most of the state: 27% of students met the mathematics standard, placing the area in the top 19% of published profiles for schools. Math proficiency is published for Otero County, NM, which contains Chaparral, rather than for Chaparral alone.

Residential permitting has slowed: 6 units authorized over the past twelve months, against 8 the year before. The permit count and 1 other measure here are published for Otero County, NM, which contains Chaparral, rather than for Chaparral alone.

These sentences are written by fixed rules from the measurements below — a statement appears because a number crossed a stated threshold, and the values behind it are stored with it. No figure anywhere on this site is invented, estimated or inferred to fill a gap. How this works.

At a glance

Population
18,186
2024 ACS 5-Year
Median household income
$46,017
Bottom 17% nationally
Density
308/sq mi
59.1 sq mi of land
Median age
31.6
2024 ACS 5-Year
County
New Mexico
Micro area
Nearest major airport
DNA
21 mi · Dona Ana County Intl Jetport
Median home value
$109,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

Jobs & opportunity

Unemployment across Otero County, NM, which contains Chaparral, is 5.9% — higher than in all but 9% of the 4,226 measured US cities.

Employment across Otero County, NM, which contains Chaparral, fell 2.5% over the past year, to 22,809 employed residents.

Median household income of $46,017 is lower than in 83% of measured US cities.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Income of new arrivalsOtero County, NM’s figurefiling years 2022–2023$47,6705th percentileof 4,101filing years 2022–2023
Income of those who leftOtero County, NM’s figurefiling years 2022–2023$54,94615th percentileof 4,101filing years 2022–2023
Median household income ±$7,5702024 ACS 5-Year$46,017Bottom 17%of 29,2232024 ACS 5-Year
Per capita income ±$2,2442024 ACS 5-Year$20,268Bottom 9%of 31,4202024 ACS 5-Year
Poverty rate ±6%2024 ACS 5-Year26.6%Bottom 13%of 31,7732024 ACS 5-Year
Average commute ±2.4 min2024 ACS 5-Year32.8 minBottom 23%of 31,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Bachelor's degree or higher ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year10.5%Bottom 22%of 31,9192024 ACS 5-Year
Drove alone to work ±6%2024 ACS 5-Year83.9%72nd percentileof 31,4332024 ACS 5-Year
EmploymentOtero County, NM’s figureJuly 202622,809Bottom 27%of 4,226July 2026
Employment change (3 years)Otero County, NM’s figureJuly 2026−2.0%Bottom 24%of 4,226July 2026
Employment change (year over year)Otero County, NM’s figureJuly 2026−2.5%Bottom 13%of 4,226July 2026
Labor forceOtero County, NM’s figureJuly 202624,22728th percentileof 4,226July 2026
Labor force participation ±5%2024 ACS 5-Year66.8%Bottom 21%of 31,5132024 ACS 5-Year
Public transit to work ±0.3%2024 ACS 5-Year0.0%1st percentileof 31,4332024 ACS 5-Year
Unemployment change (year over year)Otero County, NM’s figureJuly 2026+0.5%Bottom 19%of 4,226July 2026
Unemployment rateOtero County, NM’s figureJuly 20265.9%Bottom 9%of 4,226July 2026
Worked from home ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year4.5%34th percentileof 31,4332024 ACS 5-Year

Median household income, successive ACS releases

202120222023202446k34k
Each point is a separate five-year estimate, most recently $46,017 in the 2024 ACS 5-Year. Consecutive releases share four years of sample, so AreaProfile shows them as a record of successive estimates and does not compute a year-over-year change from them.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics publishes city-level labor data only for places of 25,000 or more. This is the figure for Otero County, NM, which contains this city.

27% of students met the state standard in mathematics and 39% in reading, across the schools here that reported results. Math proficiency and 1 other measure here are published for Otero County, NM, which contains Chaparral, rather than for Chaparral alone.

There are 15.4 students for every full-time teacher across 2 public schools, fewer than in most measured places.

Public schools
2
2024-25 school year
Students per teacher
15.4
across all schools here
Math proficiency
27.0%
Top 18% in New Mexico
Reading proficiency
38.6%
Top 23% in New Mexico

The proficiency and staffing figures above are for Otero County, NM: too few schools in Chaparral reported a usable figure on their own to weight one honestly. The schools listed below are this place’s own.

All 2 public schools on record, largest first.
SchoolDistrictStudentsPer teacherMathReading
Yucca Heights ElementaryGADSDEN43915.124%29%
Chaparral On-Track Prek CenterGADSDEN16016.0——

100.0% of students here are eligible for free or reduced-price lunch. That describes the circumstances families arrive with, not how the schools perform, so it is shown and not scored.

Public schools only, from the NCES Common Core of Data, placed by ZIP code — which schools are in this place, not which one a particular address is zoned for. A dash in a proficiency column is a gap in the federal file, not a bad result. Proficiency is measured against New Mexico’s own standard, so it is ranked within state. How to read school figures.

The Federal Housing Finance Agency’s house price index for the non-metropolitan parts of New Mexico is up 37% over five years, and up 1.3% over the last year. It follows repeat sales of the same homes, so it measures price change rather than which homes happened to sell.

Homeowners here who pay a tax bill pay a median of $588 a year in real estate taxes, about 0.54% of the median home value.

HUD’s Fair Market Rent for a two-bedroom, set near the 40th percentile of recent new leases, is $973, some 14% above the $853 tenants already here pay.

At HUD’s Fair Market Rent of $973 a month for a two-bedroom, keeping rent to 30% of income takes a household income of about $38,900 a year, about 85% of the median household income here of $46,017.

The typical renter household here spends 28% of its income on rent, below the 30% threshold at which a household is considered cost-burdened. Median gross rent runs $853 a month.

A median home at $109,300 costs 2.0 times the median income of its owner-occupied households, $55,446, close to the historic benchmark for an affordable market.

Rent as a share of income
28.0%
Below the 30% cost-burdened threshold
Home price to income
2.0×
median home value ÷ owner household income
Market rent, two bedroom
$973
what a new lease costs · FY2026
Median gross rent
$853
what tenants now pay · 2024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value
$109,300
2024 ACS 5-Year

The figures above are measured against Chaparral’s median household income of $46,017, which describes the place rather than you. Enter your own and the ratio is recomputed against it. It stays in this browser.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Home price change (1 year)the non-metropolitan parts of New Mexico’s figure2026 Q2+1.3%26th percentileof 4,1542026 Q2
Home price change (5 years)the non-metropolitan parts of New Mexico’s figure2026 Q2+36.8%35th percentileof 4,1542026 Q2
Home price change (10 years)the non-metropolitan parts of New Mexico’s figure2026 Q2+75.6%21st percentileof 4,1542026 Q2
Home price to income ±0.42024 ACS 5-Year2.0Top 31%of 26,8152024 ACS 5-Year
Homeownership rate ±2%2024 ACS 5-Year69.4%36th percentileof 31,7172024 ACS 5-Year
Housing units ±4822024 ACS 5-Year5,94090th percentileof 32,1772024 ACS 5-Year
Market rent, one bedroomFY2026$792Top 7%of 4,072FY2026
Market rent, three bedroomFY2026$1,353Top 10%of 4,072FY2026
Market rent, two bedroomFY2026$973Top 5%of 4,072FY2026
Median gross rent ±$872024 ACS 5-Year$853Top 36%of 23,1202024 ACS 5-Year
Median home value ±$12,4322024 ACS 5-Year$109,30023rd percentileof 29,1112024 ACS 5-Year
Median property taxes ±$592024 ACS 5-Year$5889th percentileof 26,4402024 ACS 5-Year
Owner household income ±$8,8042024 ACS 5-Year$55,446Bottom 17%of 27,5482024 ACS 5-Year
Property tax rate ±0.08%2024 ACS 5-Year0.54%14th percentileof 20,5432024 ACS 5-Year
Rent as a share of income ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year28.0%Top 48%of 22,9502024 ACS 5-Year
Seasonal and second homes ±1612024 ACS 5-Year23394th percentileof 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year
Second homes2024 ACS 5-Year3.9%78th percentileof 31,8952024 ACS 5-Year
Vacancy rate2024 ACS 5-Year10.9%67th percentileof 31,7692024 ACS 5-Year
Vacant housing units ±3422024 ACS 5-Year88094th percentileof 32,3302024 ACS 5-Year

These measures come from the same ACS release as the income they are compared with. They compare housing cost with local earnings only: transport, groceries, healthcare, insurance and taxes are not in them. How to read affordability, the two rent figures.

Development Momentum

29/ 100
Ranks 3,642 of 4,224 published city profiles

An AreaProfile calculation combining permit volume per resident, its direction over one and three years, population change and employment growth. Permit volume alone is not the measure.

New construction is predominantly single-family: of 6 units permitted over the past twelve months, none were in buildings of five or more homes. The multifamily share is published for Otero County, NM, which contains Chaparral, rather than for Chaparral alone.

Federal tax returns show Otero County, which contains Chaparral, gained about 0.3% of its residents through moves within the US in the most recent year, counting those who arrived against those who left. Households that moved in reported an average income of $47,670, below the $54,946 of households that moved out.

At 0.1 permitted units per 1,000 residents, building activity is below the median for measured US cities. The permit rate is published for Otero County, NM, which contains Chaparral, rather than for Chaparral alone.

Units permitted
6
12 months ending July 2026
Per 1,000 residents
0.1
Bottom 6% nationally
Year over year
−25%
vs the prior twelve months
Multifamily share
0.0%
units in 5+ unit buildings

People moving in and out

Net migration
+0.3%
of residents, in a year
Arrivals from another state
79%
of people moving in
Income of arrivals
$47,670
average per tax return
Income of those who left
$54,946
average per tax return

Where newcomers came from

  1. El Paso County, TX 570 people · 13% of arrivals
  2. Doña Ana County, NM 393 people · 8.8% of arrivals
  3. Lincoln County, NM 156 people · 3.5% of arrivals
  4. Clark County, NV 142 people · 3.2% of arrivals
  5. Maricopa County, AZ 113 people · 2.5% of arrivals

Where people who left went

  1. Doña Ana County, NM 394 people · 9.1% of departures
  2. El Paso County, TX 390 people · 9.0% of departures
  3. Clark County, NV 175 people · 4.0% of departures
  4. Bernalillo County, NM 108 people · 2.5% of departures
  5. Maricopa County, AZ 102 people · 2.4% of departures

Based on the address on federal tax returns, compared with the same filers a year earlier. It counts people who file, and sees a move only when the address on a return changes. Domestic moves only: people arriving from abroad are left out. This is the figure for Otero County, NM. IRS Statistics of Income, filing years 2022–2023.

The Census Bureau's Building Permits Survey lists only jurisdictions that issue their own permits, and Chaparral, NM is not one. This is the figure for Otero County, NM, which contains this city.

Weather & climate

5 of the twelve months have a normal average temperature between 55°F and 80°F. July averages a high of 96°F and January a low of 35°F.

Normal annual precipitation is 8.8 inches, including 2.8 inches of snow.

20°40°60°80°100°JFMAMJJASOND
Solid line: normal daily high. Dashed line: normal daily low. 1991-2020 normals from NOAA station EL PASO INTL AP, 16.2 miles from this location.

Precipitation

JFMAMJJASOND1.7"
Normal monthly precipitation, in inches.
MetricValueSource period
Annual precipitation1991-2020 Normals8.8"1991-2020 Normals
Annual snowfall1991-2020 Normals2.8"1991-2020 Normals
Average January low1991-2020 Normals35°F1991-2020 Normals
Average July high1991-2020 Normals96°F1991-2020 Normals
Comfortable months1991-2020 Normals51991-2020 Normals
Seasonal temperature swing1991-2020 Normals38°F1991-2020 Normals

Climate figures are thirty-year normals, not current conditions. How to read climate and air quality.

Physical risk

6 / 100
Physical resilience

The hazards accounting for most of this area's expected annual loss are inland flooding, wildfire and lightning, with inland flooding alone responsible for 64% of it. Lightning is independently rated low or minimal nationally, so this describes how the loss is composed, not how large that hazard is.

WildfireHigh
Inland floodingHigh
DroughtModerate
Ice stormModerate
HailModerate
Heat waveModerate

Low or minimal exposure: winter weather, lightning, landslide, earthquake, volcanic activity, strong wind, avalanche, cold wave, hurricane, tornado, coastal flooding, tsunami.

Hazard ratings are AreaProfile calculations derived from the FEMA National Risk Index v1.20.0 (December 2025). FEMA publishes at county level. City values are the population-weighted mean of the counties the city overlaps, using AreaProfile place-to-county land-area weights. FEMA does not endorse this presentation. Higher physical resilience means lower exposure.

These are deaths, not offenses — they say nothing about burglary, theft or assault.

Otero County has a modeled homicide rate of about 6.5 per 100,000 residents a year, because the CDC suppresses counts this small, higher than most counties measured. The CDC does not publish this below county level.

Firearm deaths of all intents run at 27.6 per 100,000 — more than the homicide rate, since the figure counts suicides and accidents as well as homicides.

Drug overdose deaths run at 37.8 per 100,000 residents in Otero County.

Homicide
6.5
per 100,000 residents · modeled, not measured
Firearm deaths, all intents
27.6
per 100,000 residents
Drug overdose
37.8
per 100,000 residents
Suicide
30.5
per 100,000 residents

Firearm deaths count every intent together, and nationally the majority are suicides rather than homicides, so the firearm figure and the homicide figure above it count some of the same deaths twice over. They overlap and should not be added together.

Death rates are crude rates — deaths divided by population, not adjusted for age — except where a count was too small for the CDC to publish and it modeled the rate, which the card marks. They come from provisional death certificate records, published by the CDC by county and not below it. So they describe the county around Chaparral (Otero County) rather than Chaparral itself. They are shown and not scored. How to read death rates.

What this profile does not cover

Each of these is absent for a reason, not by oversight. The Area Score is calculated without them; the weighting is on the methodology page.

Reported crime
Offenses reported to police are published by department rather than by town, so AreaProfile shows a rate only on city profiles, and only where that city’s department submitted every month of a year. Either no municipal department reports for this place — many smaller communities are policed by the county — or its department did not report every month of the year. Either way there is no figure to show. A partial year is never scaled up to look complete, and arrest counts or news volume are never substituted for it.
Cost of living
Price parities are published for metropolitan areas, and this place lies outside one.
Air quality
The EPA publishes an air-quality index only where a monitor sits. There is none in this county, and a modeled value would be a different kind of number from the measured ones everywhere else on this page.
Taxes
Income and sales taxes are not published: no source covers them nationally with a method open enough to check. Property taxes are shown in the housing section but are not part of the score. Cost of living is published where the Bureau of Economic Analysis measures it, though not for this place. Nothing here is individualized tax advice.
Anything about a specific address
Every figure describes an area, not a street or a house.

Access

3 major airports lie within 100 miles, the nearest Dona Ana County Intl Jetport at 21 miles.

MetricValueCompared nationallySource period
Broadband access ±5%2024 ACS 5-Year90.0%Top 49%of 31,5882024 ACS 5-Year
Distance to major airportNASR current cycle21 miBottom 43%of 4,226NASR current cycle
Major airports within 100 milesNASR current cycle3Bottom 20%of 4,226NASR current cycle
No internet access ±3%2024 ACS 5-Year7.1%Top 48%of 31,5882024 ACS 5-Year
AirportCodeDistanceLongest runway
Dona Ana County Intl JetportDNA21 mi9,550 ft
Alamogordo-White Sands RgnlALM60 mi9,207 ft
Deming MuniDMN78 mi8,018 ft

Airport identity, position and runway data come from the FAA. “Major airport” is an AreaProfile classification — a public-use civil airport with a paved runway of at least 8,000 feet — not an FAA hub designation. Distances are straight-line, not driving distance.

Customize your score

What matters to you?

Choose what you weight most heavily. Nothing is saved to an account — your preferences stay in this browser, and the Area Score never changes.

Area Score
42
Your Score
—

Select one or more priorities to see how this location scores against them.

Other cities in Alamogordo, NM

Same metropolitan area, measured the same way
CityCountyPopulationArea ScoreCompare
AlamogordoOtero County31,30744Alamogordo vs Chaparral

Every city here is measured on the same scale from the same source releases, so the comparison is like for like. A higher Area Score reflects AreaProfile’s standardized weighting rather than a judgment about which is the better place to live.

Compare

Put Chaparral side by side with a similar place.

Chaparral vs PlainviewChaparral vs Alamogordo

Moving to Chaparral from somewhere else?

You get the difference in prices, rent and weather, and the income that would keep pace.

Data & methodology

Used forSourceSource period
AccessFederal Aviation Administration
Airports (NASR) — Aeronautical Data Delivery Service
NASR current cycle
Physical riskFederal Emergency Management Agency
National Risk Index
National Risk Index December 2025 (v1.20.0)
Demographics, IncomeInternal Revenue Service, Statistics of Income Division
U.S. Population Migration Data (county to county)
filing years 2022–2023
ClimateNOAA National Centers for Environmental Information
U.S. Climate Normals 1991–2020 (Monthly)
1991-2020 Normals
JobsU.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics
Local Area Unemployment Statistics
July 2026
Access, Demographics, Housing, Income, JobsU.S. Census Bureau
American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates (Table-Based Summary File)
2024 ACS 5-Year
DevelopmentU.S. Census Bureau
Building Permits Survey
12 months ending July 2026
SafetyU.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, National Center for Health Statistics
Provisional county-level mortality by intent
March 2025 to February 2026; May 2025 to April 2026
SchoolsU.S. Department of Education, National Center for Education Statistics
Common Core of Data and EDFacts assessments
2018-19 school year; 2024-25 school year
HousingU.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, Office of Policy Development and Research
Fair Market Rents
FY2026
HousingU.S. Federal Housing Finance Agency
House Price Index (traditional, all-transactions)
2026 Q2
Current conditionsNOAA National Weather Service
National Weather Service current conditions
Live observation, read when the page opens

Profile recalculated October 8, 2026. Recalculation is not the same as new source data — each figure above shows the period its source actually covers. Read the full methodology, or every source with how often each updates.

ZIP codes in Chaparral

1 ZIP area

Every ZIP area in Chaparral with census figures of its own, largest first. The ones linked below diverge enough from the city as a whole to carry a full profile; the rest track Chaparral closely, so their figures are here rather than on a page that would repeat this one. An Area Score is calculated for published profiles only, which is why it is blank on those rows.

ZIPPopulationMedian household incomeMedian home valueArea Score
8808119,663$46,017$109,300—