Black Mountain, NC population, income and ZIP codes

Black Mountain town is a mid-size town in North Carolina, with 8,462 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #112 of 777 ranked by population — larger than 85% of them. The median age here is 60.6 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in Black Mountain town earn a median of $70,041 a year, 10.8% below the national figure of $78,538 and 14% above the $61,228 median for the 459 North Carolina 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 6.5% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Black Mountain town is valued at $351,700, 15.9% above the national figure and 60% above the $219,800 peer median, while median gross rent runs $1,334 a month, 5.1% below the national figure, or roughly $16,008 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 22.9% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is within the standard affordability guideline. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 65.2% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

A median age of 60.6 puts Black Mountain town 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.

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.