Carefree vs Cave Creek

A side-by-side comparison of Carefree and Cave Creek: population, income, housing, and more.

Carefree and Cave Creek are places in Arizona. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Cave Creek has the higher population (5,033 vs 3,672 in Carefree). Carefree has the higher median household income ($141,331 vs $102,589 in Cave Creek). Carefree has the higher median home value ($1,066,600 vs $791,900 in Cave Creek).

Population, income & housing

	Carefree	Cave Creek
Population	3,672	5,033
Median age	64.5 yrs	60.3 yrs
Median household income	$141,331	$102,589
Median home value	$1,066,600	$791,900
Median gross rent	$1,685	$2,096
Housing units	2,371	2,713
Homeownership rate	91.1%	94.6%
Bachelor's degree or higher	61.6%	50.0%
Unemployment rate	4.3%	3.5%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Carefree	Cave Creek
Population	3,811 → 3,672 (-3.6%)	5,670 → 5,033 (-11.2%)
Median household income	$79,152 → $141,331 (+78.6%)	$83,787 → $102,589 (+22.4%)
Median home value	$747,000 → $1,066,600 (+42.8%)	$482,600 → $791,900 (+64.1%)
Median gross rent	$1,446 → $1,685 (+16.5%)	$1,335 → $2,096 (+57.0%)

Carefree

Population

3,8113,672

Median household income

$79,152$141,331

Median home value

$747,000$1,066,600

Median gross rent

$1,446$1,685

Cave Creek

Population

5,6705,033

Median household income

$83,787$102,589

Median home value

$482,600$791,900

Median gross rent

$1,335$2,096

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Carefree	Cave Creek
Under 5	0.0%	3.5%
5 to 17	2.6%	8.8%
18 to 24	3.9%	3.0%
25 to 34	3.0%	4.4%
35 to 44	3.6%	4.1%
45 to 54	11.6%	16.2%
55 to 64	27.3%	18.5%
65 to 74	21.5%	24.0%
75 and over	26.4%	17.5%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Carefree	Cave Creek
White (non-Hispanic)	96.5%	89.2%
Black or African American	0.7%	1.5%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.0%	0.4%
Asian	1.7%	1.4%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	0.0%	1.0%
Two or more races	0.1%	4.2%
Hispanic or Latino	1.0%	2.3%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Carefree	Cave Creek
No high school diploma	0.7%	0.7%
High school graduate	10.3%	20.4%
Some college or associate's	27.3%	28.8%
Bachelor's degree	39.6%	26.5%
Graduate or professional degree	22.0%	23.6%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Carefree	Cave Creek
Drove alone	44.3%	56.0%
Carpooled	1.6%	2.9%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	3.1%	1.5%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	50.9%	34.6%
Other means	0.0%	5.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Carefree	Cave Creek
1-unit, detached	80.9%	82.8%
1-unit, attached	10.9%	7.7%
2 to 4 units	3.4%	3.8%
5 to 19 units	0.8%	0.0%
20 or more units	3.9%	0.6%
Mobile home & other	0.0%	5.2%

Poverty & households

	Carefree	Cave Creek
Poverty rate	11.8%	8.9%
Average household size	1.94	2.17
Mean commute (minutes)	32	32
Median year structure built	1989	1997