Buncombe ZIP codes — Buncombe County, North Carolina

Buncombe County is a mid-size city in North Carolina, with 271,790 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates. The median age here is 42.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. At this size the Census also publishes one-year estimates; the five-year values used here are steadier and let you compare against smaller neighbours on the same basis.

Households in Buncombe County earn a median of $70,578 a year, 10.1% below the national figure of $78,538. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 11.8% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in Buncombe County is valued at $360,000, 18.7% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,281 a month, 8.9% below the national figure, or roughly $15,372 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 21.8% 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 5.1×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 64.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

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.