ZIP code 85281

ZIP 85281 is a small city in Maricopa County, Arizona, with 70,726 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #6 of 417 ranked by population — larger than 98% of them. The median age here is 25.3 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. 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 85281 earn a median of $59,084 a year, 24.8% below the national figure of $78,538. Median household income counts every pre-tax dollar arriving at an address — wages, self-employment, Social Security, pensions, interest and public assistance — for everyone living there, so multi-earner households pull the figure up even where individual pay is modest. Poverty reaches 26.2% 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 85281 is valued at $364,200, 20% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,531 a month, 8.9% above the national figure, or roughly $18,372 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 31.1% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is a stretch on median earnings. 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. 23.8% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. 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 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. A median age of 25.3 means a large student or early-career population; income medians in places like this understate household resources, since many residents are supported from outside the address.

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 85281 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 85281 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 85281 reports a median household income of $59,084, 28% below the $81,990 county median, and 8% below the $64,475 typical AZ ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $364,200, 9% below the county figure and 27% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,531 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Arizona charges 5.6% statewide, and local governments overlapping 85281 may add county, city or special-district levies on top. We publish the state floor for this ZIP rather than guessing a combined figure, because ZIP boundaries and taxing-district boundaries were drawn for different purposes and do not line up.

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 85281 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.