ZIP code 81030

ZIP 81030 is a very small community in Otero County, Colorado, with 153 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #468 of 528 ranked by population — larger than 11% of them. The median age here is 61.4 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 81030 earn a median of $37,083 a year, 52.8% below the national figure of $78,538. Household income here is measured before tax and pooled across everyone at the address, which is why it reads higher than typical individual earnings in the same area. Poverty reaches 19% 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 81030 is valued at $97,200, 68% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,081 a month, 23.1% below the national figure, or roughly $12,972 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 35% 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 2.6×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 72.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans toward owners. Gross rent folds in the utilities a tenant pays separately, so it is closer to the real monthly outlay than a headline rent figure.

ZIP 81030 is the unusual combination of expensive to rent and cheap to buy: rent takes 35% of median income while homes cost only 2.6× it. Where that pattern shows up, the gap is normally down to down-payment and credit barriers rather than price. A median age of 61.4 puts ZIP 81030 well into retirement-weighted territory, which pulls median household income down even where household wealth is high, because retirement draws are counted differently from wages.

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 81030 is tabulated inside Otero County, Colorado, one of 5 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 528 across Colorado. This is one of the smallest tabulated ZIP areas in the state, the kind of rural route where a single subdivision or farm cluster accounts for most addresses. 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 81030 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 81030 reports a median household income of $37,083, 32% below the $54,583 county median, and 54% below the $80,917 typical CO ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $97,200, 30% below the county figure and 77% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,081 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Colorado charges 2.9% statewide, and local governments overlapping 81030 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 81030 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.