ZIP code 96142

ZIP 96142 is a very small community in El Dorado County, California, with 821 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #1456 of 1,803 ranked by population — larger than 19% of them. The median age here is 45.1 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. 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 96142 earn a median of $87,969 a year, 12% above 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 12.6% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 96142 is valued at $798,700, 163.2% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,698 a month, 20.8% above the national figure, or roughly $20,376 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 23.2% 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 9.1×, 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. 60.5% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. 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 9.1× 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. Median income runs above the national figure while poverty also runs above it — a split distribution, not a uniformly comfortable place. Averages hide that; the two numbers together do not.

Every value on this page is published directly by the Census for this area — nothing is modelled or interpolated. 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 96142 is tabulated inside El Dorado County, California, one of 23 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 1,803 across California. Fewer than 2,500 people are counted here, so the ZIP behaves like a village delivery route rather than a neighbourhood. 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 96142 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 96142 reports a median household income of $87,969, close to the $90,102 county median, and close to the $89,916 typical CA ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $798,700, 50% above the county figure and 27% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,698 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 96142 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 96142 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.