Highlands, NC population, income and ZIP codes

Highlands town is a small town in North Carolina, with 1,276 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #419 of 777 ranked by population — larger than 46% of them. The median age here is 58.4 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 Highlands town earn a median of $63,750 a year, 18.8% below the national figure of $78,538 and 4% 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 12.8% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Highlands town is valued at $666,300, 119.6% above the national figure and 203% above the $219,800 peer median, while median gross rent runs $905 a month, 35.6% below the national figure, or roughly $10,860 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17% 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 10.5×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is out of reach on local earnings alone and the ownership market leans on outside income, equity or dual high earners. 59% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. The rent line includes utilities paid by the tenant, a definition worth remembering when comparing it against a landlord's quoted rate.

Home values sit at 10.5× median household income, far past the 3.9× national mark, so ownership costs here are set by something other than local wages — second homes, retirees with equity, or commuters earning elsewhere. A median age of 58.4 puts Highlands 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.