ZIP 04538

What ZIP 04538 actually tells you, and what it doesn't

The 04538 ZIP Code Tabulation Area has a population of 1,737 and a median household income of $63,375. Against the other tabulation areas in this dataset, it places as follows.

The median home costs around 5.7 times what a median household here earns in a year, placing 04538 in the most expensive quarter of reporting areas. Wherever the multiple runs this far ahead of local pay, ownership is largely closed to people earning the local median, and the rental figures below matter more than the sale price.

Renting takes an unusually small bite of local income -- about 13% of median household income at the median rent, in the lowest quarter of the 25,890 areas reporting both.

At a median age of 62.8, 04538 falls in the oldest quarter of reporting areas. Retirement destinations and long-settled rural areas cluster here, and in both the labour-force measures below cover a smaller share of residents than they would in a younger area.

ZCTAs approximate USPS ZIP codes rather than matching them, and these are 5-year ACS estimates, so they trail current conditions.