El Cerro, NM population, income and ZIP codes

El Cerro CDP is a small town in New Mexico, with 3,093 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #60 of 527 ranked by population — larger than 88% of them. The median age here is 48.1 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 El Cerro CDP earn a median of $112,174 a year, 42.8% above the national figure of $78,538 and 108% above the $54,029 median for the 153 New Mexico cities we cover. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 3.2% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in El Cerro CDP is valued at $291,800, 3.8% below the national figure and 54% above the $190,000 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,045 a month, 25.7% below the national figure, or roughly $12,540 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 11.2% 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 2.6×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 86.6% 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. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. 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.