Petersham, MA population, income and ZIP codes

Petersham CDP is a very small community in Massachusetts, with 252 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #243 of 248 ranked by population — larger than 2% of them. The median age here is 57.8 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. At this population the ACS sample is small, so the margin of error around every dollar figure below is wide — treat the numbers as a band, not a point, and expect them to move between annual releases without the place itself changing.

Households in Petersham CDP earn a median of $105,938 a year, 34.9% above the national figure of $78,538 and 6% above the $99,537 median for the 222 Massachusetts cities we cover. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 7.9% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Petersham CDP is valued at $372,400, 22.7% above the national figure and 25% below the $497,400 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,550 a month, 10.2% above the national figure, or roughly $18,600 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17.6% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 3.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 92% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

A median age of 57.8 puts Petersham CDP well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages. With 252 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Petersham CDP against its county rather than against national figures.

All values below were released by the Census for this exact geography, with no gap-filling on our side. Small-area estimates still carry wider margins of error than state or national figures, so check the linked ACS tables before relying on them for lending, appraisal or legal work.