ZIP code 81069

ZIP 81069 is a small town in Huerfano County, Colorado, with 1,940 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #282 of 528 ranked by population — larger than 46% of them. The median age here is 55.5 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 81069 earn a median of $95,098 a year, 21.1% 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 14.9% of residents here, above the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 81069 is valued at $347,300, 14.5% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $2,517 a month, 79% above the national figure, or roughly $30,204 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 31.8% 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 3.7×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 86.4% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, an owner-dominated market where rental listings are scarce and rent medians rest on a thin sample. 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 81069 is the unusual combination of expensive to rent and cheap to buy: rent takes 31.8% of median income while homes cost only 3.7× it. Where that pattern shows up, the gap is normally down to down-payment and credit barriers rather than price. A median age of 55.5 puts ZIP 81069 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 81069 is tabulated inside Huerfano County, Colorado, one of 4 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 528 across Colorado. 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 81069 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 81069 reports a median household income of $95,098, 79% above the $53,036 county median, and 18% above the $80,917 typical CO ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $347,300, close to the county figure and 19% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $2,517 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 81069 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 81069 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.