Bay Center, WA population, income and ZIP codes

Bay Center CDP is a very small community in Washington, with 218 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #550 of 639 ranked by population — larger than 13% of them. The median age here is 47.7 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 Bay Center CDP earn a median of $68,819 a year, 12.4% below the national figure of $78,538 and 24% below the $90,592 median for the 393 Washington 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 2.3% of residents here, less than half the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Bay Center CDP is valued at $480,400, 58.3% above the national figure and 3% above the $468,400 peer median, while median gross rent runs not published a month. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 7×, 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. 91.9% 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.

Home values sit at 7× 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. With 218 residents, a handful of survey responses moves every median on this page. Compare Bay Center CDP against its county rather than against national figures.

The Census withheld gross rent for Bay Center CDP because the sample was too thin to publish at this geography. Those values were suppressed at the source, not lost in our dataset, and we do not model a replacement. Everything else on this page comes straight from the ACS 2019-2023 ACS 5-year tables.