ZIP code 81526

ZIP 81526 is a mid-size town in Mesa County, Colorado, with 5,397 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #219 of 528 ranked by population — larger than 58% of them. The median age here is 51.3 years against 39.1 nationally, a markedly older profile that usually tracks retirees staying put and younger households leaving for work. 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 81526 earn a median of $83,316 a year, 6.1% above 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 11.9% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 81526 is valued at $449,300, 48.1% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $1,219 a month, 13.3% below the national figure, or roughly $14,628 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 17.6% of gross pay toward that rent against the federal 30% cost-burden threshold, so renting here is cheap relative to what people here earn. The home-price-to-income ratio works out to 5.4×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is harder here than in the average US market. 76% 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.

A median age of 51.3 puts ZIP 81526 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 81526 is tabulated inside Mesa County, Colorado, one of 17 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 528 across Colorado. Population sits in the small-town band, typically one main street plus the addresses that feed into it. 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 81526 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 81526 reports a median household income of $83,316, close to the $83,353 county median, and 3% above the $80,917 typical CO ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $449,300, close to the county figure and 5% above the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $1,219 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 81526 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 81526 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.