ZIP code 35203

ZIP 35203 is a small town in Jefferson County, Alabama, with 3,301 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #354 of 656 ranked by population — larger than 46% of them. The median age here is 41.6 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly older profile than the country as a whole. 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 ZIP 35203 earn a median of $46,829 a year, 40.4% below the national figure of $78,538. 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 25.3% 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 ZIP 35203 is valued at $288,600, 4.9% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $954 a month, 32.1% below the national figure, or roughly $11,448 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 24.4% 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 6.2×, 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. 27.7% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. 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.

Home values sit at 6.2× 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.

No figure on this page is estimated by us; each one comes straight from the published ACS tables for this area. 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.

ZIP 35203 is tabulated inside Jefferson County, Alabama, one of 54 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 656 across Alabama. Population sits in the small-town band, typically one main street plus the addresses that feed into it. County assignment on this page follows the largest share of the ZIP's land area, which matters where a delivery route crosses a county line: mail addressed to 35203 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 35203 reports a median household income of $46,829, 26% below the $63,333 county median, and 15% below the $55,313 typical AL ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $288,600, 56% above the county figure and 95% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $954 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

A taxable purchase made inside 35203 carries 10% at the register, assembled from the Birmingham jurisdiction stack: the Alabama state rate plus every county, municipal and special district levy that reaches this address. Because those district boundaries were drawn for schools, transit and hospital funding rather than for mail delivery, two addresses inside 35203 can legitimately fall under different totals — the rate shown here is the one that applies to the dominant jurisdiction.

Everything above comes from the Census Bureau American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates for this ZIP Code Tabulation Area, with sales tax rates traced to the state revenue agency. Five-year estimates pool sixty months of responses, so they are stable enough to compare 35203 with its neighbours but always trail the current year, and any value the Census suppressed for sample size is shown as unpublished rather than filled in with a model.