Forest vs Montvale

A side-by-side comparison of Forest and Montvale: population, income, housing, and more.

Forest and Montvale are places in Virginia. This page compares them across population, income, housing, education, commuting, and how each has changed since 2019.

Forest has the higher population (12,476 vs 379 in Montvale). Forest has the higher median household income ($78,825 vs $41,732 in Montvale). Forest has the higher median home value ($319,100 vs $212,500 in Montvale).

Population, income & housing

	Forest	Montvale
Population	12,476	379
Median age	42.1 yrs	45.2 yrs
Median household income	$78,825	$41,732
Median home value	$319,100	$212,500
Median gross rent	$1,112	—
Housing units	5,193	225
Homeownership rate	75.0%	68.4%
Bachelor's degree or higher	48.4%	16.8%
Unemployment rate	3.9%	0.0%

Trends (ACS 5-year, 2019–2023)

	Forest	Montvale
Population	10,836 → 12,476 (+15.1%)	608 → 379 (-37.7%)
Median household income	$76,367 → $78,825 (+3.2%)	$34,280 → $41,732 (+21.7%)
Median home value	$234,500 → $319,100 (+36.1%)	$122,700 → $212,500 (+73.2%)
Median gross rent	$988 → $1,112 (+12.6%)	—

Forest

Population

10,83612,476

Median household income

$76,367$78,825

Median home value

$234,500$319,100

Median gross rent

$988$1,112

Montvale

Population

608379

Median household income

$34,280$41,732

Median home value

$122,700$212,500

Age & race/ethnicity

Age distribution (share)

	Forest	Montvale
Under 5	5.3%	0.0%
5 to 17	14.2%	0.0%
18 to 24	10.4%	26.4%
25 to 34	12.0%	0.0%
35 to 44	10.6%	20.6%
45 to 54	11.6%	24.3%
55 to 64	14.8%	13.7%
65 to 74	10.6%	3.2%
75 and over	10.5%	11.9%

Race & ethnicity (share)

	Forest	Montvale
White (non-Hispanic)	76.9%	97.4%
Black or African American	9.9%	0.0%
American Indian & Alaska Native	0.1%	0.0%
Asian	1.5%	0.0%
Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islander	0.0%	0.0%
Some other race	1.4%	0.0%
Two or more races	6.5%	2.6%
Hispanic or Latino	3.6%	0.0%

Educational attainment (age 25+)

Share of adults 25+

	Forest	Montvale
No high school diploma	4.7%	45.2%
High school graduate	17.4%	34.8%
Some college or associate's	29.4%	3.2%
Bachelor's degree	26.2%	16.8%
Graduate or professional degree	22.3%	0.0%

Commute to work

How workers get to work (share)

	Forest	Montvale
Drove alone	77.1%	64.8%
Carpooled	5.2%	17.6%
Public transit	0.0%	0.0%
Walked	0.8%	0.0%
Bicycle	0.0%	0.0%
Worked from home	16.0%	17.6%
Other means	0.9%	0.0%

Housing

Units in structure (share)

	Forest	Montvale
1-unit, detached	56.8%	65.3%
1-unit, attached	15.6%	0.0%
2 to 4 units	6.4%	0.0%
5 to 19 units	12.0%	5.3%
20 or more units	7.6%	0.0%
Mobile home & other	1.6%	29.3%

Poverty & households

	Forest	Montvale
Poverty rate	7.5%	12.7%
Average household size	2.44	1.68
Mean commute (minutes)	22	49
Median year structure built	1991	1974