Santa Cruz, NM population, income and ZIP codes

Santa Cruz CDP is a very small community in New Mexico, with 225 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #348 of 527 ranked by population — larger than 34% of them. The median age here is 27.8 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 Santa Cruz CDP earn a median of $34,750 a year, 55.8% below the national figure of $78,538 and 36% below the $54,029 median for the 153 New Mexico cities we cover. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 27.1% of residents here, well above the 12.4% national rate, which is the single clearest signal in this dataset that median income here is carried by a narrow band of households.

The typical owner-occupied home in Santa Cruz CDP is valued at $209,400, 31% below the national figure and 10% above the $190,000 peer median, while median gross rent runs $550 a month, 60.9% below the national figure, or roughly $6,600 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 19% 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 6×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 18.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. 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 27.8 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address. With 225 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Santa Cruz 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.