ZIP code 81501

ZIP 81501 is a mid-size town in Mesa County, Colorado, with 24,142 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #103 of 528 ranked by population — larger than 80% of them. The median age here is 35.6 years against 39.1 nationally, a slightly younger profile than the country as a whole. 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 81501 earn a median of $48,500 a year, 38.2% below the national figure of $78,538. This figure covers the household, not the worker: two people on ordinary wages at one address outrank a single professional in the same table. Poverty reaches 18.9% 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 81501 is valued at $283,300, 6.6% below the national figure, while median gross rent runs $974 a month, 30.7% below the national figure, or roughly $11,688 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 24.1% 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 5.8×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 47.1% of occupied homes are owner-occupied versus 65% nationally, so the market leans more heavily on renters. Rent is reported gross — contract rent plus tenant-paid utilities — which is why it runs above the advertised price on a listing for the same unit.

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 81501 is tabulated inside Mesa County, Colorado, one of 17 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 528 across Colorado. 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 81501 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 81501 reports a median household income of $48,500, 42% below the $83,353 county median, and 40% below the $80,917 typical CO ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $283,300, 36% below the county figure and 34% below the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $974 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 81501 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 81501 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.