Median Household Income by ZIP Code

Type a ZIP code to see its median household income, where it ranks among all U.S. ZIPs, and how it compares with its state and the country — plus median rent, home value, property tax, population and the age of its housing. Add a second ZIP to compare two places side by side.

Enter a ZIP and the tool reads the Census Bureau’s latest ZIP-level estimates: the median household income (half of households earn more, half less), where that figure ranks among the 22,722 U.S. ZIP codes with at least 1,000 residents, and how it compares with the state and the U.S. median of $78,538. Below that are the cost-of-living figures that matter against that income: median rent and the rent-to-income share, median home value and the price-to-income ratio, the property tax a typical owner pays, population and the median year the housing was built. Type a second ZIP to see the two side by side.

What is the median household income by ZIP code?

The median household income of a ZIP code is the income of the household in the middle when every household in that ZIP is ranked from poorest to richest. The U.S. median is $78,538 (ACS 2019–2023); across ZIP codes with at least 1,000 residents the typical ZIP median is $71,635, the 10th percentile ZIP sits at $46,500 and the 90th at $119,282. Look up any ZIP in the tool above, or scan the tables below for the highest- and lowest-income ZIPs and every state ranked.

Median is the right summary for income. The average (mean) is dragged upward by a few very high earners, so a ZIP with one billionaire and 5,000 ordinary households can show an “average income” twice what a normal family there actually earns. The Census publishes both; data sites that quote “average income by ZIP” usually mean the median, and that is what this page shows.

How the Census measures income by ZIP (and why the numbers lag)

The figures come from the American Community Survey (ACS) 5-year estimates, which pool survey responses collected from 2019 through 2023 and publish them for ZIP Code Tabulation Areas (ZCTAs). Three things follow from that:

• They are a five-year average expressed in 2023 dollars. A ZIP where incomes jumped in 2024–2026 — a new tech campus, a wave of remodels — will read low until the 2020–2024 and 2021–2025 releases catch up. Treat the number as a floor for fast-changing areas.
• Every estimate has a margin of error. For a ZIP of 20,000 people the 90% margin on median income is typically ±$5,000 to ±$10,000; for a ZIP of 1,500 it can be ±$20,000 or more. The tool hides ZIPs under 1,000 residents from the percentile ladder for this reason, and a difference of a few thousand dollars between two ZIPs is noise.
• Income is top-coded at $250,000 and home value at $2 million. The very richest ZIPs all show “$250,000+” because the survey does not record medians above that, so they tie; the home-value column separates them.

ZCTAs are the Census Bureau’s approximation of ZIP codes built from census blocks, so a handful of mail ZIPs (P.O. boxes, single large buildings, military bases) have no ZCTA and return “No ACS data.” Use the ZIP of the surrounding neighborhood instead.

The highest-income ZIP codes in the U.S.

Among ZIPs with at least 5,000 residents, 20 ZIPs hit the $250,000 top-code, so the table sorts the ties by median home value. Sorted that way they cluster in three places: the San Francisco Bay Area (Los Altos, Atherton, Portola Valley, Alamo, Los Gatos, Orinda, Danville), the New York orbit (Tribeca and Battery Park City in Manhattan, Purchase in Westchester, Short Hills in New Jersey, and Connecticut’s Greenwich, Darien and New Canaan) and Boston’s western suburbs (Newton, Wellesley, Weston) — plus Sammamish outside Seattle. Not one is in the Sun Belt.

In every one of these ZIPs the median home is worth 6 to 8 times the median income (more where the $2 million top-code hides the true value) — well above the national 3.9× — which is why high-income ZIPs are not automatically affordable for high earners. Check the price side on the home values map and the ZIP pages linked from the tool.

The lowest-income ZIP codes

The lowest medians in the 50 states and D.C. (Puerto Rico, where most ZIPs sit below $25,000, is left out of this table) are university districts and inner-city neighborhoods: Knoxville’s Fort Sanders (37916), Gainesville (32603), downtown El Paso (79901), and ZIPs with a large share of students or subsidized housing. A student ZIP looks poor because the households are students, not because the area is distressed — the median year built and the rent tell the two cases apart.

Median household income by state

State medians run from $106,287 in the District of Columbia and just over $100,000 in Maryland, Massachusetts and New Jersey down to $54,915 in Mississippi. The income number alone misleads, so the table adds what a median home and a median rent cost in each state and the two ratios that decide whether the income goes far: price-to-income (home value ÷ income; under 3× is comfortable, over 5× is stretched) and rent-to-income (annual rent ÷ income; the 30% line is the usual affordability test).

Hawaii and California top the price-to-income column at 8.2× and 7.2× despite high incomes; Iowa, West Virginia and Kansas sit under 3×. Florida has the worst rent-to-income share (26%) because its incomes are mid-table while its rents are not. For the 2026 picture, the state pages under /home-values carry current ZIP-level values and the affordability by salary page turns an income into a price budget.

Income vs. home value: what the ratio tells you

Plot every ZIP’s median income against its median home value and the points fan out from the origin: value rises with income, but much faster at the top. ZIPs around $50,000 of income typically have homes worth 2.2 to 3.5 times that (median 2.7×); ZIPs around $120,000 sit at 3 to 5 times (median 3.8×); the $250,000+ ZIPs run 4 to 7 times, and the costliest of them 8×. Home prices are set by the buyers a neighborhood attracts, not only by the households already living there, so a desirable ZIP’s value outruns its residents’ incomes — which is exactly what the price-to-income ratio in the tool flags.

Worked example: ZIP 78652 vs. ZIP 10001

ZIP 78652 (Manchaca, south of Austin, TX) has a median income of $118,750, 56% above the Texas median of $76,292 and in the 89th percentile of U.S. ZIPs; its median home value of $480,600 is 4.0× income and its gross rent of $2,590 takes 26% of income. ZIP 10001 (Manhattan, Chelsea) earns slightly more at $123,393 but its median home value of $793,000 is 6.4× income and its $3,024 rent takes 29%. Same income, very different cost of living — the comparison column in the tool makes that visible in one glance.

Cost of living by ZIP code: rent, taxes and what is left

Three numbers in the tool together make a crude cost-of-living check for a ZIP:

• Rent-to-income. Median gross rent × 12 ÷ median income. Under 25% the typical renter has slack; over 30% the ZIP is rent-burdened on average. Gross rent includes utilities, and the ACS figure covers every tenant, long-term leases included, so a ZIP’s asking rent today is usually 10–25% higher than the median shown — see the rent affordability calculator for current rules of thumb.
• Price-to-income. Median home value ÷ median income. At 6.25% mortgage rates with 10% down, a ratio of 3× means a payment near 25% of gross income; 5× means roughly 40%, which lenders will not approve without a larger down payment.
• Property tax. The median annual real-estate tax paid by owners, and the effective rate (tax ÷ value) in brackets. Texas and New Jersey ZIPs often run 1.5–2.5%; California, Colorado and Hawaii under 0.8%. Run a specific house through the property tax calculator.

What a ZIP lookup cannot tell you is the price of groceries, childcare or commuting, which vary more within a metro than between ZIPs. For a move between cities, the relocation calculator compares housing and taxes side by side.

Population, home age and the other fields

Population is the ACS 5-year estimate for the ZCTA, which for a fast-growing suburb can trail the 2026 reality by 10–20%. ZIPs over 50,000 people are usually dense urban ZIPs or large exurban ones; the typical ZIP with at least 1,000 residents has about 7,000. Median year built is the midpoint of the housing stock’s construction dates: a 1955 ZIP is a post-war inner suburb with small lots and likely original wiring and plumbing; a 2005+ ZIP is a subdivision where the first roofs and water heaters are now due for replacement. Both matter for insurance and repair budgets — the home insurance cost calculator and the rebuild cost calculator use home age and construction directly.

If you are weighing two ZIPs for a move, read income, rent and home age together: a ZIP with income 20% above the state, rent-to-income under 25% and homes built after 1990 is the profile that keeps appreciating; a ZIP with high income but a 7× price-to-income ratio is one where you are buying the neighbors’ future, not the present. Then open the ZIP’s page under home values for the current price per square foot and the trend.