ZIP code 93405

ZIP 93405 is a mid-size town in San Luis Obispo County, California, with 23,856 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #745 of 1,803 ranked by population — larger than 58% of them. The median age here is 22.7 years against 39.1 nationally, a distinctly younger profile, typical of places with students, military posts or a fast-growing family population. Places under 65,000 residents only appear in the five-year release, never the one-year file, so these values pool sixty months of responses and lag the current year by design.

Households in ZIP 93405 earn a median of $52,481 a year, 33.2% 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 44.5% 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 93405 is valued at $897,800, 195.9% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,936 a month, 37.7% above the national figure, or roughly $23,232 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 44.3% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is severely stretched — a median-income renter clears the cost-burden line by a wide margin before utilities beyond the gross-rent definition. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 17.1×, 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. 32.7% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, a renter-majority market, so rent figures matter more here than the home-value line. 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 17.1× 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 22.7 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 93405 is tabulated inside San Luis Obispo County, California, one of 23 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 1,803 across California. This is a mid-sized suburban ZIP inside a county that is split across many delivery areas. 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 93405 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 93405 reports a median household income of $52,481, 42% below the $91,040 county median, and 42% below the $89,916 typical CA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $897,800, 3% above the county figure and 43% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,936 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

California charges 7.25% statewide, and local governments overlapping 93405 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 93405 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.