ZIP code 06481

ZIP 06481 is a small town in Middlesex County, Connecticut, with 1,644 residents counted in the Census American Community Survey 2019-2023 ACS 5-year estimates, which places it #239 of 288 ranked by population — larger than 17% of them. The median age here is 47.6 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 06481 earn a median of $109,228 a year, 39.1% above the national figure of $78,538. The median is the midpoint household, not an average, so a handful of very high earners cannot drag it upward the way they distort a mean. Poverty reaches 11.3% of residents here, below the 12.4% national rate.

The typical owner-occupied home in ZIP 06481 is valued at $341,200, 12.5% above the national figure, while median gross rent runs $3,501 a month, 149% above the national figure, or roughly $42,012 across a full year. A household on the local median income would put about 38.5% 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 3.1×, against roughly 3.9× nationally, so buying is easier here than in the average US market. 70.9% 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 06481 is the unusual combination of expensive to rent and cheap to buy: rent takes 38.5% of median income while homes cost only 3.1× it. Where that pattern shows up, the gap is normally down to down-payment and credit barriers rather than price.

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 06481 is tabulated inside Middlesex County, Connecticut, one of 23 ZIP areas the Census publishes for that county and 288 across Connecticut. 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 06481 can be handled by a post office in a neighbouring county even though the tabulation area is filed here.

Against its own county, 06481 reports a median household income of $109,228, close to the $109,901 county median, and 3% above the $105,813 typical CT ZIP. Owner-occupied homes are valued at a median of $341,200, 9% below the county figure and close to the statewide ZIP median. Rent is reported gross — the contract amount plus tenant-paid utilities — at $3,501 a month, which is why it reads higher than the advertised rent on a listing for the same unit.

Connecticut charges 6.35% statewide, and no local sales tax is layered on top, so the state rate is the full amount collected in 06481.

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 06481 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.