ZIP code 85204

ZIP 85204 is a small city in Maricopa County, Arizona, with 65,018 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #10 of 417 ranked by population — larger than 97% of them. The median age here is 33.4 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger 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 ZIP 85204 earn a median of $69,474 a year, 11.5% below the national figure of $78,538. 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 14.7% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 85204 is valued at $296,000, 2.4% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,426 a month, 1.4% above the national figure, or roughly $17,112 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 24.6% 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 4.3×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 57.9% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. 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.

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.

ZIP 85204 is tabulated inside Maricopa County, Arizona, one of 135 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 417 across Arizona. This is a dense urban ZIP, where a single postal boundary can hold more residents than an entire rural county. 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 85204 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 85204 reports a median household income of $69,474, 15% below the $81,990 county median, and 8% above the $64,475 typical AZ ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $296,000, 26% below the county figure and 3% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,426 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

A taxable purchase made inside 85204 carries 8.3% at the register, assembled from the Mesa jurisdiction stack: the Arizona 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 85204 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 85204 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.